Published in the Aug. 5-18, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Maralynn Miller
As a child living in Fresno, I began my passion for art by drawing on everything I could find. Eventually with my parents’ encouragement, I began painting in oils. By the time I was in high school I knew that I wanted to be an artist. I majored in art and was guided by my teacher and I joined the Fresno Art League, which was the local art club. The artists were far more advanced than me, and that gave me the motivation to try harder and continue to pursue an art career. My paintings were in local shows and I even sold a couple of my works.
I had a mentor, my aunt by marriage, who had gone to art school and was a very good artist. She had gone to the California College of Arts in Oakland and I knew right then and there that I would go there, too, which I did and graduated with a bachelors in fine arts degree in 1953.
I worked in San Francisco as a color consultant when I met my husband-to-be and we eventually purchased a business in Sunnyvale where we sold paint and wallpaper. I soon added art supplies and picture framing to the mix and even taught classes in mosaics. This business — Accent Arts — grew to three stores and we sold it in 1989 and I started painting full time where previously I had tried to work it in while working and raising two sons.
Now I live in Los Gatos and I paint almost daily, focusing on landscapes, mostly scenes in Northern California which I paint in oils on canvas and pastels. I feel driven to express myself in my paintings. I’m excited and always look forward to the next painting. I love to capture the contrast in light and shadows and shapes.
I’m in numerous art clubs including Oil Painters of America. I am currently the president of the Los Gatos Art Association.
My paintings are in four galleries including the Morgan Hill Art Gallery in downtown Morgan Hill.
Maralynn Miller has been painting and involved with art since she was 12 and living in Fresno.
