Petroski, for many years has set up in markets, fairs and festivals and has been represented by many galleries. Her painting style continues to evolve as she accepts more and more portrait commissions. She currently is working as a portrait artist and instructor at Ziegler's Art and Frame in Tulsa, Oklahoma at Admiral and Lewis and at the Water Street Art Gallery in Sapulpa, OK. Her classes in portraiture will be limited to nine students at the present time. While she has taught workshops with as many as 30 students for 5 day periods in out of town locations, locally, she prefers to keep the energy expended by teaching and traveling to a more manageable level to have more time with family and friends.
Fascinating faces and personalities need to be painted and often.
As one's face and attitudes change so must their portraits. A fresh
young face is nice to look at but the real challenge and beauty in
portraiture is in the face that has lived somewhat. It is said that one
has the face that God gave them until one reaches forty, after that,
one has the face that he/she made for themselves. Most are quite
beautiful. All people have something beautiful in their faces that time
and life experiences have carved out. Each face is also uniquely
individual, just as the fingerprint.
Evelyn has studied with some of this country's, China's and
Canada's most respected contemporary artists. Most of her studies were
on the west coast where she lived and worked as a commercial artist but
she was also fortunate to have benefited, as many other Oklahoma
artists to have been a member of OAW (Oklahoma Artists Workshops) under
the guidance of Nancy and Jim Swindler. OAW brought some of the finest
artists in the world to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Watermelon Lady
Evelyn's life began in the Red River Valley in 1942 where she was the second daughter of parents who were from farming communities between Atoka, OK and Denison, Texas. The main staple crop was sugar beets. Since her father could care less about farming or sugar beets he became a heavy equipment operator who worked on highways and dams.
Her family moved every six months until the family had grown to eight
members. The family settled in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and the surrounding
small towns. She married at sixteen to her high school sweetheart and
had two beautiful and talented daughters who blessed her with two
granddaughters. Through all the years, painting has been the constant
stable sanity saver. Portraits are the one subject that holds this
artist's interest on a constant basis. Petroski now resides in Tulsa,
Oklahoma with her wonderful husband and friend, Stan, and enjoy being
grandparents to the nth degree.
