When Monica Edwards was young, her parents would ship her off to California to spend summers with her cousin. “What I remember most was driving to Orange County from LAX, my nose pressed against the window of the olive-green Buick, gazing at a hazy orange sunset with the dark silhouettes of palm trees whizzing by like a wind-up panorama box,” she recalls.

Edwards was born in Argentina in 1962 and moved with her family to the U.S. in 1965. Since both her parents were doctors, she planned to follow in their footsteps, “but I fell in love with illustration during my biology classes and never looked back,” she says.

Over the years, Edwards has created illustrations for the Cabrillo Marine Museum, for children's books, medical filmstrips and litigation graphics, and worked for 14 years in the newsroom of the Orange County Register illustrating for the daily newspaper.

After leaving the newspaper, she decided to live some dream jobs and became, variously, an animal wrangler at Disneyland, a park attendant at the Orange County Zoo, a flight attendant, a park ranger and an Alaskan tour guide. But she ultimately found her way back to her true calling: art.

“My life truly hit its course in 2000 when a friend bought me a French easel and I began plein air painting,” she says. “The landscapes, ecosystems and cultures of Orange County are my muses.”

Today, from her home in Silverado Canyon, Edwards devotes herself full time to painting, including exhibiting at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach and leading plein air painting activities for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy and OC Parks. Visit her there, or online at MonicaEdwardsArts.com

Mary Platt, Director


Image:
Monica Edwards
"Family Day at the Beach"
2019
Oil on canvas
Collection of Tonnie Katz