Rhonda Anderson’s back story is one she shares with many other artists: she was drawing from a very early age. Winning ribbons in art in grade school and high school kept her on a journey as an artist.
In 1973, she moved to San Diego and began her career as an air brush artist at “The Air Brush Shop” in Pacific Beach. It was affiliated with “Flight Realities,” a hang-gliding training shop in San Diego, and what is now “The Torrey Pines Glider Port.” She painted hang-glider sails, surfboards, skateboards, parachutes, team shirts for both flyers, parachuters, OTL as well as fancy gowns and regular clothes. These fun days could not go on forever, however, and in 1980 she went to work for Gordan & Smith.
After her son was born, Anderson became a stay-at-home mom and devoted her time to her family. Still, there were some commissions with murals for model homes, school props, assorted pet portraits and paintings. She also went back to college and received her Associates in Fine Arts with emphasis in drawing and painting.
After 10 years, Anderson returned to the work force working at a private investment firm. This job was not about art but she learned a great deal and it helped her family. When the market crashed, the fund she was in was liquidated, as was her job. From there she was free to retire and devote the rest of her time to art.
Anderson loves to both draw and paint. She does it every day. She works with all drawing mediums, especially colored pencils, water-media and mixed media. With color expressionism, it is her intention to explore concepts both personal and universal with the hope of communicating the beauty and fragility of this world.
Anderson added, “It’s the intangible and ephemeral nature of both the physical and spiritual that I try to express with my subject matter. I am also exploring a part of my cultural heritage with the art of ‘nihonga’ or the Japanese style of painting. It’s my intention to be expressive stylistically with both color and composition so that the viewer finds it compelling, beautiful, and filled with wonder, and maybe a bit of magic.”
Exhibits, awards and honors:
2021
Juried into the 2022 Artist Alliance Biennial, Oceanside Museum of Art
Juried into “Beneath the Surface” by Artist Alliance, Oceanside Museum of Art, Ashton Gallery
Westcoast Drawing Group Exhibition, “Unmasked”, Online Exhibition
Westcoast Drawing Group Exhibition, “Next” Sahara West Gallery, Las Vegas, NV
San Diego Watercolor Society, “Compliment Conversations”, Virtual and live Exhibition
Colored Pencil Society of America, District Chapter 214-Los Angeles, “Pencil Paintings”, Won 2nd and 3rd place
Wildlife in Art Exhibition 2021, Foothills Art Associations, La Mesa, Calif., Bastet Award – Atelier Bastet Award
2020
Juried into San Diego Museum of Art International Exhibition 2020
Juried into the “Explore This! CPSA Online Exhibition
Published in Colored Pencil Treasures, Vol. 7, 2020
2019
27th Annual Colored Pencil Society of America International Exhibition – 3rd Place Award for Exceptional Achievement
Public Work Commission for the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital – Neonatal Unit, Stanford, Palo Alto, Calif.
Published in International Artist Magazine, Oct/Nov 2019 Issue,
– Bonnie Owen is editor of Footnotes, the monthly newsletter of the Foothills Art Association.
(Courtesy image)
