Deborah Bays has been blessed with a life in the Arts. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1951 and spent her early years in the formal study of music, playing violin and viola. In college, her focus shifted to her first love, that of making visual art. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Costume Design for the Theater at the University of Texas at Austin then went on to complete a Master of Arts in Scenography at Purdue University. She settled in Denver and for two and a half decades designed costumes and sets for Regional Repertory Theater, The Hong Kong Repertory Theater, The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Harrah’s, Off Broadway and Public Television.

After so many years of making art as a member of a team, she longed for a more personal expression. This led her to study drawing and painting with many fine artists and teachers at the Art Student’s League of Denver. While she still has a passion for both theater and music, nothing has proved as profound a challenge or as rewarding as painting. Her favorite medium is pastel and her favorite subject is light revealing form and conversely, form revealing light.

Her work has been featured in Southwest Art, Colorado Expression and The Pastel Journal where she received The Pastel Journal Grand Prize Award in the 2004 Pastel 100. One of her paintings will also be included in a new book published by North Light Books, Pure Color: The Best of Pastel. Currently her work is represented by galleries on both coasts as well as in Colorado.