Deborah DeWit Marchant

Artist Biography

Deborah, born in 1956, grew up in a family in which her parents, naturalized Americans, are descended from four generations of Dutch painters and musicians. But it was her father's career in the international grain business that took Deborah and her family to live in foreign countries on three continents and in six different American states, instilling in her a wanderlust and quest for new experience. After graduating from high school in Rye, New York she entered Cornell University with an intended Agronomy major. A love of photography and art drew her away from college and she left after two years. Instead of receiving any formal art or photography training, Deborah's natural inclination was to take to the road in search of imagery and a broader sense of the World. In her twenties she traveled extensively, alone, developing a creative process inspired by atmosphere and light and fueled by a zest for knowledge. She has been showing her art, prints and posters professionally and continuously since 1976.

Deborah's pastels and oils attempt to express her sense of the human experience, be it in the country or the city, on the road or safely at home. Inspired by her daily life and her travels she has concentrated on a signature range of subjects that speak of our human needs for comfort, knowledge and freedom, qualities that often do not co-exist. The photographs address light and its ability to transform everyday scenes into subjects of beauty. Her art, prints and posters can be found in many personal, corporate and University collections across the country, and is shown regularly in galleries in the Northwest. Both her photographs and pastels have been used on the covers of books, magazines and catalogues and have been reproduced in calendars.

In 1990, with the founding of their company Simple Minds, Deborah and her husband, Robert, joined forces to further establish Deborah's art career and expand her audience to a national level. Slowly the company has grown to include over 170 notecards of Deborah's art, prints and posters, which are distributed nationwide, a selection of posters, and a web site featuring her original pastels, oils and photographs. The business resides in their home alongside Deborah's studio and they live and work with their dog, three cats, and eleven pigeons outside Portland, Oregon.

Deborah DeWit Marchant Art, Prints and Posters Collection