about the artist
Author and illustrator Deborah Kogan Ray studied
painting and printmaking at the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts.
She is the author of eight 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. Find out more at http://www.embracingthechild.org/akoganray.html.
about the paintings
"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."
"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."
"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."
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