Gail Wells-Hess
Biography
Gail
Wells-Hess is a Portland, Oregon-based artist and creator of the Gail ®
“Walk This World” brand, which licenses products based on the
art of Ms. Wells-Hess. Wells-Hess is well known for her European and
American plein air Impressionistic oil and pastel paintings.
Wells-Hess
has several licensing agreements with distributors and manufacturers.
Wells-Hess began to achieve commercial success from her paintings
in 1997 when she was contacted by a greeting card company interested in
publishing a line of her handmade Christmas cards, which had been loved by
family and friends. This was the genesis for Gail ®
“Walk this World”.
In
addition to her commercial success, Wells-Hess has achieved a great deal
of recognition within the fine art community. Her work is represented in
galleries through-out the United States — including the Seattle Art
Museum. A graphic designer by
trade, she has studied painting at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, an
art school and studio on the Oregon coast, The Cape Cod School of Art in
Massachusetts, and the School of Light and Color in California. She has
had the honor to paint with world-renowned watercolorist Michael
Schlicting and Carol Riley, an acclaimed Oregon still-life painter.
Wells-Hess has a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of
Oregon.
Wells-Hess
found her artistic calling under the tutelage of Lois Griffel, the third
director of the 102-year-old Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown,
Mass. The school was founded in 1899 by American Impressionist Charles
Hawthorne. The Cape Cod School of Art is one of few schools in the United
States where artists are taught to see and paint color in the way Monet
discovered. Wells-Hess has applied her skills to locations throughout the
world, including at Monet’s Giverney Estate near Paris. She continues to
get her inspiration for her work from travels at home and abroad.
