“Color has emotional weight and is related to the shape of space. Drawing or

painting, for me, means to look at the thing and transmit its vitality to the canvas.”

Aimee Erickson (b. 1967, Paris) is an oil painter living in Portland, Oregon.

She was trained as an illustrator and has developed a warm, inviting pictorial

voice grounded in traditional realism, informed by the principles of design, and

inspired by nature and human experience. She holds a BFA in Visual

Communication Design, and has also studied with a number of prominent

painters including Sherrie McGraw, David Leffel, Burton Silverman, Joseph

Paquet, William Park, Stephen Hayes, and Ray Roberts.

Aimee is the first woman artist to paint an Oregon gubernatorial portrait, that

of Barbara Roberts in 1997. The portrait hangs in the Oregon State House,

upstairs on the legislature side.

Aimee teaches studio and plein-air painting, drawing, and color theory locally

and at venues nationwide. She has a particular interest in what enables or

inhibits our progress as artists. How do we learn to see what we cannot yet see?

How do our beliefs influence our ability to perceive? What is the role of

knowledge in the realm of choice? How do we “tune in” to our artistic

perception?

Aimee’s work has been awarded top prizes in many national competitions,

including Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, the Portrait

Society of America, and multiple notable plein air competitions.

Honors and awards:

2017 Best of Show and Museum Purchase Award, Pacific Northwest Plein Air

2017 Best of Show and Clyde Aspevig Judge's Choice Awards, Olmsted Plein Air

2017 Door County Plein Air

2017 "Six by Nine Sale," Portrait Society of America invitational show

2017 Oil Painters of America National Juried Exhibition

2017 Oil Painters of America Paint-out/paint-in, 6th place

2016 Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational

2016 Second Place & Best Water, Pacific Northwest Plein Air

2016 Best of Show, Just Plein Fun, Balboa Island, California

2016 End-of-Residency Solo Exhibition, University Club of Portland

2016 Still Life Honorable Mention, OPA National Exhibition, Dallas TX

2016 5th Place, OPA's Best Little Paint-out in Texas

2016 University Club of Portland Artist-in-Residence Alumni Showcase

2016 Mid-Residency Solo Show, University Club of Portland

2016 "All Along the Sierra" Juried Show at Epperson Gallery

2016 "Less is More" LPAPA at Forest & Ocean Gallery

2015 "Inspired by Sorolla" LPAPA at Forest & Ocean Gallery

2015 "LPAPA After Dark," Forest & Ocean Gallery

2015 "Recent Paintings" solo show at Brian Marki Fine Art

2015 "Instructors' Show" Multnomah Arts Center

2015 Strada Award, Laguna Beach Plein Air

2015 OPA National Exhibition, Cutter & Cutter Fine Art, St. Augustine FL

2015 Sonoma Plein Air

2015 Mendocino Open Paint Out, Celebrity Guest Artist

2015 Door County Plein Air

2015 OPA Western Regional Exhibition

2015 "Where in the World is Plein Air" online national paint-out

2015 "Six by Nine Sale," Portrait Society of America invitational show

2015 "Everyday Taste of Plein Air" invitational show, Giustina Gallery at OSU

2015 Best QuickDraw and Honorable Mention, Carmel Art Festival

2015 "Aimee Erickson and Wayne McKenzie" at Nancy Dodds Gallery

2015 Honorable Mention, Kern County Plein Air

2014 Award of Excellence for Portraiture, Oil Painters of America National Juried

Exhibition

2014 Award of Exceptional Merit, Portrait Society of America International Art of the

Portrait Competition

2014 Gold Medal, First Annual International Juried Artists Guild Exhibition2014

Best of Show, American Women Artists national juried show

2014 Artists’ Choice/Best of Show, Sonoma Plein Air

2014 Award of Excellence for Portraiture, Oil Painters of America

2014 Award of Exceptional Merit, Portrait Society of America International Art of the

Portrait

2014 Gold Medal for Portraiture, First Annual Artists’ Guild International Exhibition

2014 First Place, Carmel Art Festival

2014 First Place, Emerging Plein-Air Artists competition

2014 Second Place, Pacific Northwest Plein Air

2013 Best Two-Dimensional Work, American Women Artists national juried show

2013 First Place, Pacific Northwest Plein Air

2013 First Place, First Annual Eugene Paint-out

2013 First Place, Honorable Mention, and People's Choice Award, Carmel Art Festival

Education:

BFA, Visual Communication Design. Brigham Young University, 1991

Additional studies with Sherrie McGraw, Burton Silverman, and David Leffel; with

Richard Pionk at the Art Students League of New York; and plein-air landscape

painting with Joseph Paquet at the Florence Academy of Art

Organizations:

Salmagundi Club, NY.

Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, CA. (signature member)

Oil Painters of America. (signature member)

American Impressionist Society

Audubon Artists, NYC

American Women Artists

Portrait Society of America