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Arts & Entertainment

A Portrait of the Artist: Estelle Zorman

Estelle Zorman paints the invisible.

Estelle Zorman, who is currently showing her work at Kentlands Mansion in the 25th Annual Spring Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association (GFAA) juried show, paints vivid watercolors that express the invisible.

Her pieces are born within, and even though she is inspired by nature and her surroundings, Zorman brings her innermost experiences and revelations to her artwork.

Zorman was born in Kranj, Slovenia and lived there through until 1945 at the end of World War II. There she began drawing at a young age alongside her aunt who would babysit her. They would draw figures together.

At the end of World War II, Zorman and her family emigrated to Austria, where they spent five years in a soldier's camp. In 1950 they were sponsored to move to the US to be apple pickers in West Virginia. By the time they arrived, apple picking season was over and they were sent to North Carolina to be tobacco pickers instead. Spending the first two years of their time in the United States in North Carolina, they eventually sought out a Slovenian community and moved to Cleveland, Ohio.

"My father moved there first, and then us seven children and our mother followed," said Zorman. "I went to school and learned English."

When she was ready for college, Zorman wanted to pursue her passion for art, but her family and friends discouraged her from going into a profession that would most likely not be very stable or profitable. Zorman studied Elementary Education and ultimately got a Master's degree in the field as well.

"I taught for 10 years. I always had my students do a lot of illustration in class. They loved it! Then I met someone, married him and moved with him to the Washington, DC-area in 1971," said Zorman who had three kids of her own and raised them as a stay-at-home mom. In the evening, she took evening studio art classes at Montgomery College. When her youngest entered kindergarden, Zorman started taking daytime classes in Art History, Printmaking, Painting and Drawing. She explored multiple media in painting, including oil, acrylic and watercolor.

Primarily a watercolor artist, she started exhibiting, selling and winning prizes and awards for her work in 1978.

"By the 1980s I was having 2-3 solo shows per year," said the artist. "I had a lot of energy even with the kids."

Zorman showed primarily in the Washington, DC-area.

"I wanted to be local," she said.

Zorman has had various solo shows at Framer's Choice Gallery, Frame Studio Gallery, the Unitarian Universalist Church among others.

Her award-winning work has also been shown at the Bird in Hand Gallery in East Capitol Hill.

"The most prestigious award I have ever won was the Gold Medal from the Baltimore Watercolor Society. It's the most important award I have ever received because there are a lot of states represented in that show," she said.

Zorman holds various local affiliations. She is a member of the Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association, the Potomac Watercolor Associaton, Strathmore, the Senior Artists Alliance and the Rockville Art League. For the latter she serves on the phone committee, and for the GFAA, she organizes shows and used to be in charge of programming and public events.

Zorman also teaches watercolor classes at the Montgomery College Lifelong Learning Institute and a painting class for seniors at the senior center near the intersection of Clopper Road and Quince Orchard Road.

"I still speak Slovenian and keep ties to Slovenia," said Zorman. "In 1984, I visited my relatives there, and realized how close I still felt to them and how much I had missed them."

The artist reestablished her connection to her roots by participating in a World Wide Art Contest in Slovenia more recently.

"Most of the participants were of Slovenian background. We painted in Most Na Soci, and the other artists came from all over the world, including countries like Argentina, Austria, Sweden, the US, the former Yugoslavia and even Australia."

Zorman noticed some trends in the work of her international counterparts:

"In 1996 most artists were doing abstraction. I was one of the few doing realism. My newer paintings now lean toward abstraction, but they are very simple. I think there are more realists in the United States, but more artists here are getting more and more abstract recently. If you paint long enough, your work gets more abstract. At least, that's what I think. Ultimately, we all have our own styles because it all comes from us."

Zorman's work is inspired by her spiritual investment. She participates in a spiritual community and meditates on "living by love." Her interest in New Earth Spirituality guides her to preserve the earth, bring peace to her fellow human beings and raise human consciousness.

"I don't participate in organized religion. I seek to follow my inner voice or god-self," said Zorman who uses her belief to achieve inner peace and resolve conflict in her own life.

"I derive inspiration from landscapes and flowers, but above all, from my inner life. Art is a form of spiritual expression, and my paintings are symbolic. I believe that trees, animals, and other people are manifestations of the invisible."

Estelle Zorman paints both on-site and from photographs. Her paintings are medium-sized, and her work includes paintings from a decade of travels to England, Spain, Morocco and France. She sells her work privately from her home studio and gallery - New Dawn Gallery.

Upcoming shows include a May 21-22, 2011 group show at the Yellow Barn Studio and Gallery in Glen Echo, Maryland, as well as a solo show at Framer's Choice Gallery in Kentlands, Gaithersburg, Maryland in October.

"I have a lot of paintings exploring light and shadow relationships, so my solo show will be called 'The Arrival of the Light,'" said Zorman who admires the work of Vincent Van Gogh and Charles Birchfield.

To find out more about Estelle Zorman, click here.

To contact the artist directly, email her at newdawnartist@gmail.com.

To find out more about Kentlands Mansion, click here.







 

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