Show featuring artwork by Marilyn Farrell Webberley opens this week at Ballard & Call

A tender moment between a man and a woman sitting in a coffee shop. A delicate family heirloom sugar bowl. Bold golden leaves dancing in shadow and sunlight. These are just a few of the seemingly simple images that award-winning artist Marilyn Farrell Webberley has used as inspiration in creating some of her most stunning works of art. "I try to capture the joy that draws me to my subject matter -- things I see and experience in my surroundings, wherever I happen to be," she said. Webberley paints people, places, objects and landscapes primarily using oils. She is inspired by the world around her, often painting from scenes she has captured with her camera or with a pencil in sketch books. "I just paint things I enjoy," said the artist, who grew up in Camas and now lives in the Seattle area. Her interest in art started at a young age. Her mother started taking Marilyn to art exhibits in Portland, and then enrolled the youngster in art classes offered at the Portland Art Museum. Among her treasured gifts was a set of Windsor & Newton sable paint brushes. "I've always been interested in art -- even as a child," Webberley said. "My friends were all getting bicycles. I didn't want a bicycle; I wanted art supplies." That childhood enthusiasm never faded. In fact, it sparked a lifelong career. After graduating from Camas High School in 1957, Webberley earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington where she studied commercial and fine art. Over the years, she continued to study with accomplished painters and at renowned art academies. Today, decades later, she is a published author, illustrator and graphic designer. She taught university level courses and private workshops in drawing, sketching, painting, design, calligraphy, the history of alphabets, and simple bookmaking, and served on the faculty of two international calligraphy conferences held at the University of Portland. Her work is in corporate collections in the United States, as well as private collections in the U.S., Bahamas, UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia. In 2012, several pieces of her work was chosen by curators of the U.S. State Department's Art in Embassies program for display in the U.S. Embassy residence in Tel Aviv, Isreal. Her paintings have also appeared in Seattle venues including metro bus banners, storefronts, theater stages, museums and galleries, as well as in more than more than 70 juried exhibitions. Marilyn and her husband Gerald Webberley, a retired Boeing engineer who grew up in Washougal, now live in Kirkland. Marilyn is part of the well-known Farrell family, who owned the Farrell and Eddy Department Store in downtown Camas. Webberley is the featured artist this month at Ballard & Call in downtown Camas. She will be at the art gallery, located at 408 N.E. Fourth Ave., on Friday for an artist's reception from 5 to 8 p.m.. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 817-2415.

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