I'm a Christian, a Jesus follower. He gave His life away for the greatest reason possible: so everyone could understand that we can have eternal life. As a follower, I give my life away freely, too, though not like He did (since I'm obviously not God.) My firm belief is that...God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners....For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
A disciple becomes like the one she follows, and I think about the neatest way I can give my 'life' away is to share my artwork and my faith walk with anyone who wants to read the blog. What I have is freely given. Jesus said, "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." Heart follows treasure... My treasure is Jesus!
I've been married to Dan Secor since 1986. I've learned immeasurably important lessons as a wife and mom, things that are of eternal merit, and I unabashedly state that I value my submissive (yes--the 's' word!) role as a wife, but I can only say that because Dan constantly follows Christ and "washes me by the water of the word."
Art and Writing
I began my art career in 1979 with a BA in Fine Arts from California State College, Bakersfield, and soon after began showing my landscapes in Old Town, Albuquerque. I permanently relocated to New Mexico in 1981, launching out to do art fairs and exhibitions, and showing my work in galleries throughout the southwest.
My choice to limit my work to soft pastels led to workshops with international pastelist Albert Handell, who became a mentor to me for some seven years, during which time I inaugurated The Pastel Society of New Mexico, as well as beginning to teach adult students how to paint landscapes in pastels, as I continue to do today.
In 1999 when two of my friends, formerly students of mine (though both credible painters already), Janie Hutchinson and Maggie Price, decided to produce a magazine, The Pastel Journal, I joined the team as a writer. I continue to write for the current parent company, F+W Media. My articles and interviews may be seen in The Artist’s Magazine and Watercolor Artist, as well as The Pastel Journal.
My paintings have been selected for inclusion in several books devoted to the pastel medium: The Pastel Painter’s Solution Book; Pure Color: The Best of Pastel; Painting With Pastels.
Since 2008 I have been painting in gouache, sometimes called opaque watercolor. Watercolor Artist magazine featured my gouache landscapes in a short article in the February 2010 issue. I continue to paint landscapes, still life, figures and florals in gouache.
You can see more of my paintings on my web page at: www.DeborahSecor.com
