About Pauline Savage | Pauline Savage Art Studio |Savage Design Studio

Artist's Statement

The way some people get a boost from a cup of coffee, I get my rush from making art.

If it's true that all art is self-portrait, then when you look at my work you will see intense fascination with life and the wonder of it. Line, color, shape, and texture are ways to touch and interact with nature.

As a child I drew and painted constantly. I tried to turn everything into art...including the walls of our home. Fortunately for me, my parents were extraordinarily forgiving and supportive.

Most of my models have been from the natural world. My father taught me the importance of closely observing. I try to communicate the experience of closely examining plants and wildlife. As beautiful as the visual world is, I'm absorbed by the inner workings of a subject. I want to reveal subtleties of structure like light on a leaf that tells you whether it's smooth or slightly fuzzy. I want to see and feel that a petal has ribs, or the muscle structure of a squirrel under its lovely coat of fur.

For me, it's about finding the mechanics within, then expressing the beauty of the whole. I need a repertoire of ways to create. I believe there is infinite potential for expression in mastery of media. I have a technician's love of mediums and tools.

Bio

Antique photo of the building where Savage Design Studio was born: Georgetown, Seattle, WA.

Pauline Savage has spent her lifetime inspired by and celebrating the beauty and intricacy of the natural world.

Pauline communicates the intense experience of closely examining plants and wildlife. She is as absorbed by the inner workings of a subject as by the visible. She envisions the mechanics behind the beauty, and expresses the whole through color, value, shadow and light. Pauline believes there is infinite potential for expression through mastery of media. She exhibits a technician's love of new mediums and new tools. She has mastered numerous media in order to articulate her vision in a body of work that includes paintings, drawings, and sculptures, as well as the proprietary process that keeps her unique fresco works in demand.

Pauline is a Kansas native. She holds two Bachelors and a Masters degree in Fine Arts, from Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, and Kansas University in Lawrence. She is a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the American Society of Botanical Artists. She lived in the Kansas City area while raising her two children, working as a recruiter for the Kansas City Art Institute, and as a representative for one of the nation's top artists' materials companies.

In 1996 she moved to the Pacific Northwest to work full time as an artist.

In 2002 she launched Savage Design Studio in Seattle, introducing the design line of fresco paintings that ultimately offered 87 unique images. Savage Design Studio Frescoes use a proprietary modern variation of the ancient fresco painting on plaster. Pauline hand painted each fresco order. The Savage Design Studio line was carried by the Kennedy Collection at Seattle Gift Mart and promoted nationally by Rhonda Kennedy. The frescoes sold coast-to-coast to upscale interior design centers, galleries, and high end retailers. More than 90 paintings and drawings specifically designed for artworks distributor Picture Source, Inc. were purchased by national home décor and furniture lines and commercial interior designers.

In 2005 Pauline moved Savage Design to Littleton, Colorado, subsequently closing the Savage Design Studio volume line in 2008 to concentrate on original studio creations, including Studio Frescoes, and commissioned works.

Two Studio Frescoes, "Trout" and "Sunfish", were selected for the juried All Women Art Exhibition 2015 on Light Space & Time online gallery.

In 2017 she relocated to Tucson, Arizona and established Pauline Savage Art Studio, a home to original works of her own inspiration and commissioned works. She does still offer the Savage Design Studio Frescoes for collectors on a commission basis.