After a Detour, Pamela Hunt Found Her Way Back to Art

As a sickly child, new Anderson Artists Guild member Pamela Hunt spent a lot of time indoors by herself. She would draw paper dolls and their clothes, and she loved the watercolor illustrations in the Dick and Jane readers. When she graduated high school, she intended to major in textile design at an art school in Virginia, but her parents instead convinced her to attend Mercer University in Atlanta, from which she graduated with a more practical business degree.

She worked as an accountant and in the business office of a doctor’s office. “I did not enjoy that kind of work,” she said. “I did it because I had to.” She later worked for the Gwinnett County School System as an information specialist, a much better fit. “I loved that job,” she said. “I got to interact with the kids, and it was not as supervised as other places I worked. They just let me do my job.”

She also volunteered with the Atlanta Artists Center and the Georgia Watercolor Society, which also employed her as a temporary secretary at one point. “I got to meet people and do classes,” she said. “It was fulfilling artistically.”

After a divorce, Hunt met her second husband on an online art website. He’s a commercial illustrator from Canada. “He’s much more experienced as an artist than I am,” she said. “He’s helped me so much in my work and on my journey with art.” He retired from commercial illustration and now enjoys oil painting. They moved to Anderson in 2014 to be near family.

Though she does a lot of representational commissions, Hunt’s passion is abstract watercolor landscapes. “I’m always drawn to color and mixing color,” she said. “Watercolor does that for me—the blending and running into one another and creating color inspires me.”

Having downsized to a small apartment, Hunt works in a small area of her bedroom, usually on a half sheet of watercolor paper. Often, she completes several thumbnails that she tapes next to her drawing board. “I finished a three-piece set this morning of marsh birds,” she said. “I drew those out for feather placement. Usually, it’s just a light sketch with pencils.”

For more information about Hunt, visit https://www.pamelahunt.net.