About the Artist
Terry Irwin is a Colorado artist painting in oils and soft pastel. Her current work celebrates wildlife and landscapes within the American West and Southwest and admits to an on-going love affair with its diverse wildlife, wide open spaces and panoramic mountain ranges.
As a child, Terry was obsessed with the natural world. She was often chin-to-dirt, mesmerized by the movements of lime-green inch worms, often barefoot in local streams with baby catfish guppies nibbling her ankles and nursing baby robins fallen from backyard nests. She drew and painted what she observed was encouraged by both of her parents who recognized the artistic talent in their young daughter. In an age of coloring books, Terry was instead given giant sheets of blank paper spread out on the kitchen table in which to create her own drawings and paintings. Family vacations were spent in the western National Parks where she hiked endless miles in the backcountry, dodged lightning storms above timberline, slid down glacial snowfields, hooked and cleaned fresh trout, ran river rapids and attended naturalist campfire programs. In her wanderlust for more remote wilderness areas, she also spent summers working on National Forest trail crews, backpacking through Alaska, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. These experiences provided opportunities at dawn and dusk to sit silently, witnessing moose, bear, elk, big horn sheep, bald eagles, marmots, pika and wild mustangs in their natural environment.
After graduating from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Fine Art, she designed, built and painted what she coined her 'environmental' room screens which were featured in Chicago's Merchandise Mart and the Washington Design Center in D.C. After moving to Colorado, she turned her focus on Fine Art. It is a strength of image that compels her interest in each painting. Her current excursions into wilderness areas are spent 'plein air' painting and sketching to form concepts for paintings that will present a different point-of-view or perspective.
“I am drawn to the qualities of light on form and the way spectrums of light alter and ultimately define a subject, whether an animal in the wild, western landscape or the surface qualities of reflected on water. I try to capture the mood and the feeling of a subject, so the viewer will experience these same sensations through my work.”
Education
Northern Illinois University - Bachelor of Fine Arts
Continued Professional Education with:
Edward Aldrich
Dave Santillanes
John Poon
Deborah Bays
Marjie Eakin-Petty
Lorenzo Chavez
Margaret Dyer
Selected Exhibitions and Awards
2018 "Beautiful Bounty", Center for the Arts Evergreen, Juried Group Show, Evergreen, Colorado
2017 "Illuminated", Juried Group Show, Pastel Society of Colorado
2017 "Mile High National Pastel Show", Juried Group Show, Littleton, Colorado
2017 "BEST OF SHOW", Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA), Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2017 "PEOPLE'S CHOICE", Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA), Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2016 "Transitions", Juried Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2016 "Essence of the West", Juried Group Show, Central City, Colorado
2016 "Mile High International Pastel Exhibition", Juried Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2016 "69th Annual Gilpin Arts Juried Exhibition", Juried Group Show, Central City, Colorado
2015 "Pikes Peak Exhibition", Juried Group Show, Colorado Springs, Colorado
2015 "Lines into Shapes", Juried Group Show, Estes Park, Colorado
2015 "AWARD OF MERIT", Richeson75 International, "Animal, Birds & Wildlife"
2015 “The Four Seasons of Art”, Group Show, Winter Park, Colorado
2015 "BEST OF SHOW," Mile High International Pastel Exhibition, Juried Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2014 “Fall Diversions”, Solo Exhibition, Littleton, Colorado
2014 “New Works”, Group Show, Breckenridge, Colorado
2014 “Traveling the Dusty Trail”, One-Person Show, Bella Vista, Arkansas
2013 “Pastel Perceptions”, Group Show, Englewood, Colorado
2011 "HONORABLE MENTION", Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2009 "SECOND PLACE", Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, Group Show, Denver, Colorado
2009 "HONORABLE MENTION", Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, Group Show, Denver, Colorado
Invitationals
"Plein Air Fest, Etc." - National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, 2019
"Plein Air Fest, Etc." - National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, 2018
"6th Annual Plein Air Fest, Etc. " - National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, 2017
"Rendezvous" - Winter Park, Colorado, 2015
"4th Annual Plein Air Festival" - National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, 2015
"Furry Scurry" - Benefit for Dumb Friends League, Denver, Colorado 2015
"7th Annual Historic Canyon Road Paint Out" - Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2014
"Passport to the Arts" - Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2014
"6th Annual Historic Canyon Road Paint Out" - Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2013
"Passport to the Arts" - Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2013
"5th Annual Historic Canyon Road Paint Out" - Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2012
"Passport to the Arts" - Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2012
In Private Collections:
Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.
** Instagram: TIrwinArt
