Mother and Daughter Artists – Alta B. Godwin & Karen Rappleye are featured at Port Gardner Bay Winery Gallery Summer/Fall 2023.
Alta B. Godwin – Alta was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she worked for Mountain Bell as a telephone operator and maintenance administrator for 33 years. After retiring she moved to Southern Utah, with her husband, Orville Godwin, where they participated in archaeological digs with the local college, were campground hosts, and shared many outdoor adventures with visiting family and friends.
They moved to Washington in 2006 to be closer to daughter, Karen Rappleye. In 2007, at the age of seventy-five, after her husband passed away, she started taking her first art lessons (pastel) in Snohomish, WA. For many years she continued these lessons and honed her impressive artistic talent. Her pastel art has been displayed in many local art walks, local shows and one of her pieces was accepted and shown in an international art show.
In 2016 she and her daughter started taking watercolor lessons together at a local senior center. At first, she was not sure if watercolor was for her, since this medium proved to be so different from pastels. However, after a few lessons, she was able to improve and enjoy watercolor painting. In 2019 she won a first-place ribbon at a local senior center art show for one of her paintings, and a reproduction of one of her paintings is currently on display at a utility box in Mill Creek, WA. Feel free to visit Alta’s website at https://www.altagodwin.com/ or contact her at Alta.godwin@comcast.net.
Karen Rappleye – Karen was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She moved to Everett, WA in 1994 with her husband, Dean Rappleye and their two daughters. She retired in 2016 from Kongsberg Underwater Technology, Inc. where she worked as Finance Manager. Busy with working and raising a family, there was not much time for exploring art. When she retired, she and her mother, Alta Godwin, started taking watercolor lessons together at a local senior center.
The first few lessons were a challenge, but eventually, with tenacity and daily practice, her watercolor skills developed substantially. She was awarded one first place ribbon and two second place ribbons in the local senior center art show and had one painting on display at a local hospital art show. In 2019, she was asked to teach the watercolor class at the Mill Creek senior center. With much thought and consideration, she agreed to teach this class for one year.
After that year, she planned to evaluate whether she would continue teaching and, in the spring of 2020, the classes were halted due to the pandemic. When the classes resumed, she opted to stop teaching, but continues to take watercolor classes and paint frequently at home. She also explores other artistic media such as mosaics and glass art. Karen can be reached at Kbrappleye@aol.com or 425-330-6690.
