Watercolor has brought incredible joy to my life. Watercolors are my passion, my
therapy.
What a journey! What an adventure!
All of my life, art has been my joy. When other kids got toys, I got art supplies. My life and my career have reflected my love of art. I earned a degree in Fine Arts and a teaching certification from Ohio State University and San Diego State University. I worked toward my Masters while I attended UCLA and Buffalo State University. My first teaching experience at La Canada High School in California, allowed me to set up the whole art department in a new school! My second teaching experience in Clarence, New York just outside Buffalo, brought two first place awards to the school for the yearbooks that I moderated. The birth of my two daughters and motherhood brought me a break from teaching for a few years, and I returned after they started school. I retired thirty-eight years later to focus on my art full-time.
I have always been drawn to watercolors at art shows or in museums. At the age of 50, I decided that it was now or never. I took my first watercolor class at the San Diego Art Museum and what an exciting world it became! Each technique opened up a new adventure. Three hours would go by quickly; I would come out of class calm, yet excited. After a few more classes, I was ready to swim on my own. For the past ten years, I have been teaching watercolor classes in San Diego during the summer. In 2013, I will be starting to teach classes in San Felipe in the fall, winter and spring.
I started my company, Elizabeth K, when people started buying my paintings off the walls of my home. Selling my work is very difficult for me because it was like selling my children. Elizabeth K has grown past just selling my original works. We discovered digital scanning as a way to keep the picture if the original was sold and also as an inexpensive way for someone to have a print. The best part about this digital print, known as a giclee, is that it may be enlarged or reduced to any size. Giclees have been a wonderful way for me to share my art with more people.
Friends suggested featuring my artwork in a series of gift cards and others suggested recipe cards that would showcase my husband’s talent as a chef alongside my watercolors. We now have gift cards in all shapes and sizes and a selection of recipe cards featuring artwork available in standard frame sizes. Elizabeth K has come into the internet age with my website, elizabethkapa.com, complete with a store. |
