Willamarie Huelskamp has been painting and drawing since she was old enough to hold a crayon. However, there was a time when Willamarie was not a full time artist – she was once a structural engineer, kept awake at night by her passion for painting.  In 1990, she gave up her day job and took on the life of an artist, after completing a BFA at the University of Utah.  

For the next dozen years, Willamarie painted landscapes, primarily in plein-air using watercolors. Gradually, she moved into mixed water media, acrylic and collage. She now paints with acrylics both as a liquid transparent medium, like watercolor, and as a thick opaque medium, like oil paint; sometimes combining both of these two opposite qualities in one painting.

Whether she is painting on canvas or paper, Willamarie begins each piece with collage. Collecting a variety of handmade paper, she creates a surface texture as a base for each painting. The next part of the painting process involves flowing washes of transparent paint layered on top of one another. After these layers are dry, Willamarie allows the paint to guide her into the next stage of development.

Many of her works follow an abstract theme, while some may become images of people, animals or landscapes. For Willamarie, the images she conveys on the canvas may be conjured from real life, while others might come from a place of imagination. The common theme in her work is a search for beauty, created within the two-dimensional world of canvas and paint.