Page 19 - DPM3_Fall_2021_Flipbook

GAYLE ORAM mda, vgm
Gayle’s painting career covers more than 30 years. She says it’s unbelievable and she’s so thankful that she has been able to make a living with her passion to paint. Art was her minor, Home Economics Education her major in college. It was never in her wildest dreams that she imagined traveling across America and to different countries to teach a form of art. Gayle first encountered rosemaling in 1977 when the family moved to Petersburg, Alaska. It was a Norwegian fishing settlement and there was rosemaling painted on the store fronts. She had already been decorative painting, but was so taken by the rosemaling she started researching and teaching.
In 1980 Gayle became involved in clock making and now has over 30 styles, many made in more than one size. In addition to clocks she designs and makes unique objects for decorative painting. Gayle designed and built her wood products until 1998 at which time she tried to slow down and devote more time to design and painting. She now works with Paul Brooks who builds most of the products she designs, and many ideas and pieces they plan and work out together.
Gayle passed the MDA certification through the Society of Decorative Painters in 1980 and has been a judge for many years since that time. It’s a wonderful program to help people study, learn and achieve something very special. In 2000 Gayle received the Gold Medal in rosemaling from Vesterheim after many years of working toward that goal.
Over the years Gayle has conducted seminars, local classes and written eight books. The last three rosemaling books are especially important for new to advanced painters, as she has included a lot of the research she’s done to help others. She hopes to do a new one on European flowers someday when time allows. Between writing books, Gayle has been writing numerous packets; most are of rosemaling or European flowers. Each includes photographs of one project, the written instructions and the line drawings.
In January 2008 Gayle made a big change in her life. She left her home in Tillamook of 30 years and moved to Pleasant Hill, Oregon. Now she’s back to the home where she grew up. The renovated old chicken house is a wonderful studio where she holds seminars and weekly classes on Wednesdays from 1:00-4:00 p.m.
If you are traveling up or down I-5 in Oregon, about 5 miles south of Eugene, please stop by and see her. Gayle is just about 6 -7 miles off the freeway next to highway 58, which goes east to Klamath Falls.
DECORATIVEPAINTERS.ORG 17
business corner