Check out Dawn Zintel’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dawn Zintel.

Dawn, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I grew up in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, Canada and lived my adult life in Montreal until 1977 when I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in California with my first husband. I had an Education degree and a Masters of Arts degree in Educational Technology which led me to specialize in adult learning. I founded and operated two training companies called Performance Factors Inc. and The Training Alliance Inc. For 34 years I worked with Fortune 100 and pre-IPO companies in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. helping them design creative employee training programs and learning games. During my early years in California, I divorced and married my second husband, Frank Croft, in 1985 and in 1995 we adopted our daughter, Caitlin, from China. In 2004, we moved to Gabriola Island, one of the Gulf Islands in British Columbia (north of the San Juan Islands in Washington state). Our idea was to retire but, in fact, we continued working until 2015. I loved designing training programs, and I just kept at it until it wasn’t fun anymore.

The school I attended in Quebec offered art classes from Sixth grade through high school. I was fortunate to have a wonderful art teacher from England for all my school years. When I was obtaining my undergraduate and graduate degrees at McGill and Concordia Universities in Canada, I took art courses, although I was never in a Fine Arts program. During my non-Art career, my creative art outlet included making hand-built pottery, stained glass art, as well as painting. Since 2010, I have been mentored by and studied with award-winning Canadian and U.S. painters Trisha Adams, Harold Allanson, the late Larisa Aukon, Mary Gilkerson, the late Michael O’Toole, Mike Svob, Derek Penix and several well-know artists local to the Prescott area.

In 2014, my husband and I began coming to Gilbert, Arizona every winter for warmth and sunshine. Eventually, we tired of living in two homes and two countries and began looking for one perfect place to live. Prescott seemed to meet all the items on our checklist, and we moved here in August of 2017. As soon as we moved, I began looking at various art groups in the area. I first joined the Prescott Valley Art Guild, an amazing group of about 40 artists who contribute many hours to grow and support their community’s art efforts. Then, I discovered Mountain Artists Guild in Prescott which has about 235 members. It has its own building with galleries for members’ shows, as well as classrooms. This year the Guild is 70 years old – one of the oldest art guilds in Arizona. Currently, I am the Vice-President of this grand old guild and oversee Education and Technology.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
When I was about 14 years old, I took my meager allowance and bought an inexpensive, little set of oil paints, a couple of brushes and a canvas or two. I painted with these oils until my early twenties when I started my non-Art career. I did not have much time to paint until the mid-90s when I studied watercolor painting, and that was my medium for many years. I was quite successful with my photorealistic style and won awards with my paintings. Then, in 2010, I was re-introduced to oil painting by Julie Gilbert Pollard, a well-known watercolor and oil painting artist and author in the Phoenix area and beyond. I remembered how I loved the buttery feel of oils and the smooth or textured finishes, so I gave up my watercolors. In 2014, I began to explore other art processes, techniques, and mediums when I studied with John and Elli Milan at their Milan Art Institute in Queen Creek. Today, I continue to use primarily oils in my paintings, but I also love mixed media. Many of my paintings incorporate collage, spray paints, inks, markers, and crayons. I finish most of my paintings in oils.

Over the years, in Canada and the US, I’ve been fortunate to be juried into many shows, to win a few awards, and to have several solo shows featuring my landscape, animal and figurative paintings. I think of my work as visual storytelling and hope that the viewer can make up their own story from my paintings. So, telling a story is my number one goal with a painting. I like to use color to brighten the viewer’s world and occasionally I add a touch of whimsy through the use of symbolism. I find the symbolism usually has to be explained but once in a while there is someone who is really looking at the paintings and finds something unexpected. I call these people ‘active’ viewers but find most of the public to be quite passive in the way they look at art. I guess I’d like to provoke people to be more curious about how my paintings were created and what they are trying to say.

Artists face many challenges, but what do you feel is the most pressing among them?
My thoughts on the biggest challenge facing artists today is developing your own voice. So many people are making art locally, nationally and internationally. With art being shared around the world on various social media platforms, developing a cadre of followers and customers is daunting, as is figuring out your uniqueness and what you bring to the table. It’s important to be ‘true to thine self’ and not get discouraged. To be successful today, the artist also needs to spend a lot of time on marketing and advertising one’s creative product. That takes a lot of time away from the act of creating and is a constant challenge.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Nowadays, my art is shown regularly at Mountain Artists Guild and the Prescott Art Market in Gateway Mall, both in Prescott, AZ. I am just completing a two-month show as the Featured Artist in the Main Gallery at Mountain Artists Guild. On May 11th and 12th, I will be selling my art and art products at the Fine Arts and Wine Festival in the booth hosted by Prescott Art Market. This is an annual juried exhibition sponsored by Mountain Artists Guild and has been ongoing for over 30 years in the Yavapai County Courthouse Plaza right in the middle of downtown Prescott.  I will also be participating in the 2019 Prescott Art Studio Tour where I will be found at Mountain Artists Guild. Online, my art and art products can be found on my web site and on Facebook. My art products (prints, tote bags, pillows, greeting cards and more) can be purchased from Redbubble.com and Society6.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dawnzintel.com
• Phone: 928-237-9509
• Email: dawn.zintel@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnzintelartist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawnzintelfineart/
• Other: http://www.redbubble.com/people/ceerius-art and https://society6.com/dawnzintelfineart

Image Credit:
Frank C. Croft
Jim0663 (Pixabay – Creative Commons)
Russell Johnson
Eric Slayton

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