Irene McCoy grew up and attended school in Heron Lake, Minnesota. She is a wife, mother and grandmother who enjoys gardening, cooking, singing and of course painting. She is a largely self taught artist, having studied oil and watercolor painting briefly at Worthington Community College. Over the years she has taken numerous workshops with artists including Cheng Kee Chee and Zoltan Tzabo as well as local instructors. She and her husband Jim spent their early years living and working in Windom, Minnesota where they were both involved with the “Miss Windom Pageant Association: as well as various other organizations.

In 1986 the McCoys moved to Steinbach Manitoba. While living in Canada Irene enrolled in CSF School of Art and received her certificate in 1988.She continued to paint and sell her work there until moving to Belgium in 1989.There she had the opportunity to study and work in an atelier in Abby Tongerlo, Belgium with a group of about 40 painters. During this time she exhibited with the group, and had a solo exhibit in Herentals, Belgium.

Although now mainly a pastel and watercolor artist, Irene has also worked in oils. Her subjects have ranged from portraits and figurative works to the landscapes which she presently paints. She finds pastel to be a more versatile, forgiving medium than watercolor, and loves the range and purity of the pigments, describing her technique as “drawing with pure color”. She enjoys the landscape very much, but would also like to re-explore figurative painting again, since she believes that when you stop experimenting and learning you are just existing, not living fully.

Irene is involved in several area arts associations, including the Spencer Area Arts Council, Iowa Artists, Artisans Road Trip and O’Brien County Art Club. She is a member of Pearson Lakes Art Center and Artslive. Currently her work is available at “A Piece Of Work, Inc.” in Spirit Lake and “FrameWerks” in Spencer.