As early as kindergarten, Dawn Blanchard’s artistic talent showed promise. But it wasn’t until she was tired of her career as a stockbroker that she realized she needed to revisit her creative side.

When she “woke up” to the fact that she was an artist in a world of numbers, she decided to do something about it. “Leaving the world of investments to study art was a big scary step for me.” says Dawn.

She studied art for four years at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, coming out with honors. During her years at NAU, Dawn won many awards including a National Award from the Society of Illustrators and the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City.

After leaving school Dawn immediately found freelance jobs for an advertising agency and did product design for a company out of Del Mar California. After some soul searching, she realized doing commercial art left her little energy to do the kind of art she really felt compelled to do.

“For years I was hounded by friends and peers to drop all my commercial work and pursue a career as a fine artist.” says Dawn of her dilema.

Once again she was forced to step back and look at her career path. She took the first job that didn’t require a lot of energy, and left plenty of time to do the kind of creative art she enjoyed. She now lives in Cottonwood, Arizona, and is a successful full time artist.

Dawn’s sensual landscapes seem to have a spiritual energy that speaks to the viewer of natures power. Her colorful palette and curvalienar line shows the obvious influence of great artists such as Georgia O’Keefe and Maynard Dixon. While still considered an emerging artist, her elegant and exciting oil and watercolor paintings have been accepted into shows and galleries across the southwest, and are already in many private collections.

Dawn's work has been accepted into the following galleries:

Mo's Gallery, Tucson, AZ
Tohono Khi Gallery, Tubac , AZ
Gallery 7000, Tucson, AZ
El Presidio Gallery, Tucson AZ Contemporary Southwest Gallery, NM
Old Pueblo Gallery, Tucson, AZ
Javadog Gallery, Cottonwood, AZ
Lanning Gallery, Sedona, AZ