bfdickinsonart
I can remember as a child writing on a scrap of paper, that I kept in my keepsakes box,”My dream is to be an artist.” I loved to draw and make all sorts of different creations. Growing up in Northern California, my family made sure I was out in nature frequently which evoked in me a lifetime fascination with the natural world. There I found an unending display of beauty, pattern, color and form.
In college at San Jose State University I followed that bent and majored in science taking scientific illustration as well as photography. I also studied ornithology, my second love, and became a life-long watcher of birds. After working in an 8th grade reading classroom for a year as an aide, I found a profession that utilized all of my creative gifts and I chose to become a teacher. After earning my multiple subject teaching credential from the University of San Diego I taught in the South Bay Union School District for the next 28 years, grades 2nd-6th.
To me one of the most interesting connections is that between art and science. The connection I see is that both utilize the power of observation. To really see something from different perspectives, angles and viewpoints can be the spark for creativity, out of which amazing inventions, discoveries and creations are born.
Throughout my teaching career I made sure that art, as well as science was foundational in my instruction of my students. For several years I was also the director of the visual arts in the South Bay Visual and Performing Arts Program. I continued to educate myself in art history and technique by taking classes at the San Diego Museum of Art, as well as at local universities. All the time I was learning, observing and growing, as an artist, as well as an art lover.
Five years ago, the day after my last day on the job, I returned to my first love and enrolled in a painting class. Since then I have found an outlet, as well as a marriage of my love of nature and self-expression. Working mostly in acrylics I am drawn to creating landscapes and abstracts focusing on the beauty, pattern, color and form I observe. In my landscapes, using the diverse backdrops of San Diego County and beyond, I attempt to not only transport the viewer to a place, but perhaps to see it with new eyes or perspective.
Over the past five years I have sold my work to collectors in Sedona, Az, Austin,Tx, La Quinta,Ca and here throughout San Diego County. Also I have had paintings chosen to be in multiple juried shows, such as the 2017 Southwestern Artists’ Association “Top 100” Art Show in Spanish Village as well as being awarded an honorable mention in the 2018 55th Annual St. Mark’s Religious Art Festival and showing in the San Diego Art Museum Guild’s 2018 Show, at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. In 2018 I displayed my work in Carlsbad,CA at the Front Porch Gallery in their annual show as well as the 2019 San Diego County Fair juried art competition.
As I travel, bird watch and explore the outdoors I look forward to continually evolving and learning as an artist; reflecting the incredible, natural world around me onto my canvas.
In college at San Jose State University I followed that bent and majored in science taking scientific illustration as well as photography. I also studied ornithology, my second love, and became a life-long watcher of birds. After working in an 8th grade reading classroom for a year as an aide, I found a profession that utilized all of my creative gifts and I chose to become a teacher. After earning my multiple subject teaching credential from the University of San Diego I taught in the South Bay Union School District for the next 28 years, grades 2nd-6th.
To me one of the most interesting connections is that between art and science. The connection I see is that both utilize the power of observation. To really see something from different perspectives, angles and viewpoints can be the spark for creativity, out of which amazing inventions, discoveries and creations are born.
Throughout my teaching career I made sure that art, as well as science was foundational in my instruction of my students. For several years I was also the director of the visual arts in the South Bay Visual and Performing Arts Program. I continued to educate myself in art history and technique by taking classes at the San Diego Museum of Art, as well as at local universities. All the time I was learning, observing and growing, as an artist, as well as an art lover.
Five years ago, the day after my last day on the job, I returned to my first love and enrolled in a painting class. Since then I have found an outlet, as well as a marriage of my love of nature and self-expression. Working mostly in acrylics I am drawn to creating landscapes and abstracts focusing on the beauty, pattern, color and form I observe. In my landscapes, using the diverse backdrops of San Diego County and beyond, I attempt to not only transport the viewer to a place, but perhaps to see it with new eyes or perspective.
Over the past five years I have sold my work to collectors in Sedona, Az, Austin,Tx, La Quinta,Ca and here throughout San Diego County. Also I have had paintings chosen to be in multiple juried shows, such as the 2017 Southwestern Artists’ Association “Top 100” Art Show in Spanish Village as well as being awarded an honorable mention in the 2018 55th Annual St. Mark’s Religious Art Festival and showing in the San Diego Art Museum Guild’s 2018 Show, at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts. In 2018 I displayed my work in Carlsbad,CA at the Front Porch Gallery in their annual show as well as the 2019 San Diego County Fair juried art competition.
As I travel, bird watch and explore the outdoors I look forward to continually evolving and learning as an artist; reflecting the incredible, natural world around me onto my canvas.