Rae Belkin

artist@olypen.com          

         

Rae began her art career drawing on paper place mats at her father’s restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  When she was 12, her family moved to Southern California where she “decorated” the stall doors at her parent’s guest ranch.  In high school, her art teacher encouraged her to major in art in college.  After studying for three years at California State University at Northridge, love, husband, and family interrupted her art progress. Five years (and a long story) later, she graduated from California State University at Long Beach with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History.  A year later she obtained her teaching credential.  Her family settled in Westminster, California, where she taught for 16 years in the local elementary school district.  Rae received a Master of Arts Degree in Education from Pepperdine University, yet still longed to go back to art.  Monday Night Football gave her that chance.

Getting tired of football, she signed up for oil painting lessons.  For the next five years, on Monday nights, you could find her next door studying with seven others under the able tutelage of Leslie Marlowe Parker.  In 1987, she went out into the art world, where she often sold her work (especially her paintings of children) through local art galleries.

In 1988, she and her husband bought property in Port Ludlow.  With her children out of college, their home sold, and retirement at hand, the Belkins moved to Washington in 1991.  After the remodeling dust settled, Rae took lessons, and additional workshops, in watercolor and pastel, and began to show her work in local art shows.  Today, Rae exhibits acrylic and mixed media paintings at Port Townsend Art Gallery, located in the historic downtown section of Washington’s Victorian Seaport, Port Townsend, and is an invited artist at other venues.  Her paintings are held  in many private collections in the United States and abroad.

 Along the way, Rae has participated in these Washington State art events:

·         North Kitsap Arts Festival  (First Place-Open Division– 1997).

·         Jefferson County Fair (Port Townsend Art Guild Award, most promising adult artist- 1997) and First Place – 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001; Honorable Mention- 1999; 2000, 2001-Best of Show; Special Merit Award

·         Harbor Gallery Invitational Miniature Show- November 1999.

·         Port Ludlow Watercolor Show- 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002.

·         Roby-King Gallery’s Invitational Miniature Show (Bainbridge Island)- November 2000; June 2002; June 2003; December 2004; December 2007.

·         Northwind Arts Center juried shows:  Small Expressions II 2003; Alchemy of the Abstract 2004; Figuratively Speaking 2004; Small Expressions III 2004 (Best of Show and Merit Award); Small Expressions VI  2007; Art Port Townsend 2007; About Face 2008; Alchemy of the Abstract 2008; Small Expressions VII 2008 (Best of Show); Mountains: Literal & Metaphorical 2009 (Merit Award); Collage/Assemblage 2009.

·         Shared exhibits at Gallery Madera, Tacoma, WA 2007, 2008 and The Courtyard Gallery, Port Townsend, WA 2007, 2008.

·         Guest artist at Pegasus Coffeehouse, Bainbridge Island, WA 2008

·         Participated in Tacoma, WA’s “Art at Work”- Abundant Health Acupuncture 2008

·         Guest artist at Harbour Public House, Bainbridge Island, WA 2009