Nita Ann Foraker

I have been drawing all of my life. I really do not remember not drawing even as a child. I am a self-taught artist but did at the age of 50, take a colour workshop as I had always worked in pencil, ink or charcoal. Also at that time I found I was partially colour-blind. I have trouble with blues, greens and grays, especially when working on the water at night time. These are also all the colours I enjoy using as I do water-born sea scenes, mainly tugboats. My art covers, pen & ink, and watercolour of tugboats, custom tile work, warm glass (kiln formed glass) and Chinese Sumi-E. I have been on the Foss Maritime Calendar six times over the years. The Foss company has a yearly contest, picking 12 artists to represent the twelve months of the year. They use the calendar as a promotional tool for their company services.They receive about 50 entries from all over the world. I have been around boats for many years, and worked on the 1889 Arthur Foss tugboat, and the 87-foot steel yacht Rebecca, the Canadian TP tugboat Challenger, a operational Bed & Bunk, and on a number of other tugboats in the Puget Sound area. Phil and I ran the Rebecca, taking out a party of 12 Elderhostel into the San Juan Islands. Phil was skipper and I decked. We left on Sunday and returned on Friday. Since Elderhostel is a teaching adventure, Phil taught navigation, charts and steering. I taught decking, and the Elderhostel coordinator taught local history of the islands.