Image: © Elizabeth Sandia
“Early Winter” pastel, 24" x 30" $4600

Elizabeth Sandia has an extensive professional art background: trade magazine illustrator, advertising art director (NYC), college instructor (Canada), and commercial & residential architectural designer (Canada & US).

In Sept '95 Elizabeth gave up her design practice in Key West and moved to Santa Fe to paint full time. A seamless transition from designing buildings to painting them helped make her leap of faith a reality. Elizabeth now paints ranches, old barns, cattle & sheep, old schools & churches, rusty trucks, still lifes, chickens, the Rockies, San Juans and the desert.

Image: © Elizabeth Sandia
"Dawn"
pastel
40" x 40"
$7600

Elizabeth's award-winning paintings are in corporate and private collections. She's in fund-raising invitationals like the Coors National Western Art Show (8 yrs), San Isabel Land Protection Trust Show (9 yrs), and donates paintings to various causes: Scottsdale Artists' School; Art for Life, Denver; CRRI Research Institute, Durango.

Ms. Sandia's paintings have appeared in 24 publications since November 2000 - some listed below. Three paintings are on display at the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Elizabeth is a signature member of The Pastel Society of America, NY, NY.

"I am strongly drawn to the patterns and shapes and colors of the west, and how deep shadows come to life next to bright patches of sunlight. Each time I paint on location, my challenge is to capture certain fleeting effects like the last rays of the setting sun stretching across a ridge, a pink glow bathing a canyon, or multi-colored shadows on an adobe wall.

Image: © Elizabeth Sandia
"Snowy Road"
pastel
40" x 40"
$7600

I spend part of my time painting plein air studies and the rest working in my home studio on larger paintings. I paint on both specially made pumice paper and hand-applied gel surfaces which I underpaint with watercolor, then continue with multi-layers of soft pastel. The many layers of color give a rich depth to my work. I enjoy painting in a variety of ways - sometimes subtle and tonal, sometimes pure and intense, and always a personal response to each subject, and always a reflection of my emotions, feelings, and a lifetime of design.

Becoming a full-time fine artist 13 years ago, I made it a daily practice of studying the works of masters like John F. Carlson, Edgar Payne, Carl Rungus, Nikolai Timkov, and am inspired by contemporary fellow artist/teachers like Dan McCaw of California, Ian Roberts of Ontario, Canada, Kevin Macpherson of Taos. I am grateful for these generous artists and to the dozens of others who have aided my creative path - gallery owners, curators, writers, framers, collectors and friends. "Thank you so much."

Image: © Elizabeth Sandia
"Cañoncito Chapel"
pastel
12" x 15"
$1900