Aimee Erickson OPA
Paris-born, Portland-based artist Aimee Erickson is an oil painter in the realist tradition. Trained as an illustrator, she holds a BFA in Visual Communication Design and thinks in terms of creative problem-solving. Drawing and design are fundamental to her work.
In the past two years, Aimee’s work has been awarded top prizes from multiple national competitions, including Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, and the Portrait Society of America; her plein air paintings have won first place in major outdoor painting events.
Since starting a freelance career over 20 years ago, Aimee’s work has included illustration and fine art, portraiture, murals, and teaching, as well as design projects and architectural color consulting. Aimee is the first woman artist to paint an Oregon gubernatorial portrait, that of Barbara Roberts in 1997. She’s been the official artist for Cycle Oregon for ten years and has done some very long bike rides. Her mural work includes big projects at elementary schools, with entire student bodies participating. Of particular note is her work as lead artist in the creation of the extraordinary 180-foot long Multnomah Arts Center mural, completed in 2009 with the participation of 750 community members wielding Q-tips.
“My interest lies in the essence of things, in the beauty of nature, and in cycles of consciousness. Color has emotional weight for me and is related to the shape of space. Drawing or painting, for me, means to look at the thing and transmit its vitality to the canvas.”
Aimee teaches studio and plein-air painting, drawing, and color theory, with a particular interest in what enables or inhibits our progress as artists. She holds that making marks is natural to us and can be the soul’s expression. Her 2015 schedule includes a landscape workshop at Oregon Society of Artists, a studio-painting workshop with Art in the Mountains, workshops at the Multnomah Arts Center, and weekly classes in her studio.AIMEE ERICKSON