Biography

Floy Zittin’s Biography
Floy Zittin was born in 1948 in Houston, Texas and grew up in southern Ohio. She has been fascinated with both drawing and  nature studies since childhood.  Floy majored in biology in Carleton College, MN, and became interested in watercolor painting and Asian art during a summer program in Japan. Her Master’s thesis in marine biology from University of the Pacific required learning scientific illustration techniques and this led to a career as a biological illustrator.  She has worked on several textbooks and spent ten years creating illustrations of amphipods for the National Museum of Natural Sciences of Canada. Floy’s husband’s studies took her to British Columbia where, for a time, she lived in an isolated fishing village and perfected her watercolor techniques by working on portraits of fish for fishery biologists.  After returning to California in 1983, Floy became active in the art community of the Bay Area.  Her paintings have won numerous awards in national shows and have been accepted twice into the prestigious “Birds in Art” exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin

“In my paintings I want to convey my excitement, understanding, and appreciation of the natural world.  As I continue to learn about local flora and fauna I strive to express something of the character of an animal as well as to create a poetic mood by taking advantage of the unpredictability of the watercolor medium. I hope my paintings will bring attention to local wildlife and increase appreciation for our remaining open spaces.”

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If you’d like to stay current with Floy’s upcoming shows and workshops, please make sure to join the mailing list.  You can join by scrolling to the form in the black area at the bottom of this page.  You’ll only receive emails about Floy’s art or classes and on average she sends about four emails a year.