Growing up in Placerville, a small northern California town, as a child Kelly Simpson Hagen learned to paint on weekend visits with her paternal grandmother. And, she has been creating art ever since.  
Moving to Portland, Oregon, after college graduation, Kelly started her first grade teaching career at the same time she started a self-described unhealthy romantic relationship. “It turned my world upside down, and after years of stress my body shut down, literally. At this time, I thought my teaching career and ability to paint were over. When I had a flare up, it affected my entire right side, rendering me unable to walk or move, so painting wasn’t an option, which made it that much more frustrating.”

Brazilian born and raised, Rio de Janeiro artist Georgia Lôbo is comfortably in tune with the natural world she gently expresses through her art. At age 55, she looks as if she could still be majoring in her chosen field of industrial design, “I graduated in 1987 but never worked with it.”  

Georgia always loved drawing and color, “but I had many relationship problems with my mother, so during a long time, the only thing I hoped for was to run away from my house. I started as a flight attendant with Varig Airlines in 1989, not liking the career but staying 10 years.”

Ladies, raise your wine glasses in salute to Jill Haney Neal, our June issue Cover Artist who’s whimsical, bodacious babes have graced a variety of artworks including paintings, wine labels, coffee mugs and Pink and Paisley’s October 2016 magazine covers: Welcome back, Jill!

Jill believes women were created in God’s image with a universal spirit and are equally loved regardless of size, ethnicity, or background. “There is an edginess to my art and from what I’ve been told, I’m still breaking barriers. When you get women together, they are funny and sexy, it’s just part of our essence.” 

About the Cover Artist
Ellen Brenneman

Ellen Brenneman For as long as she can remember, Ellen Brenneman of South Bend, Indiana has been in love with nature. As a child, Ellen could be found doodling and drawing animals under the cherry tree in her backyard, while carrying on lengthy conversations with the squirrels and birds. Her doodling turned into a vast love of art, which continued through her teen years and into college where she studied graphic design in Muncie, Indiana at Ball State University.

Artist Carolee Clark’s passion for what she creates is so profound it is invariably translated in one-of-a-kind pieces that are her own treasures. Born with a paintbrush in her hand, Carolee’s mother was her inspiration to become an artist from very early on.

“My mother always enjoyed painting and she would encourage me and my sisters to draw while she set up her easel. I’ve been drawing as far back as I can remember, but when I was 20, my mother gave me a small set of watercolors, and I was hooked. They unlocked a world of color for me,” she said.

Shawna Erback is a Canadian artist who has loyal collectors of her work from around the world. Her art is featured in galleries, gift shops and on the walls of celebrity clients. Her art works can be found on TV and movie sets, licensed products and in the homes and offices of tens of thousands of private collectors.

Shawna started painting when she was a child, but her journey to becoming a professional artist began during Christmas of 2003, a month after the death of her father. Her collectors have followed the journey of a little girl through fantastical fields and forests, past sad and lonely moons, on the backs of giant turtles and fairy peacocks. They have met her special friends, like her faithful heart pet, grand giraffes and majestic lions.

Trish Biddle

Trish Biddle grew up in Minnesota in the world of art, alongside her mother, who enrolled her in every art class and contest, in which she would usually come in second place. This made her work even harder. On her own, she moved to Dallas fresh out of high school, ultimately graduating from the Dallas Institute of Art.

Pursuing her artistic dream, Trish secured a job as a textile designer and a fashion illustrator for a clothing manufacturer. She later moved to the J.C. Penney home office in the design department. After several years in the corporate world, she decided it wasn’t for her, so she went to work as a freelance artist. She was signed by a textile agent in New York City and continued to freelance for several years. 

Ilene Robinette

Growing up in rural Wisconsin, Ilene Robinette loved her Barbie dolls. “I especially adored the inside catalog small illustrations I found packaged with Barbie’s outfits. I wanted her glamorous city life, too, which was a far cry from my little girl life in Wisconsin!”

By age 10, Ilene knew she wanted a career as a fashion illustrator. Always drawing women figures and models, at age 18, she chose the Ray Vogue Art School in Chicago, where she learned to draw fashion. After graduation, in the mid-1970s Ilene worked in department store retail advertising in the Chicago Loop. “It was a good place to start as I got to draw all fashion ads.” Next in 1974, she landed a fashion illustrator position at Chas A. Stevens & Sons, a well-known women’s clothing store. “My ads were featured in the Chicago Tribune, various magazines and other publications. It was a big deal for me, and I loved that job.” As an apprentice illustrator she drew from models. Ilene also gained expertise with art forms other illustrators had no desire to draw. “I drew accessories such as jewelry, shoes, scarves, cosmetic bottles and sunglasses, so I became good at that, too!” This led her to becoming head illustrator. She worked until 1981 in Stevens visual merchandising department and fashion office developing the right “look and attitude” for garments and ads.

Lanier Bradberry

Originally born in Dunwoody, GA, moving about every nine months, and attending more than 14 schools, Lanier Bradberry was used to an ever changing life on the go. With so much change it was hard to grasp on to a hometown, or a steady friend group, but Lanier found her outlet—art.

“Art has always been a constant for me. I started painting when I was six, and I’ve never stopped,” Lanier expressed. One of her first memories of painting was in an old barn in Georgia when she was 6 years old. Lanier has lived on Hilton Head Island, the place she officially calls home, for the past seven years with her parents and four sisters. She graduated from Hilton Head Island High School in 2018 and now attends Technical College of the Lowcountry. She is working toward her associates degree in the arts and looking forward to possibly continuing her education in the study of psychology to become a therapist.

Amine Badr

Artist Amine Badr moved to America with the intention of making a living doing what he loves—painting. It was his Uncle Aziz Kadmiri, a successful Atlanta-based artist and two-time Pink Magazine cover artist, who encouraged Amine to leave Europe to pursue art full time. It is harder in Europe where new artists still compete with the residual elite art mentality that remains virtually governed by the era of world-renown masters such as Picasso and Monet.

Like her art, Donna Barnako is a multi-faceted lady. Her abstract style, filled with a menagerie of color palettes, is a direct reflection of the artist, herself. She is both serious and whimsical, gentle and tough, experienced and innocent. Being a former French translator in Brussels and having a big career as a health care lobbyist in DC afforded Donna many things, but a creative, artistic outlet wasn’t one of them. Nonetheless, she did that on her own, and with a full head of knowledge turned her craft into business, as well.

She owned a yarn shop for 15 years to share her love of knitting and fine, exotic yarns with those who shared her passion. “I took groups on knitting tours around the world. We could be in Ireland or somewhere in the world and all be on the tour bus knitting as we traveled to our next stop.”

“Wow look at that one,” the girl exclaimed while making her way through the charming SOBA gallery in downtown Bluffton. She had been walking around the featured artist room when finally, her eyes fixated on the painting hanging across from her, “The Reader,” making it clear the painting captured more than just our attention at Pink Magazine.

For Nelson Boren, cover artist at Pink Magazine, this is not his first rodeo. The Utah-based artist contributed the February 2009 Pink cover, the only cover that doesn’t feature a female. While Nelson has been involved in creating art since he was a child, he became a full-time artist in the 1990s and has explored painting ever since.

A professional art career came late to Peter O’Neill, but in truth, it was close to not coming at all. After two failed marriages and a botched suicide attempt, Peter O’Neill felt he had nothing and found himself in a New Jersey hospital hopelessly despondent and in treatment for acute depression. Then something clicked within him. He looked around at the others with truly severe mental impairments and realized he did not belong where he was. He checked out of the hospital and literally, checked himself back into life.

In the town of Lake City, SC, Baker’s Sweets cafe and bakery sits on Main Street, and during this small, rejuvenated town’s 9-day long art festival, Artfields, it’s hard to get a seat. This bustling spot is one of the many store fronts that displays the more than 400 works of juried art, which plays host to thousands of visitors who come from far and wide to take in the festival. This month’s cover piece was one of this year’s entries in the prestigious Artfield’s event and not only caught our Publisher Elizabeth Millen’s eye, but also her heart.

“I was at Baker’s Sweets trying not to eat cake when I saw this painting. I leaped from my chair and ran over to gawk. In an instant, I was fully immersed in memories of my days riding my bike at the beach. I was so touched by this painting and instantly connected with its subject. And, the painting itself is masterful, stunning. I loved everything about it!” said Elizabeth.