Featured Artist Rain Longson

Artsy Shark presents the hyper-realistic work of amazing painter and featured artist Rain Longson. Enjoy her portfolio and visit her website for more information.

 

 

I would like to tell you a bit about myself. I was born in Montreal, Quebec, far too long ago. When I was all of three weeks old, my parents got a second baby, a German Shepherd puppy. I think this is when my love of dog and pets in general started. It was a few years before I discovered art, my second love. The first art instruction I actually remember, from dim, dark memory, was being told not to eat my crayons. Surely, that must be wrong; surely, anything with such pretty colors had to taste good too. Well, that was my reasoning at the time.

 

 

Not much really to say about my life until I entered into high school. I had definite plans on becoming a veterinarian/astronaut (you can see here my interest in science fiction and science fact). In those days before I even had a bra to burn or thought of Women’s Lib, I was told, “No, girls cannot be vets.” This truly flabbered my gasters and I was lost. Plans dashed. I actually contemplated quitting school. That is until I met an incredible woman, Mrs. Sandra Tobe, the art teacher at Hollywood Hills High School in Florida.

 

 

Mrs. Tobe turned me around and reintroduced me to art. From then on, I never looked back; I had found true love and a vocation. As a teenager, I illustrated college student’s assignments, taught art at the local community centers and I loved every minute of it.

 

 

During high school, my art was displayed in several shows and galleries. Upon being graduated from high school, I received two scholarships, one to Parson’s School of Design in New York City the other to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

 

 

At Parson’s I took fine arts and sculpture. At the Art Institute, I took Graphic Design illustration and photography. I spent the ensuing years as a fashion designer for Sassoon in Florida, and window dresser/retail interiors in NYC. Combining my art in the retail arena with prop / mannequin building, repair and faux finishing work.

 

 

In 1991, I moved back to Canada and continued my career in the retail industry. However, I was realizing that ’window dressing’ was becoming history and I was facing a dead end. Hence I went back to school to learn computing, both Mac and PC’s. I was fortunate to receive a Government of Canada grant that covered cost of living while I took a full year of schooling at the Vancouver Film School. I studied New Media, which covered computerized graphics, illustration, animation videography and audio.

 

 

Since being graduated from VFS, I’ve done a stint of a couple of years as a graphic designer/illustrator, working for such companies as Telus and their clients. I’ve done children’s book illustrations and I’ve worked as a freelancer.

 

 

Now I’ve come back full circle and I’m back into painting acrylic on canvas primarily and am also doing some water colour. I was delighted to discover this year that I have a knack for pet portraiture. With my style being ‘photorealism / hyper-realism’, some folks have thought that my art was a photograph until a close examination shows the brush strokes. I even use a magnifying glass to work on the mouth and eyes of all my subjects and some noses.

 

 

Now I get to combine my love for animals and nature with my love for painting.