Ronna Katz

At the age of five, Ronna Katz began painting (back then right on the wall) and has never really stopped. She’s a second-generation art fair artist exposed to selling handmade work as a child while helping her parents at art & craft festivals along the east coast. There were a few pauses away from art such as studying biochemistry, getting an MBA and stints working in health care and soul-draining business gigs. She has been a full-time artist since 2001. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Marquette, Michigan, Ronna draws her inspiration and palette from the subtle colors of the landscape. Her pastels explore surface texture and the illusion of space through building up layers of pastel over that texture. She applies pastel in layers over black or tinted linen or over a sanded ground. The challenge of working with oil pastel is their limited pallet, so she will juxtapose and layer them for her desired result. And the challenge of working with soft pastel is in limiting ones pallet; there are so many to choose from. Pastel, although messy, offers an immediacy and directness that fuels ones creative soul.