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! Benita Gowen, a prolific and talented watercolorist, is once again a featured artist in the 2006 “Artists of Rappahannock Studio and Gallery Tour." Interviewed in her home, Gowen’s euphoric personality is vividly reflected in the many water colors that line the walls of her studio and separate gallery. This remarkable peace and contentment, as she will proudly tell you, comes from the joy of living and working in Rappahannock County.
Gowen’s greatest inspiration comes from nature, as she mostly paints landscapes and flowers. She watches the seasons and times of day as they affect her surroundings arid paints in every spare moment. She most often paints the “Peak" of the Blue Ridge Mouritains in her backyard as well as the nearby rolling and forested fields on her farm. Constantly aware of her surroundings, noting colors, shapes, lights and darks, Gowen remarked, “My art helps me go beyond myself and be at peace with the world outside.”
Gowen’s childhood is far removed from where she is now. Her life as a small child in Latvia and then a refugee escaping Nazi Germany in World War II before she finally came to the United States as a young girl, is a moving tribute to the courage of children.
Gowen studied architecture and design at the University of Washington-Seattle before moving east to Philadelphia. She returned to college in Hie late 1970s where she received a BA. in interior design from Mt. Vernon College in Washington, D.C. and began painting as a career. About six years ago, Gowen and her husband, Geoffrey, moved to Rappahannock Gounty where she took up her water color painting in earnest.
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