Rita Kirkman has been using pastel since she was 11 years old. Her work is defined by light, color and composition, and since 2003 has consistently won major awards in national and international competitions. She is a Signature member of the Pastel Society of America and a member of the Master Circle of the International Association of Pastel Societies. Her work is in public and private collections all over the world, including the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Africa and Australia. In recent years she has become a popular workshop instructor.

“I’m blessed to be able to find beauty in almost everything I see. My work has evolved into an observation of light and shadow, and recently I’ve been playing with more adventurous ways to portray light with color, value, and temperature. Along with themed portraiture, a popular subject with my collectors has been ranch animals. This works rather well because ranch animals are ideal models of sunlight, and as Claude Monet said, ‘The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light.’”