Nita Engle

Marquette native Nita Engle is internationally acclaimed as one of the “best watercolor landscape painters in the world today” according to the book, The Watercolor Landscape Techniques of 23 International Artists. After graduating from high school in Marquette, she attended Northern Michigan University and went on to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She made her advertising career in Chicago and New York along with creating illustrations for a variety of publications including Readers Digest and Playboy. Mill Pond Press began publishing her prints in 1981, which provided her independence to paint for a living. Free to live anywhere, she returned to Marquette’s Lake Superior beach, which provides a backdrop for her studio. Her paintings reflect her love for the wilderness and beauty of nature and have also been inspired from the places she has taught workshops, ranging from Africa to Alaska, Italy to Indonesia, Thailand to Tahiti, and every state in the U.S. Her unique water- color techniques of throwing, squirting, pouring and spraying are legendary and have been the subject of books and videos. This retrospective exhibition features over 20 original paintings from private and public collections, as well as Engle’s studio. With the artist’s emphasis on process, the exhibition also features in-progress paintings in a “Corner Seminar” that highlights Engle’s ability to “make a watercolor paint itself.”

An award-winning member of the American Watercolor Society since 1969, Engle has received numerous accolades including the cover of American Artist Magazine’s “Artist of the Year” issue in 1984. Her sold-out book, How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself, is considered a ‘bible’ for many watercolor artists. She was the subject of a PBS documentary, “Wilderness Palette: Nita Engle in Michigan”. The Society of Illustrators in New York showcased Engle’s art alongside other notable artists such as Winslow Homer, N.C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell in an exhibition titled, “200 Years of American Painters.” Recently, Engle represented the United States as one of only 20 artists exhibiting at the “International Waters” event in Taipei, Republic of China. Presently, her art is being exhibited in the Second Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary International Watermedia Masters in China. Engle was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree by Northern Michigan University in 1986.