Sketching in China

    Sallie Bowen's artwork reflects her philosophy: "To participate in art is to celebrate life. Our short existence demands that we give full attention to art and to life. Being an artist is both an honor and a responsibility to spend time wisely in producing the best work."

    Bowen has been drawing and painting for most of her life. Her art is an autobiography: subject matter comes from her own experiences, travel, sketches, and recollections.

    Her paintings evolve. At times, the transformation is a slow process. Other times, it can marvelously "flow" from one stage to another with little effort. Bowen is delighted that something could come from "nothing", that is, from no pre-conceived idea. Color may be arbitrary, giving the work a more personal touch. Shapes come out of negative spaces and these "found shapes" must work with the "internal logic" of the painting.

Background: East coast born, Sallie graduated from Lake Forest College, Illinois in 1968 with a B.A. in Art History. While in the area, she studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. Soon after graduation, she headed to Montana for what was to be a summer volunteer program in Boulder. This turned out to be the beginning of a new life, career, and home.

    Once residing in Montana, she completed a Master's Degree in Education at the University of Montana, Billings while finishing work for a B.A. in Fine Art.

    Sallie has combined a sense of adventure along with her passion for painting. In 1985, she studied painting in the People's Republic of China at the Hangzhou's Zhejiang Art Academy. Her painting travels have also taken her to Greece, Italy, Turkey, France and Wales. She has returned to France numerous times to paint, speak French and for the "joie de vivre." Her most recent destination, Japan in 2006, was a fulfillment of a life-long dream.

Painting in Japan

    Bowen's awards have been numerous and her inclusion in national juried shows have taken her work to Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee and California. In 1999 she won the Montana Watercolor Society's President's Award in the national juried show "Watermedia", Best of Show in the Meadowlark Art Review in Helena , elected to the Permanent Collection of the Montana Institute of Art, selected for the Northwest Artists Calendar in 1991. Her painting "Prince William Sound" was chosen for the book cover of Season of Dead Water, published by Breitenbush. Requested to paint an Easter egg to be used in the 1986 White House Easter Egg Roll, it is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. She won the Mobil Easel Award in Louisiana Watercolor Society's International Juried Exhibit in 1986. Her work is in private collections in Canada, France, Japan and throughout the U.S. Her "Solo Yellow" accepted for the 2007 Northwest Watercolor Society's Show in Mercer Island, Washington.

"Sesshu's Garden", watercolor

"Sesshu's Garden" was accepted in the 2007 "Watermedia" Show, a juried national show sponsored by the Montana Watercolor Society. Sesshu was a famous Japanese Zen painter whose garden inspired Bowen's painting.

Having taught in public schools for over 27 years, Bowen now teaches drawing and watercolor privately in her studio and gives workshops around the state.
For more information or to schedule a workshop, please email the artist at sbowen@montana-artist.com.

Of her life and career as an artist, Bowen says "this life is thoroughly exciting, demanding, varied and satisfying. To work hard creating art is pure joy."