Featured Artist

Every two months, a member is chosen as a Featured Artist. A selection of their works is hung on the wall upstairs in the Coos Art Museum on a wall set aside for BAAA.

The Featured Artist for October and November 2025 is Lora Boomer.

My Bio

I grew up in Merced, California but my life has taken me to many States and Countries. I have always loved to draw and create resin earrings, ribbon embroidery, solid stitch embroidery, ceramics, etc.

Life has taken me on many roads. I attended both Merced County College and Foothill College in Palo Alto College but that was in the evening time after work. I married the first time in 1963, divorced in 1973 and that is the year I started working at Farmers Insurance in Merced. Farmers Insurance moved me from Merced, Concord and eventually Richmond from where I retired as a Claims Associate Supervisor in 1995.

I had always loved Oregon with all the beauty of the mountains, rivers and of course the ocean, etc. so in 2001 I moved into a new life with a new husband (but a old friend) Jake Boomer. That is when I really had the time to really get into working on things I loved to do, have made many quilts, taught Ribbon Embroidery, painting ceramics but something was missing. I wanted to learn to do paintings in oil.

So April 9th, 2024 my 82nd birthday present to myself was to join Carol Howell's Art Studio in Myrtle Point. I started out just drawing and Carol checking it over and showing me what I had done, what was good and what wasn't.

Then came painting. In a couple of months I wanted to try to paint a picture of my brother, I finished it and decided to put it and some other paintings I had done in our Coos County yearly fair. The first day of the fair's opening, of course ,I had to go down and see what the judges thought of my paintings.

I had won several blue ribbons and on the painting of my brother was a blue ribbon and another ribbon that I didn't really pay attention to, I was so happy with the blue ribbons . An artist friend said "Lora you didn't just win a blue ribbon you won the Best of Show ribbon, over all the paintings here."

Of course that made my day and since then I have painted and entered many more paintings in galleries. My only problem now is that I wish I had started this in 2001 instead of waiting till 2024! But I have enjoyed every minute of it, and of course have joined BAAA and love being part of the Bay Area Artist Association. 

A sample of my works

Hideaway

Red River Gorge

Tea and fruit

Welcome