We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pamela Ramey Tatum. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pamela below.

Pamela, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Well, my mother and her uncle were artists, so I believe it was in my blood. I was very into drawing and especially loved to draw faces. Then I had a fantastic 9th grade art teacher, Dr. Van, and he turned me on to color–I’ve never been into graphite since! I attended a Commercial Art program in high school–only 24 students were selected out of a few hundred who took an art aptitude test. The 24 were split into two groups, morning and afternoon. I studied art for 4 hours, 5-days a week with 11 others and I learned so much. I loved the first year because it was a lot of drawing and painting. But then it was about designing fabric, wall paper, advertisement posters. These type of projects didn’t interest me. I realized that I had the soul of a fine artist. It was a long and circuitous journey though before I was able to pursue art full time.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In college I studied English and theater. My love for art was always there but back then I chose to focus on English and theater because literature, writing and theater were my loves as wellI, and teaching English seemed like a clearer career path. I did spend a semester in France studying French. I was not too far from Paris, so of course, I spent almost all my free time at the Louvre, the Museum D’Orsay (my favorite), the Picasso museum, and so many others.

I earned a Master’s degree in English and taught and ran programs at the University of Central Florida for almost a decade. During these years I was taking art classes, painting and entering art shows occasionally when I could fit it in. When I traveled in Europe for a year, I was doing watercolor paintings in my hotel or out in the street. I lived in India for a school year. I was at a school there as Academic Director, English teacher, and theater teacher/director, but I somehow I found time to also take silk painting and block printing classes.

When I returned to the states early 2000’s, I opened an art gallery/yoga studio in College Park area of Orlando, but that wasn’t the best for my art because I hardly had time to paint because just running the place took all my time! It was like two full-time jobs!

I was able to came back to my art more seriously in 2006. I had completed a life coaching program and in 2005 I was enjoying giving talks, coaching, and teaching, and I was doing my art as well. I kept this balance for a while but in 2009 I contacted Robert Dorman, an amazing artist I admired and asked him to mentor me. He did! I had an easel at his studio and we’d paint together. He taught me so much. He taught me a lot about how to make art into a business. So by using what my mentor taught me and my own coaching skills, in 2014 my art had taken over my life quite organically really. I could see that my art deserved 100% of my attention. It had proven worthy.

I remember in my last newsletter as a coach, I wrote,” This is my last newsletter because I actually have coached myself into a full-time art career.” By then, I was in a couple of galleries, doing shows, selling and doing a lot of commissions, and I knew that it was time to focus 100% of my energy on my art.

One of the galleries I’ve been with since 2012 is The Hub on Canal in New Smyrna Beach, where I have a studio. I can work, meet people, and that has really made a lot of difference for me. I have gotten to know so many people, and collectors come back year after year to make purchases from me.

After being asked repeatedly for a couple years, I finally started teaching art in the community in 2014 I am a natural born teacher and I love it. It keeps me on my toes and makes me also want to keep learning, taking workshops myself so I can bring new new ideas and techniques back to my students.

As far as mediums and subject matter, well, early on I realized I was never going to be that kind of artist who did one thing my entire career. I get bored too easily. I like to learn new things and try new things frequently!

So I first focused on acrylic and then switched to dry brush watercolor. But in 2008 I switched to oil which kept me happy for a long time. In 2012 I started painting with a palette knife, creating paintings with lots of texture. I began doing rainy day city scenes with people and always lovers under umbrellas. These gained a lot of popularity, and I became known as “The Umbrella Lady.” I also did a series of Umbrella Girls, women under umbrellas in various fun, often abstracted backgrounds. These were popular, too. In addition to these I’ve always done a lot of commissions, and often portrait commissions. My largest and most expensive one was a $10,000, 3 ft x 5ft, painting of three sisters (full bodies) on the beach. I had to buy a new easel to do this painting!

During the pandemic I began experimenting with doing abstract seascapes and these were a lot of fun. I found that painting from memory was better for keeping looser and more abstract because if I use photos, my tendency is to paint the detail!

In 2022 I participated in an exhibition called, “Works on Paper.” So I did a media piece, a floral using collage and acrylic and incorporated one of my poems into it. Collage was something I’d studied and dabbled in 10 years before and even won an award for one piece. Back then I thought I liked oil better so I stopped doing collage. But when I did this piece two years ago, I fell in love with it and I’ve kept doing collages and learning more about the many different techniques.

Although I still love oil and do oil paintings, I am also into multimedia, using collage and paint together. I’m loving the playful and experimental aspect of it. I’m deliriously happy creating my own gorgeous papers, with so many different textures and patterns… Also I love that I can recycle old papers and books, use all sorts of items in my house… it’s very exciting.

It’s been an amazing journey!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect is joy! And it’s a circle of JOY: First it’s the joy I experience while creating; then the joy others receive from my art; and coming full circle, there’s the joy I receive from people loving and appreciating my art. Few moments are more special, professionally, than seeing people tear up with joy at their commission piece because I’ve captured their loved one–human or pet–their favorite vacation spot, a special memory… whatever they want. To deliver that kind of joy is hugely rewarding.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Art for me is a way of self-expression, and that’s my goal, has always been my goal with it is just to express my heart, my connection with life, through my creations and in the process touch others.

Creating art is my passion, and every day that I get to create, is a joyful day for me. When I’m in the FLOW, the art is really coming through me. I’m allowing it to unfold.

As Renoir said, “There is so much pain and ugliness in the world, I just want to create beauty.” That’s really how I feel. I’m trying to capture the beauty I see in a person, an animal, or scene–real or imagined. And it’s always back to joy. When I share the beauty I see with others, they can feel that joy as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pamelarameytatum.com
• Instagram: Pamela Ramey Taum
• Facebook: Pamela Ramey Tatum-Fine Artist
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zABq93Jpr8Q