Painting is passion, meditation, therapy.
A Painter since her childhood on Long Island, Dee McBrien-Lee spent several years of college studying Fine Art at SUNY New Paltz and graduated with a major in Psychology and minor in Fine Arts and Women's Studies. Shortly after college, she moved to Colorado and has spent most of her adult life in the west. A career in Sales & Marketing in the Resort business lasted into the early 2000's when she once again began to find time to explore her art. Western and Americana style paintings with an emphasis on horses was the primary focus for McBrien-Lee's early work. In 2007, Dee and her husband Jay moved to Bend where the art community was vibrant but without many opportunities for an emerging artist. In 2010 Dee became a founding Partner and Artist at the Red Chair Gallery in Downtown Bend and remained with the Gallery through 2018.
Evolution for this artist began with a feeling of restlessness in 2012. With a passion for and interest in moving towards abstract art, McBrien-Lee began to take classes and workshops which enabled her to break out of the self imposed boundaries of the Americana style she had been working in. Since that time, she has focused solely on various forms of abstract painting utilizing acrylic and mixed media. She occasionally adds collage to her work and paints both representational and non-representational abstracts.