Artist living second life in pastels

Courtesy of Shelley Koopmann

"Splash," a pastel by Shelley Koopmann

Courtesy of Shelley Koopmann

Shelley Koopmann, shown with her supplies on the Maine coast, didn't begin painting until she was in her late 50s.

Shelley Koopmann and husband Bill retired to the lake nine years ago. She left her job as an administrative assistant to the mayor in the New Jersey town where the couple lived and found a talent she did not know she had. She ended up with a new career.

The hidden talent did not reveal itself when the Koopmanns first moved to the Gills Creek area of Smith Mountain Lake. It's been just in the last four years that Koopmann discovered the extent of her artistic talent.

"I actually was looking for a pottery class. I was going to take something in Roanoke then I decided it was too far to drive," she recalled. "I found a sketching class at the 4-H Center. I liked it so much, but I wanted to do color."

That is when Koopmann discovered pastels. It is pure pigment in stick form, the same medium used by famous artists such as Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt. There are very few pastel classes in the area so Koopmann's only training has been a weekend seminar course on creating with pastels. The rest she has learned from books.

"I paint everything. I started out doing mostly lake scenes, and since I grew up along the ocean on Long Island [New York], I did a lot of that [painting ocean scenes]. I still paint oceans because I miss it so much."

Much to her surprise, the self-taught artist has been well received by the art community.

"The first piece I ever put into a show won second place at the League of Roanoke Artists Showcase," said Koopmann with a smile. "I could not believe it. I almost thought it was a mistake."

Since then, she has garnered numerous awards, including second place at the recent juried show at the Westlake Library. The artwork is still on display there. Koopmann entered a national art show earlier this year.

"I got two of my pieces chosen for the Lynchburg Fine Arts Academy Show. They picked 50 out of 600 entries. Only two other artists had two pictures picked," she said.

Koopmann grew up around art. Her parents' home was filled with paintings, and they took her to New York City to see art and ballet. Her mother was a talented sculptor.

Koopmann's daughter, Shari Koopmann, a professor in Florida, also sculpts. Koopmann said she always thought the artistic gene skipped her.

"I wish I had known when I was younger, because I would have had all this time to hone my craft," said Koopmann.

The Long Island native is 63. Her newly discovered talent has changed her life as well as that of her husband. Besides turning their screen porch overlooking the lake into a studio, Koopmann's artistic success has created a new career for her husband, formerly a marketing analyst for AT&T before retiring to the lake.

"He started doing all my framing," said Koopmann. "He had never done anything like that before. My husband also makes cards from my paintings and he does my printing."

"I used to like playing with the computer a lot so I get to do that with all the prints and cards that I make," explained Bill Koopmann. "I used to fish a little bit more than I do now, but this is more fun."

You can find Shelley Koopmann's work on the Web at www.pastelpaletteartworks.com or at Artfully Framed in Moneta, The General Store in Moneta and Art on Depo in Bedford.

Koopmann has found new friendships through painting. She said she is encouraged by the state of the arts at the lake.

"I was the first president of Bald Knob Artists out of Rocky Mount. There are about 70 artists in that group now," said Koopmann.

"We also have a group called Artists on the Loose. We go all over and paint. We go to each other's homes and paint. It's just wonderful."

Koopmann said she is humbled that people like her art enough to buy it and hang it in their homes.

"It's fulfilling; just the fact that you can create something from nothing. I used to think, when I was a kid, that retiring meant old. We were lucky we got to retire relatively early, and there's still a lot of life there," she said.

"It's just wonderful you can start something new and develop it. Who knows? Next maybe I'll be a surgeon," she said with a laugh. "Who knows?"