Valerie P. Cohen

by Sarah Judson January 13, 2014

Watercolor artist Valerie P. Cohen wrote to us recently and suggested some additional products which she finds useful in her plein air excursions, such as larger size sketchbooks, a ground cloth, Pigma Micron pens (which don't fade or dissolve in fixative) and the lightweight Crazy Creek Chair, among other things. "Plein air art is not confined to working in color, in small formats, near to one's car. I, for instance, do my finished work in the studio, but each piece is based on a sketch done on-site, often requiring a long and brutal hike on mountainous terrain."

She has worked as a Law Enforcement Ranger in Yosemite and Grand Teton National Parks, as a professional ski patrolman, typesetter and graphic designer, English Instructor, and backcountry cook. She is now an artist, writer, illustrator, and environmental activist. Cohen became a full-time artist in the mid-1980s, studying with Milford Zornes, who introduced her to the style of the California School of Watercolor. She has also studied with Katherine Chang Liu and Christopher Schink. Shown below is one of her watercolor trees, entitled Music Tree #6, with bass clef notes incorporated into the design (click to enlarge).

"I studied cello at U.C.L.A. with Cesare Pascarella of the Roth Quartet. When I write music into tree paintings, I often duplicate base clef cello exercises, by Justus Johann Dotzauer (1783–1860), compositions that I played for years. When I hand-copy these bars into a painting, I feel the notes in the fingers of my left hand, and I hear the music. This low-pitched melody sounds like wind singing through timberline trees." She is a Signature Member of the San Diego Watercolor Society and the California Watercolor Association and a member of the Sierra Watercolor Society.