On the collaboration:

Three Seattle-based artists, Cynthia Yatchman, Peg Murphy, and Kim Bateman are part of a longstanding group, naming themselves "The Portrait Collective.” For years they met weekly and drew each other, still life, landscapes, all things and non-things. During the worst of the Covid times, the threesome disbanded temporarily. Instead, they did collaborative drawing via the US Postal Service: one of the three would start with a drawing on paper and then mail it off to the second artist, who then added in her own artwork. This round-robin approach of drawing continued until the group thought the artwork was finished.

Cynthia Yatchman is a Seattle-based artist and art instructor. A former ceramicist, she received her B.F.A. in painting (UW). She switched from 3D to 2D and has remained there ever since. She works primarily on paintings, prints and collages. Her art is housed in numerous public and private collections. She has exhibited on both coasts, extensively in the Northwest, including shows at Seattle University, SPU, Shoreline Community College, the Tacoma and Seattle Convention Centers and the Pacific Science Center. She is  a member of the Seattle Print Art Association, Puget Sound Painters of the Northwest.

Peggy Murphy is a resident of Seattle Washington. She received a BFA from the University of Washington where she studied painting and printmaking. Her work is influenced by gestural abstraction, surrealism and often references nature, biology and landscape. Her work has been shown at Artswest, Phinney Center, Pratt Gallery, Design Center and numerous gallery spaces in Seattle.

KJ Bateman started out in Washington, D.C. After stops in Colorado, Germany, Pennsylvania and California, she ended up here in the other Washington. She holds a B.F.A from the University of Southern California and a M.F.A from the University of Washington where she studied under Jacob Lawrence. She has exhibited at the Whatcom Museum, CoCA, Seattle Design Center, Bellevue Art Museum, and Theater Schmeater and has work in public collections in Shoreline, Auburn and Kent. Using oils, acrylic and mixed media, she explores the details of life in her quirky expressionistic style.