Marla Baggetta

Landscape Painter (oil, pastels, acrylics)

Marla Baggetta's approach to painting reflects the formal art education she received at Art Center College of Design and her experience as a landscape painter. A self-employed, professional artist since 1983, Marla had a distinguished career as a commercial illustrator before turning to landscape painting, working for clients such as Walt Disney, Nissan Motors, Houghton Mifflin Publishing, to name just a few.  After moving to Oregon in 1993, she began painting the landscape and quickly established herself as one of the West's leading representational painters with her compelling and sophisticated imagery. She is a signature member of the Pastel Society of America and the Pastel Society of Oregon. Marla has won numerous awards for her paintings and has been featured in the premiere publication for pastel painters, Pastel Journal. Marla is also the author of Step by Step Pastel published by Walter Foster Publishing.

I am a great believer in the fundamentals of painting; drawing, composition, color theory and the thought that paintings communicate an idea through this vocabulary. The process of bringing a concept to a complete image is deeply compelling and satisfying. My painting process is a very active one where my first marks and impressions are usually bold and gestural. Then I settle in and make assessments and refinements. The last marks are usually slow, quiet ones, as I am making small moves to find my way towards the finished piece. I'm hoping to capture the "aha!" that originally attracted me to my subject. Each one of my original pastels is done on museum grade sanded pastel paper. I use a variety of brands of soft pastel, each with different characteristics that I use to accomplish a variety of strokes and washes within a piece.