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Passionate about watercolor, Winnie Givot is a highly skilled artist who paints wherever she finds beauty, whether in a face, flower or mountain stream. And she shares her passion with students in weekly classes and summer workshops at her Barn Studio near Sisters, Oregon and elsewhere, as well as in her International Painting Retreats - Italy, Greece, Mexico, Ecuador and France. Her next Painting Retreats are in Tuscany, Italy September 12-23, 2026 and Limoux, France August 28-September 11, 2027. Click here for information.
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Sometimes people say, "Watercolor is the hardest medium" as if to ask why do you do that. But Winnie finds that painting in watercolor is like a dance. In oils, say, when an artist puts down a stroke it stays there, just where it is placed. But in watercolor, when one brush stroke is placed next to another still-wet stroke, they mingle, flowing together, creating effects you can get no other way. She revels in this dance, watching the transparent colors flow and play. And she experiments to see what will happen when painting different ways. For example, different brush strokes can give drips or dry brush, hard edges or soft, creating beautiful variations of texture and color. Although Winnie Givot has been an artist her whole life, she didn't know it. When she went away to college, her father told her "to do something useful." She became an economist. Although it was many years before she discovered her passion for watercolor, she always found ways to create beauty, with food and gardens, with silversmithing, theater costume and design. Today, as she sees and paints what resonates in her, she understands the importance of art, of how it feeds us, inspires us, and brings us to a new level of being. "Now that is useful." In 2000, Winnie Givot presented a painting to the Chilean Congress (for which she received their Congressional Medal), and in 2002 she took 24 paintings to Washington DC which were presented to Congressmen and women as inspiration - that instead of basing decisions on greed and fear, they work to find new responses and solutions and for making decisions which honor the highest in ourselves and all others. More than 1100 of her paintings are in national and international collections, a few of which are those of Pres. & Mrs. Joseph Biden, Pres. & Mrs. Barack Obama, Pres. & Mrs. George W. Bush, Colin Powell, Deepak Chopra, Senator Ron Wyden, United Parcel Service, Colorado College, Harley Brown, Gov. & Mrs. John Kitzhaber as well as the Congress of Chile. Her paintings have been included in numerous solo shows as well as national and international juried exhibitions. Winnie Givot is a signature member of Northwest Watercolor Society and Watercolor Society of Oregon and belongs to Western Federation of Watercolor Societies, National Watercolor Society, American Watercolor Society and Plein Air Painters of Oregon. She has been included in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World and has been awarded Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Award. She is currently Past President of the Watercolor Society of Oregon |
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© 2012 Winnie Givot. All artwork on this site is protected by copyright and is the property of Winnie Givot.
No reproduction of any kind is allowed for any reason without written permission from Winnie Givot. |