About Deb Haugen art…

My name is Deb Haugen……I’m an artist, and live and paint in Malibu, Ca. I have been painting for as long as I can remember. I also taught airbrush technique in my studio in Venice. I taught and learned a lot from my students, and felt this was a great forum to keep a learning dialogue with other artists. I created this blog to talk about art, display my artwork, chat with other artists about technique, materials, galleries, travel…. whatever. I try to paint every day, and am currently infatuated with the creek bed behind my home, the inspiration for my “organic” series. Walking the trail one day I was inspired to focus on art that had an” organic” essence to it.  Art that felt like our planet, living, an organism, natural and constantly evolving.

I grew up next door to 5 boys, hence my fascination with swamps and frogs.My favorite plaything was a swimming pool, I wasn’t happy unless my fingers and toes were wrinkled….. that meant it had been a good day for me .I had the opportunity to be inspired by Nan Oman, an amazing teacher who ran the Art dept. at Santa Monica High School. She was the first teacher that gave me a glimpse of freedom in my art, and the ability to step away from techniques and paint or draw with reckless abandon. Paint emotionally and convey  feeling…that is what I learned from her. I was very fortunate to receive a scholarship to Art Center when I graduated, I thought. I went, but somehow the fit wasn’t there, the instructor kept breaking my pencils because they weren’t sharpened properly……I left. I ended up at Otis Parsons School of Design in their painting dept. I fit right in, fell in love, and ran away to Europe ……life began!

I continue to paint and am inspired by my own little paradise in Malibu, Ca. There is nothing better than to stare down at a new canvas surrounded by the 60 foot Eucalyptus trees along the driveway. It is pure Nirvana for me. After surviving a brain aneurysm on April 19th, 2010 I feel like I’m the luckiest girl in the world. Thank you Dr. Jahan, UCLA, and fire station # 71 Malibu, CA. I know now it just wasn’t my time yet, there is way too much left to do.

Likes….Liquitex acrylic inks,the Chi in Malibu, vegetable gardens, brown sugar ice cream, broad beach at low tide, Charlie and Cooper, Osho, kundalini meditation, El Chirinquito in Spain, traveling anywhere, the number 5, golden retrievers, painting anything, plumeria, Krishna Das voice, insane laughing, Big Brother,  the water in Hawaii, Paris bookstores, people that care about animals, when it’s dry/windy and my hair is straight, hope, when my kids are happy and content, Djembe’s, veggie sandwiches behind Duke’s waikiki, hang drums,  and people that are real!

Dislikes……sitcoms, cooked carrots, political corruption, religious fanatics, ticks and fleas, incompetence, days over 90 degrees, lazy people, the news, wild fires and santa ana winds, beer, the DMV, hunting, rigidity, taxes, lobster, earthquakes, litter, to see people in disaster areas, really bad art, and pretentiousness of any kind.

http://www.theorganicartist.com

http://www.debhaugen.com