Neadeen Masters CDA - Country Carousel Art©

"To have the support of a wonderful husband and two caring and beautiful children is to have everything. To have a career that is also a personal passion is an added bonus, and one of life's great rewards. To have been given the gift of painting... a gift that I am able to share with so many through teaching, humor and brush is more than I could ever have dreamed of. All life and art is really about how we approach the blank canvas, with humor, conviction and confidence, the rest will follow! ~ Neadeen Masters CDA

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Neadeen discovered her interest in painting at a very young age; she has been painting since the age of nine years. Born and raised in the tropics, on the island of Trinidad in the southern Caribbean has given her a unique perspective on the use of colour. She paints with a very colorful and wide spectrum palette that is reminiscent of her childhood. The artists uses colour to create mood in her paintings.

The very relaxed and colorful heritage of her childhood flavors much of her work as well as the approach she takes to teaching as a whole. She has been painting for over forty years and teaching art for almost half that time. Neadeen immigrated to Canada in 1977 and her family now live in Central British Columbia, in Western Canada's beautiful Okanagan Valley. Since moving to the Okanagan almost eighteen years ago, the artist opened a Home Studio which grew to a Retail Art Store and then she soon began Travel Teaching.  She still presently owns a working studio where she teaches weekly classes and seminars. Being a self taught artist, she has gained her art 'knowledge' through experimentation and continuous research, spending much of her time in search of this.

The artist credits the 'Certification Program' of the National Society, being awarded the title of 'CDA' Certified Decorative Artist ~ in the Still Life category, from the Society of Decorative Painters in 1997. She then later entered their 'Masters' program and passed the 'Master Floral' in 2002 and the 'Master Still Life' in 2003. To view her exam "boards" please visit the 'Recognition' page of this website.

Continuing art education has been the focus of her career, in 2004 Neadeen was invited along with seven other artists to join the Traditions Heritage Team lead by David Jansen MDA to co-author and develop an educational program for artists within the decorative painting industry. She is now one of the seven Heritage Artists for JansenArt Traditions Paints which is a division of DecoArt. The program was successfully launched in several foreign countries in 2004 by members of the Heritage Team and the Traditions Paint company.

Although Neadeen has devoted the last fifteen years to study and teach decorative painting, she has never abandoned her desire to return to her first love, the study of more traditional fine art. In 2004 she realized her goal was ultimately to study and teach the technical and academic aspects of traditional fine art and has placed her focus in pursuing this educational direction in the future.

This artist has found the freedom that she has always desired to explore all art without the restraints of painting to a specific style or market. Over the course of Neadeen's art career, she has worked to steadily improve her technique and refine her application, and this can be seen especially in work created following her return to the study of subjects more often found in traditional fine art. More recent paintings demonstrate the effects of her exposure to this study and it is this knowledge and personal experience that she wishes to pass on through her future teaching. Many of the compositions as seen on this website are either teaching or personal studies in, or of a particular theory and used as a vehicle to teach. Both of the portrait studies are of the artist's children at a young age and were studies.

My thoughts on 'creativity'

I believe that when children exhibit artistic or creative interests they should be encouraged at all costs. As parents it is important to recognize if a child is creative.  Unlike the father of the famous female artist, American impressionist Mary Cassatt, who, at the beginning of her career stated he would rather see his daughter dead than become an artist! Later on he became her staunchest supporter! They say creative children are usually free thinkers, gullible daydreamers and storytellers.  They usually see humor in much of what others deem as serious. As a child I was all of the above and much more, I spent 13 years in an all girls Catholic Convent and I can tell you (grinning), I did not conform well to such a structured environment. Yet on the other hand there were two 'Nuns' who understood and channeled and mentored much of my creativity and quest for discovery and learning art.

If you think you may have such a child, here is an excellent article on the subject;