Sandy Haight

Sandy Haight

Bainbridge Island, WA, United States

About Sandy Haight

Sandy has been focused on painting the inner landscape of flowers for the last few years. She calls these works Floralscapes. They evolved during a transition from a career as a commercial illustrator to a discovery of herself as an artist. Teaching watercolor to students at Bellevue College helped redirect her focus as she explored various subjects and techniques of representational watercolor. She realized that immersing into the shapes, designs and patterns inside flowers and plant life was the subject that awakened her love of painting and gave her a chance to create a series of images of stunning beauty. Building layers of intense colors helped brighten the way through the dark and gray of northwest winters. Showing her paintings in the Northwest Watercolor Society’s juried shows qualied her to become a signature member in 2012. The initials NWWS now follow her signature on the Floralscape paintings. A little art background… After earning a BFA in drawing and painting at the University of Colorado, establishing a career as an illustrator of educational materials, a self-publishing venture into cook books, and having 2 children, Sandy Haight was introduced to watercolor in a life drawing session. The facilitator advised her on supplies, introduced her to the medium and she was hooked. “I loved the luminosity of the paints so much that I continued to practice all my assigned subjects as watercolor paintings in my School of Visual Concepts illustration courses. As I got more and more familiar with the strategic planning and execution of a watercolor painting, I was expanding my illustration portfolio beyond the educational market. I love the sensuality of the medium, the glow of the colors and the fact that it can move and flow on its own while wet, intermingling with other colors. Magic happens.” Use of watercolor in her illustration work became part of her signature style. To be more widely marketable and contemporary her illustration style departed from the realism she had worked hard to master as a student into a more simplied, stylized, bolder look. See her illustration web site at http://www.sandyhaight.com. Now as a teacher, she’s rediscovering the joys of building a nuanced painting, rich with built up color and texture as she launches her students into the same process of art making. After years of “drawing with a brush” in her illustration work , Sandy Haight took on the study of sumi painting with its challenges of simplicity, controlled tones, brush loading and expressing qi energy on traditional subjects in nature. Some can be seen on her new art website, www.sandyhaightfineart.com along with her Floralscapes, other watercolors and figure painting.

Education:

1971 BFA University of Colorado in drawing, painting and design.
1974-81 Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA. Various fine arts classes, part - time.
1982-83 North Shores Community College, San Diego, CA. Commercial Illustration class.
1883 UCSD Extension, La Jolla, CA. Illustrating Books for Children.
1983-84 Mira Costa College, Del Mar, CA. Life Drawing.
1986-87 School of Visual Concepts, Seattle, WA. 5 illustration and watercolor classes.
1991 Mendocino Art Center, Watercolor workshop. Kristin Otwell. Mendocino, CA.
1999 Seattle Central Community College, computer classes
2001 Watercolor workshop – Barbara Nechis, Acapulco, MX
2007-13 Kirkland Arts Center-sumie painting classes with Lois Yoshida
2010 Watercolor workshop with Charles Reid
2010 Bellevue College - Chinese Sumi painting with Yuming Zhu

TEACHING
1990-1997 University Preparatory Academy. 1 week watercolor workshops annually, grades 6-12
1999 Guest lecturer - Illustration classes Cornish College
2000-07 Guest lecturer Seattle Central Community College illustration classes
2013-2014 Bellevue Community College – 5 week Illustration Communication portfolio class
2008-2017 Bellevue Community College - 8 week Watercolor for Illustration

Events:

Poster Artist 2016 Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Poster Artist 2015 Bainbridge in Bloom Garden Tour

Exhibitions:

January 2019 - Bainbridge Performing Arts.  Bainbridge Island, WA.  Featured Artist.

November 2018 - Scott Milo Gallery, Anacortes, WA.  Succulents!  New work. Group show.

July 2018 - Island Gallery. Bainbridge Island, WA.  Group show of gallery artists.

April 2018 - Scott Milo Gallery, Anacortes, WA.  Tulip Festival Poster artists, past and present.

March - Dec 2018 - Artist Showcase at Northwind Arts Center.  Port Townsend, WA.  Juried Co-op gallery. Featured artist in June!

January/February 2018 - CVG Show.  WA State Juried Art Competition.  Bremerton, WA.  Group show.  Juror, Teresa Saia.

November/December 2017 - NWWS Signature member show. Schack Fine Art Center, Everett, WA. Group show.

October/November 2017 - NWWS Waterworks Exhibition, Tsuga Gallery, Bothell, WA.   Juried group show.

June 15- Sept 2, 2017 - Schack Art Center, Everett, WA.  Art of the Garden, juried group show.

April 7-May 2, 2017 - Scott Milo Gallery, Anacortes, WA.  "Persistence of Pink"  original watercolors.

Oct 2 - Nov 30, 2016 - Seattle Realist Artists group show.  Hillman City Collaboratory, Seattle.

April 2016 - Scott Milo Gallery, Anacortes, WA.  Featured Artist - Floralscapes of Sandy Haight.

July 2015 - Island Gallery, Bainbridge Island, WA.  Featured artist -Floralscapes of Sandy Haight.

July 2015 - Bainbridge in Bloom Garden Tour, poster artist.

Feb 8 - Mar 22, 2015 - Signature American Watermedia Exhibition. Fallbrook Art Center, CA. Juried group show. Juror, Stephen Quiller.

November 20 - Dec 27, 2014 - NWWS Signature member show. Schack Fine Art Center, Everett, WA. Group show.

October 28 - Nov. 21, 2014 - NWWS Waterworks Exhibition. Tsuga Gallery, Bothell, WA.  Juried group show.  Juror, Janet Rogers.

October 2014 - Northwest by Northwest Gallery, Cannon Beach, OR. Select paintings.

June 13-16, 2014  Edmonds Art Festival.  700 Main St, Edmonds, WA. Juried group show. Juror, Dianna Shyne.

April 19 - June 6, 2014 "NWWS 74th Annual International Open Exhibition" American Art Company, Tacoma, WA.  Juried group show.

Oct-Nov, 2013  NWWS Waterworks show, Tsuga Fine Art, Bothell, WA. Michael Reardon, Juror - juried group show.

2013 Baas Gallery, 2703 E Madison St. Seattle, WA.  Featured artist, watercolor show.

2012 NW Watercolor Society Waterworks show Kaewyn Gallery, Bothell, WA. Juried group show.

2012 NW Watercolor Society Illuminations, Seattle, WA,

2004 Bumbershoot - Bumberbiennale. Consumerables. Matthew Kangas, juror. Group show.

2001 Frye Art Museum - Celebrating Women in the Arts. Group show.

1999 North Seattle Community College Art Gallery. Northwest Illustrators Group show.

1992 MIVAL Mercer Island. Juried group show

1991 Northwest Watercolor Society Juried show

1990 Northwest Watercolor Society Juried show