"We live in such a foggy, gray winter that I am always looking for the light," says Muren, a Keizer-based watercolor artist.  

Muren, whose watercolor subjects include landscapes, still lifes, and flowers, seeks to use light to illuminate our lives.  

"I hear the news and it's all bad news. I feel like if you can put something happy up on your wall and look at it, maybe it will give you a little boost when you go out the door."

Nancy Muren's first taste of artistic success came at the age of six, when she won a K-8 art contest at her school, and she has been drawing ever since. She graduated from the University of Oregon with an emphasis on fine art. For the next several years she focused on book illustrations so she could work from home while raising her four children. Now that her children are grown, Muren has increased time to devote to her art.

Muren prefers to work in watercolors in part because she enjoys the technical challenge of layering pigments to create an image. She is not constrained in her choice of subjects by what might sell.  However, about seven years ago she inadvertently discovered a commercial outlet through an exercise meant to alter the way she painted.  

"I was more of an illustrator.  I wanted to loosen up my watercolor style, so I started doing paintings of cats."  

She put the cat paintings on cards, and the cards sold.  She put them in books, and the books sold.  
Muren finds ideas for subjects by driving around the countryside.  "I notice how the light is affecting the subject."  

She stops to take photographs whenever she spies something that strikes her.  

A typical painting takes a day to draw, and two to three days to paint.  

"It's hard to sit down and put that first piece of water on the paper,"  Muren says. "Every painting has a point where it looks terrible."  

Muren has taught art to students for the past six years through the Salem Art Association's partnership with K-12 schools in Marion, Polk, and Yamhill counties.  As an Artist in Residence, she responds to teacher requests to design and teach art projects:  anything from watercolor basics to making piñatas.

Muren also teaches watercolor painting at the Art Department, located in downtown Salem, and has openings for new students.  "Anybody can be taught to do art," she said.  

Muren's work can be seen at the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem, as well as on her Web site: nancymuren.net.  
Muren will have work at the Salem Art Association's Holiday Show, which runs from November 9 through December 31 at the Bush Barn Art Center.