Claire Morang Milne Biography: My first training in the drawing and painting flowers and plants was through a course in Botanical illustration given by the New York Botanical Gardens. At that time I was secretary to the gardening editor of the “American Home” magazine, who encouraged my efforts. Then, settling in Santa Fe after marriage, I had the good fortune to have been accepted by Alfred Morang, a well-known painter, art critic and author, whose Morang School of the Fine Arts attracted students from all over the country. I am grateful for the thorough grounding Alfred Morang provided me in the basics of watercolor technique, starting with the basic color perception and the influence of one color on another in a painting, which stemmed from his own Impressionist paintings.

  We had to leave Santa Fe, however, when my husband was posted to Europe. But Alfred Morang devised a system for keeping up his teaching. Whether in Paris or in Vienna, I enrolled in the drawing and sketching classes available, and sent drawings and paintings made in the classes to Alfred. He would correct and comment on them and send them back. We continued this long-distance teacher-student relationship until his tragic death in 1958. I am deeply indebted to Alfred Morang forever.

  Now, my studio is in California (see picture), and in the spring, during times and places when wildfires do not ravage the hillsides, California poppies and a myriad of wildflowers cover the hills. There is so much beauty in our hillsides and meadows, and I am trying o capture these lovely flowers, in orange and yellow and rose and purple and blue, with my watercolors and offer them to others to enjoy.