Deborah Lee didn’t really want to leave the island life of North Carolina’s Outer Banks for a subdivision outside Apache Junction. But when she saw the view of Superstition Mountains from the parcel she and her husband eventually bought, she figured she could make it work.
“I stood out here and I said, 'John, if you’re going to drag me from the East Coast to the desert then it’s going to be this spot or I’m not coming,’ ” she says.
Since her house has been built, Lee, a watercolorist who is a member of the Artists of the Superstitions, has not lost her affection for the landscape she sees behind her home.
“Something about that mountain just draws you in,” she says. “Every day it just looks different. We’ll be out there and I’ll just say, 'Grab the camera, I’ve got to paint that one.’ ”
Lee, retired from the banking industry, started painting eight years ago when she took a watercolor class with her mother, who’d always been an artist.
Her mother stopped painting, but she didn’t. Back East, Lee was in eight galleries; now, her primary outlet for her work is the group she’s formed with about 30 other artists from Gold Canyon and Apache Junction. Lee will be one of 24 artists in this weekend’s show at Gold Canyon Golf Resort, which includes painters, jewelers, potters, wood turners and copper workers.
The group started two years ago after a similar group stopped doing its annual studio tour, which had been a huge hit with area artists. Like her, the other members of the group aren’t in it for the money. She hardly ever sells her originals, making prints that go for $40 to $55.
“We work hard at it and we just hope someone enjoys it,” she says. “I want people to be able to afford our art, to remember me and to enjoy the painting.”
Artists of the Superstitions Art Show
What: Show by 24 artists from Apache Junction and Gold Canyon
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: Gold Canyon Golf Resort, 6100 S. Kings Ranch Road, Gold Canyon
Cost: Free
Information: E-mail ||artists.superstitions@gmail.com||mailto:artists.superstitions@gmail.com||
