Alva Review-Courier -

From her earliest years, Amber Andersen has been focused on art. She started "pretty much as early as I could hold a pencil. Coloring, drawing, painting was all a very natural thing for me as a kid, and it's what I craved to do."

Andersen grew up in Prague, Oklahoma, and currently lives in Woodward. "I was encouraged by my grandmother who is also an artist," she said. "She cared for me after school, and she lived in rural Prague, Oklahoma. We were surrounded by the woods and creek there, and often I would spend my days after school wandering in the woods and discovering all the life that surrounded us there. That's where I draw a lot of my inspiration from."

Her early years were infused with art. "I took every art class that I could throughout school," Andersen said. "In high school almost every class I took my senior year was an art class." College at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, followed. However, Andersen dropped out her junior year to get married and start a family.

"From there I spent what little time I could on painting and drawing," she said. "One day I picked up some watercolors that were on clearance at an art supply store, and they soon thereafter became my favorite medium. I love being able to use the different techniques and how to just get full beautiful colors and effects from them. I really have fallen in love with them. They are currently the medium I use the most."

Andersen says she has three children, two on earth and one in heaven. "Having children has a great impact on that (watercolors) because they're a great medium to pick up and put down," she said. "Speaking of children, they're another great inspiration for my work. I have faced a lot of tragedy in my life as a mother, and I often try to represent overcoming that in the life and death cycle of nature in my work."

Andersen continues to surround herself with art. "I am currently the gallery director at Larry K. Hill Studios in Woodward where I put on lots of events and ask artists to exhibit. We host classes and all kinds of fun things there," she said.

Andersen's beautifully detailed studies of nature and wildlife are on display in this month's exhibits at Graceful Arts Gallery in Alva.