April Solomon

April was born and raised in Laguna Beach California; she now lives in Abbotsford British Columbia with her husband Branden.
Sitting in our favorite Japanese bistro "Mars" on a Thursday night if April doesn't have her sketchbook she is doodling on a napkin. Napkins are not her medium of choice, heavy colored paper and colored pencils dominate her work. She likes graphite pencil, dabbles with pens, acrylic paint and is interested in oil for the future.
Her boss at the Clearbrook Decorating Center must love her; he is letting her paint a mural on his interior walls, she is learning new techniques as she goes. "Trompe l'oeil" is French for fool the eye, and your eye is fooled by the brickwork going up the column that leads to the fountain and on.
April has been in Abbotsford since 2005 and has five murals painted in both public and private spaces. Besides the one at her work there is "The European Day Spa" and Centennial Pool, the Whalers swim team logo, that can be viewed publicly. Her work is detailed and intricate.
April is inspired by textures in nature, tree bark, bones, fur, and ferns, to name a few. She merges creatures, lions with snakes creating new creature textures along with their anatomy. Her motivation is to be the very best that she can be. To make art that looks so real, to achieve heaven with the perfect art piece.
When asked what her greatest achievement is she carefully thought and described an art class in prospective. Her teacher would put a big red stamp in the middle of your project "Do Over" if he didn't like the way you did the assignment. You could not fix it you had to do it over. The project was on vellum 2'x2' and you had to write out details on how to draw a perfect square and make it all fit inside the square using a T-square with perfection on each letter. It was the first project in that class and she didn't think she could do it, she broke down and cried and stayed up till 5 or 6 in the am. A week later she learned she archived an A plus on her work, in the past she could have walked away from something she didn't think she could do, but this she had to overcome and it strengthened her.
Words of wisdom; "Know what your wants and needs are"