Meet Artist Paula Gale Tooman

O-026 Hope by Paula Tooman wc 24x20 $300

Paula Gale Tooman Bio

 

I feel like I am coming home when I enter the art show at Ironstone Vineyards. The Gold Country has always been special to me. My husband and I love sitting on the Ironstone patio outside the wine tasting room having apple wine and sandwiches. It’s a privilege to return as a painter to one of my favorite places.

I am Paula Gale Tooman and I’ve been painting since my mid-twenties. I first got interested in water color when I took a class from Muriel Doggett in adult education in Pleasanton, California. It only took six weeks to fall in love with the fluid surprises of painting with water colors. I’ve never been able to pry myself away from this medium – it’s exciting, vibrant, unpredictable, and just plain fun. A friend and I would try to go plein-air painting every few weeks. Sometimes we went to the Sacramento Delta but mainly we painted in the Gold Country. Dogs loved us, and people would meander by to see what we were doing. The spectators seemed to be kind and somewhat envious of the fun we were having.

When I had my first two children I felt I was too busy to paint. But I didn’t know what busy really was until my husband and I adopted twelve Ethiopians between 1994 and 1996. I was too busy to do much of anything. Our last adoption was in 1999 of a handicapped Down’s syndrome baby girl. But … I still dreamed of those days of painting in the Gold Country and wanted to try again. When I was in my late fifties I had only three kids at home – it felt like a vacation.

This year has been very busy and very strange because of Covid-19 and many new commitments. I would really like this coming year to spend more time in my studio. There is always so much to learn as a watercolor painter. There are new colors, new subjects, and new technologies; sometimes it’s overwhelming. For instance there are proportions, reflections and perspective – I thought I knew them, then I looked again at the subjects. Really it’s all a great challenge and such great fun!