Marilyn Hughey Phillis, (AWS, NWS) - Biography

Marilyn Hughey Phillis, whose background is in both art and science states. "Every painting is an adventure in the search for truth and beauty through the use of color, form and light. I am always looking beyond the surface to the depiction of the human response to nature. It is not just what the eye sees, but what the soul senses, that I find important, and the statement I want to communicate in my work."

Known for her expressive watermedia paintings ranging from representational to cosmic abstraction, Marilyn Hughey Phillis has served as juror for many major national and regional juried exhibitions including American Watercolor Society, San Diego Watercolor International, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia, Kentucky Aqueous National, Pittsburgh Aqueous National, Mid Atlantic Open Juried Exhibition, the Artist Magazine National Art Competition, the New England Watercolor Society and the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society Nationals, Florida Watercolor Society, as well as many state watercolor societies. An excellent professional video tape was made concerning her comments on jurying the 1994 Florida Watercolor Society.

She is widely known for her inspiring lectures and creative watermedia, collage, and healing arts workshops throughout the United States.

Her numerous awards have ranged from nationals such as American Watercolor Society, Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Exhibition, Allied Artists of America, Watercolor West, Georgia and Kentucky Watercolor Societies, San Diego International to state shows where her work has received numerous awards. She won first award, "Award of Distinction" in the West Virginia Watercolor Society Annual Juried Exhibition and over seven awards including the Gold Medal, Bronze Medal and Permanent Collection awards in the Ohio Watercolor Society. She was awarded the title of Master Artist by the American Artist magazine in 1996 and featured in its special issue.

Marilyn Hughey Phillis is the author of the best selling 1992 Watson Guptill book, Watermedia Techniques for Releasing the Creative Spirit. Her work has been included in five other books and several periodicals in the U.S., England, and China. She was the author of "Painting from the Imagination" published in The Artist Magazine, January 1985, and "Painting the Inner Spirit" in Watercolor Magic, June 1996. Her work was chosen for the cover of a scientific journal, Subtle Energies, Vol. 3, No.1, 1992, and Vol. 5, No. 3, 1996, Vol 16 No 3 2006.

She is listed in Who's Who in American Art, Who's Who of American Women, Who's who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World. She served as president of the Ohio Watercolor Society 1990-1996, and founded in 1992 the highly successful biennial OWS National Creativity Seminars, "Stretching Boundaries for Creative People." Editor of the AWS Newsletter, AWS Director 1991-93, and past national Vice President of the Society of Layerists in Multi-Media, President of the 18 state Southern Watercolor Society, 1997 and 1998.

Phillis is well known among other artists and art appreciators, nationwide, for her personal warmth, depth of knowledge, and exciting creative ability. Dr. Charles Dietz; Former Director of the Zanesville Art Center, describes Phillis as the "romantic visual poet" for she uses liquid color to distill the essence of subject and concept. Her dreamlike representational paintings of nature begin on the same abstract base as her more searching abstract-naturalist paintings related to the energy forces of earth and space. For the artist, the more abstract approach is an extension and deeper expression of nature that goes beyond words and visual representation.

In 1994, she was one of 40 American Artists included in an international invitational curated exhibition "Republic of China-USA-Australia Watermedia Exhibition," held at the Taiwan Art Education Institute in Taipei. A color catalog featuring a full page reproduction of each artist's work documented the exhibition The Taiwan Institute sent catalog copies to museum libraries worldwide.

Jacqueline Hall, Art Critic for the Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) comments that the artist "gives viewers fleeting suggestions rather than definite representations. She offers subtly tinted amorphous masses, which take on different shapes and meanings, according to eyes, mind, and emotions." Phillis' more recent work incorporates organic structure with geometric overlays symbolizing continuous creative energy given form and expression through physical and mathematical order.

Collections including her work are Permanent Collection of Springfield Museum of Art in Ohio; Permanent Collection of Leroy Springs & Company, Myrtle Beach, SC; Perm. Coll. of On Line Computer Library Services International Industries, Dublin, Ohio, H. K. Ferguson Co., Cleveland, OH; Neumann Industries, Cleveland, OH, E. F. McDonald Co., Dayton, OH; Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., Jackson, MS; Holiday Inns, Inc., Memphis, TN; Gem Savings, Dayton, OH; Rolls Royce LTD, NY; Cardinal Federal Savings and Loan, Mansfield, OH; City Building, Springfield, OH; DiSanto Furniture Co., Cleveland, OH; Babineau and Phillis, Nashua, NH; Perm. Coll. Dr. and Mrs. Ruben Plaza, Celina, OH; Miles Willard, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID, Monroe Community College, Monroe, MI, Ohio University Lancater, OH and Ohio University, St. Clairsville, OH; West Virginia Northern Community College, Wheeling West Virginia; Peoples Bank, Marietta, OH; Women Artists of West Virginia, Permanent Collections of University of Charlston, Charleston, WV.

Phillis, an Ohio native, currently living in Wheeling, WV, may be contacted for workshop or jurying information at 72 Stamm Circle, Wheeling, WV, 26003. Phone: (304) 242-6831. e-mail: mhphillis@aol.com .