''I can't remember when I didn't love to draw and paint. Even those years when teaching middle schoolers to read and write, I was painting in my head.
My paintings are like my children. At first I'm reluctant to let them go. Some are spontaneous, others slowly develop as "late bloomers" on my easel. Plein Air is my passion. Seeing nuances of color in the rocks and water and transferring that image to my canvas is what I like most. I hope that my paintings bring a sense of peace and pleasure to others where they can enter and stay for a while.''
Texas based artist Caroline Ratliff received her formal art education at Mary Baldwin College and the University of Alabama. She has developed her painting skills further under the instruction of many prominent American pastel and oil painters, including Albert Handel, Matt Smith, and Scott Christensen.
Passionate about the act of painting, she has traveled the world, but her favorite painting spot is Brazos Bend State Park south of Houston. She has a studio/gallery in the Galleria area of Houston where she also paints and teaches.
Connecting emotionally with her subject she strives to paint the essence of what she sees in light and color using a limited palette, thereby calling herself an impressionistic painter.
Her paintings have won awards and she has shown her work in the prestigious Oil Painters of America Exhibition.
Ratliff is a member of several prominent societies- among them Oil Painters of America, Outdoor Painters Society, and American Impressionist Society.
Caroline says, "Happiness is being an artist."
