Lost in the Woods

Painting Mount Hood landscapes passion for local artist

By Evan Jensen

The Estacada News, Mar 3, 2010 (1 Reader comment)

Art by Connie Athman / Estacada News

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After 30 years as a hydrologist for the U.S. Forest Service, Sandy resident Connie Athman has seen many of the wonders of the Mount Hood National Forest. She carries a camera with her wherever she goes, and has amassed a stunning collection of the forest’s beauty: views of towering Douglas fir, Mount Hood’s distinguished snow-capped peak, a winter wonderland of elk grazing in a snow covered meadow, the vibrant colors of a forest fire and other images that hide within the heavily forested areas she calls her “office.”

Ten years ago, Athman decided she wanted to learn the craft of watercolor painting. She enlisted the help of accomplished artists and teacher Beth Verheyden, picked up a brush and learned to paint, one stroke at a time. On Friday, March 5, Athman will showcase her work in the First Friday show, “The Nature of Watercolors,” at The Spiral Gallery, 341 S. Broadway, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“I like to paint landscapes and forest scenes, because those are the places that inspire me the most,” Athman said. “I can remember the first time I really tried to paint. It was such an escape for me. When I’m painting, I can sit and be completely lost in the work. You hear people talk about being in the zone, and that’s what painting is like for me. When I sit down to work on a piece, I get absorbed so quickly with this great feeling and enjoy being in that other world for a while.”

When Athman met up with Verheyden, a watercolor artist based in Boring, she arrived for her first lesson without any formal training or experience with painting. Verheyden worked patiently with Athman to help her develop the skills she needed to bring her photographs of the forest to life with watercolors. Little by little, Verheyden watched Athman ability grow like a brightly-colored, blossoming rhododendron in the forest.

“I’ve been working with Connie for about 10 years, and she has been like a sponge with all of the information and teaching I’ve provided,” Verheyden said. “Connie has taken everything I’ve taught her and applied it in her own way. She has developed quite a touch with her brush. She paints beautifully and you can really see her personality in her work. She is a very gentle person and I think that her personality and love for the forest really comes through in her work.”

Her work has been featured in shows hosted by the Gresham Art Committee, and she received the People’s Choice Award at the Sandy Public Library for her painting “Wildfire,” featuring a forest fire scene with vivid colors and flames making their way along the forest floor.

“This painting has a lot of really bright colors, like oranges and purples,” Athman said. “I didn’t take the photo, but it’s a scene from a wildfire. It’s a combination of many photos I used to try and show how fire works when it burns through a forested landscape. … I wanted to impart the feeling that nature can be both tragic and beautiful, and I also wanted to portray a feeling of renewal and the cycle of nature as an important force.”

Athman joined The Spiral Gallery in September 2009, after interviewing to become a member and shortly after sold her painting, “Wildfire.” Her paintings have also been selected to become the face of numerous arts shows, with her work displayed on the promotional post card mailed out to hundreds of people. She’s a member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon and has showcased her work at the 33rd annual Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, the 42nd Annual Aqueous Media Juried Exhibition, the City of Gresham Visual Arts Gallery and the Sandy Public Library.

“A lot of the scenes I paint are from places around the Mount Hood National Forest,” Athman said. “Some of my paintings are from photographs I took on a hike up to Mirror Lake. I’ve painted rhododendrons in the forest in spring, different lakes and scenes from the woods. … I take a lot of photos wherever I go, so I have a library of pictures to go to when I’m ready to paint. These are places that are so amazingly beautiful and the kind of scenes I really enjoy painting.”

Athman has worked side by side with Verheyden to create some of her masterpieces, but much of her work is done independently on her dining room table, when she has more free time on the weekend. Paints, brushes, photos and paper crowd the table when Athman begins to work and slips away into “the zone,” with another masterpiece to add to her collection emerging as she paints.

“We don’t eat on the dining room table much when I’m working on a piece,” Athman said. “Actually, there’s a tendency that we don’t eat anything at all when I’m working on a painting. I kind of forget about everything else that’s going on around me. I guess a good point to make is that you don’t have to have a huge, beautiful studio to be an artist; you can fit it in wherever and whenever you can.”