Erin Lee Gafill,''North Facing View'', 48'' x 60'', Oil on Canvas

Erin's roots in the arts run deep as a 5th generation California Artist. Her great-great grandmother was Jane Gallatin Powers, who had the first artist's studio in Carmel and who, along with her husband Frank, created the artist's colony which is today Carmel-by-the-Sea. Her grandparents Lolly and Bill Fassett built Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, a legendary watering hole for artist, poets, writers, and bohemians. Erin is the cofounder of Big Sur Arts Initiative, a nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to nurturing art and culture in the Big Sur community. An award-winning writer, painter, and teacher, her work is collected internationally. In 2001, Erin was honored with an invitation to be chosen as the first American artist-in-residence of the Hamada International Children's Art Museum, Hamada, Japan. Works from this trip were displayed at the Monterey Museum of Art. Erin's work is currently available through Monterey Museum of Art, Atelier Carmel, Carmel Bay Company, Local Color, and the Phoenix Shop in Big Sur, and through her own Studio One in Big Sur.
"My landscape work is informed by the atmospheric light and dramatic natural forms of California's Central Coast. My painting process begins with drawing what I see every day - the trees, the hills, the shape of sky and sea, obsessively re-examining the familiar. Bold brush-strokes and a full spectrum palette support an expression with which to convey the sense of awe I feel confronted by the spectacular and powerful natural beauty of this region. Memory and dream inform color and mood." - Erin Lee Gafill.
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