RITA PACHECO
Rita Pacheco works daily in plein air and in her Ridgway, Colorado studio. A recent transplant from Southern Califonia, she is finally enjoying four seasons, and the different, ever changing scenery of Southwestern Colorado! Rita is a Signature Member of the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, and an Artist Member and Out of State Chapter Chair of the California Art Club. Last year, Rita joined the Turquoise Door Gallery, and has enjoyed some real success there! Her work is shown at the Cimarron Song Gallery in Montrose, Colorado, and at Gold Mountain Gallery in Telluride. This summer, one of Rita's still life paintings in oil will be shown at the prestigious California Art Club's Gold Medal Exhibition at the Bowers Museum in Tustin, California. One of Rita's recent works was awarded Figurative Honorable Mention at the Oil Painters of America's National Exhibition in Charleston, South Carolina. She has been featured in Southwest Artists and Plein Air Magazine, and was named an "Artist to Watch" in Southwest Art Magazine!
Rita began her formal training Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She continued her education with classes at the Watts Atelier in Encinitas and through experience with and influence of other prominent figurative and landscape painters. She has since developed a style of her own and enjoys recognition in her field.
Rita's work background is in architectural rendering through 15 years in restaurant and hotel design. This is where the hard lessons of perspective were learned, and facilitate drawing accuracy in her paintings. The sheer enjoyment she feels when painting from life are evident in the strength of her dynamic landscape, figurative and still life paintings!