Tina Cole

531 River Street (East), Ketchum

208-720-2880

Artist Bio

I was born in Tokyo, Japan and moved to the Seattle area when I was 5 with my family. There I began art classes at in elementary school and attended The University Washington School of Art with professors Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lundin.

I moved to Sun Valley when I finished university and was involved with the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, held numerous pop-up art exhibits, directed Kneeland Gallery from 1986 – 1991 and have participated in the Idaho Biennial and with the Plein Air Painters of Idaho.

Much of my work derives from a continuous journal system that I have kept over

the past forty plus years. These are portable sketch books used as “my camera” that

I have carried all over the world on various adventures and expeditions

as well as the mountains of Idaho and rivers of the West where I live. They are

drawing and watercolor documentations of the cultures and worlds I have visited.

Most of my exhibited watercolors were all done in the field or from field sketches

and paintings done throughout the years.

In 2016 I began printmaking and have been producing a portfolio of monotypes

utilizing my journals, drawings, and watercolors at Vita Brevis Press in Hailey,

Idaho. These pieces reflect my newest work and direction from these past years.

Artist Statement

From Outside into the Print Studio

Tina Cole is a watercolorist and printmaker.

Having painted outdoors on location in watercolor for decades it was time to revisit a studio environment. I began print making at Vita Brevis Press in Hailey, Idaho 6 years ago where I could focus on developing finished, larger format works from field sketches and paintings.

Monotypes are uniquely one-of-a-kind prints. I work directly onto a plexiglass plate painting with a variety of printmaking inks and colors with brushes and sometimes rollers for larger, flat expanses. I tend to work slowly from the foreground up, graduating the colors through multiple overlapping runs through the large format etching/litho press. Monotypes have inspired me to try different techniques and ink combinations to capture the atmosphere, light and perspective of the places and scenes I have called home for the past 45 years. In this studio tour I have assembled some of my favorite watercolor studies and monotype prints.