About Jean

Jean Grastorf, AWS, NWS, TWSA is a graduate of The Rochester Institute of
Technology with further studies at the School of Ceramics at Alfred, NY. She is
an elected member of numerous watercolor societies. She has served on the
Board of Directors of the American Watercolor Society as well as the Jury of
Submissions and Jury of Awards. Her work  appears in watercolor books and
magazines and she is the author of "Pouring Light, Layering Transparent
Watercolor" which was released in November 2005 by North Light.

Among her awards are the Don Dennis Memorial,  the Walser Greathouse
Medal and the Elsie and David Wu Ject -Key Award from the AWS. Also the
Gold Award from the Florida Watercolor Society, the First Award from the
Southern Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society. She is
represented in the permanent collections of Florida International University, the
National Watercolor Society, Tropicana Corporation,  Raymond James Financial
Corporation and the Neville Public Museum of Brown County.

Often retained as a juror and lecturer, Jean has taught for watercolor societies
throughout the country including Alaska and Hawaii and overseas in Greece and
the Carribean for the University at Sea.

Jean is participating in the "First Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary International Watermedia Masters" in Nanjing China in 2007

In her workshop, Jean demonstrates the use of poured watercolor washes to
create the illusion of light falling on, through and around objects, while at the
same time retaining the beauty of the white paper. She creates new and exciting
ways to approach the art of watercolor, demonstrating new ways of balancing
“chaos” and “control”.