Nina Purtee

The talent to work a brush mixed with a pigment of color and finesse to produce an amazing outcome has always been a fascination to me. Although the talent eluded me, I found myself able to create in other ways, primarily through creative design in the fashion industry, and more recently in writing. It was while writing my third novel, Finding Sarah: A Phoenix to Behold, that I delved more closely into the art world and the impact painting can have not only on those who see it, but to the artist herself. Sarah was given a paintset for her 10th birthday but, daunted by its complexity, pushed it to the back of her closet. It was through the help of a social worker after a tragic experience, that the paintset came back out and painting became an intregal part of Sarah's life. The more I researched, the more intrigued i became. I found two female painters who defied the odds of their day as females able to sell their art, Rosa Bonheur from France in the 1800s and Rachel Roush from the Netherlands in the 1600s.

I joined this group to learn and understand if other artists would identify with Sarah and those individuals' experiences.