about the artist
Deborah Kogan Ray
Author and illustrator Deborah Kogan Ray studied painting and printmaking at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
She is the author of sixteen books and the illustrator of more than sixty books for children.
Among her many awards are the Drexel Citation for Career Distinction in the Field of Books for Children and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant Award for Painting.
Her paintings and prints of landscape and nature subjects have been shown in 42 one-person and hundreds of group exhibitions in museums and galleries. They are in private and public collections throughout the world.
Deborah was the featured Author of the Month for March, 2004, at Embracing the Child. On the site, she discusses her career as an illustrator/author and the process that goes into creating her books.
about the paintings
Wissahickon - Floating Leaves
watercolor
48" x 28"
"My work is inspired by observation of the natural world. It concerns growth and change, time and place, and evolving seasons. The paintings result from my reaction to a particular subject or landscape."
"My subjects are moving water, sky, rocks, leaves and plants. I do not use photographs. I work from the abstract. The works evolve from internal experience and memory as I draw and paint."
Alta Peak - High Sierra
acrylic on canvas
60" x 72"
"In my series of paintings of the Canadian Rockies, I was captivated by the profusion of flowers growing in the harsh climate of the high peaks. To me, they became a metaphor for the tenacity of life. In the high Sierras of California, I hiked a trail into the clouds. The experience became a series of paintings and a book for children."
Stones Series - No. 4
watercolor
22" x 30"
"Often, I wander the trails of the Wissahickon Valley of Pennsylvania, close to where I now live. I have painted it in all its seasons. The area represented in my 'Coastal' and 'Stones' series is the coast of Maine, where, in the ever changing fog and ocean, I find a stillness of the soul."