Phyllis Dobbyn Adams
One of nine children, Phyllis was born in Boston, and lived most of her life in New England. She grew up in Westport, MA and has remained in and around the Southcoast area. Although her interest and love has always been in art her career took a different path. She worked for ten years as a computer software manager at Lotus Corporation and IBM in Cambridge and started the first quality engineering lab for Media 100, a digital video editing system. After retiring several years ago she found the urge to paint still strong and so embarked on what she calls her “third life”. Much of her time and energy is now spent painting, mostly in acrylics and oils, studying other artist past and present and taking selective classes and seminars and workshops.
Her art evokes the natural beauty of coastal New England, the ocean, the beaches and the wild life are her constant inspiration. She strives to pare down and find the essence of her subject matter by abstracting shapes and exaggerating color. To her straddling the edge of realism and abstraction is the most exciting and challenging aspect of her art. When beginning a paintings she starts with some idea of what the work will look like but it changes quite a bit from what was first in her mind’s eye. During this process she has to let herself go and trust her intuition, it is both fun and scary but when a painting emerges it is all worth it.
