Wendy Layne often dreamed of becoming an artist when she was a child. But as an adult she became a wife and mother of five children and held a career in information technology. Throughout her life raising children she would dabble in arts and crafts but it wasn’t until September of 2014 when her two youngest daughters were teenagers that she began to draw with colored pencils. Drawing became her passion and her desire to create hyper-realistic colored pencil drawings drove her to improve her skills. By the fall of 2016 she left her job in IT to pursue art as a career.

Over the years Wendy has combined her drawing skills with her natural ability to see color and began creating artwork in a variety of mediums including oil, acrylic, casein, watercolor and pastel. She enjoys the way each medium allows her to depict her subjects in very unique ways. The majority of Wendy’s art depicts portraits of people from all walks of life using reference photos she has taken from her trips to countries around the world. She describes her goal as an attempt to convey the many stories that are revealed through the lines and crevices of the face of her subject or perhaps just the sparkle of the individuals eyes.

As an award winning artist, Wendy’s art has been exhibited across the country as well as being included in books and magazines. She spends most of her time in her studio creating but she is also actively engaged in teaching workshops both in person throughout the country and through streaming workshops online including how to draw realistic portraits in colored pencil. Her workshops are sponsored by Faber Castell and Legion Paper. Wendy says her desire is to spend the rest of her life deeply immersed in the art community inspiring fellow artists and art enthusiasts along the way.