An Eye for Art: Illustrator and painter, Fabula is fabulous

Terri Fabula is a local self-taught artist living in New Windsor. Fabula always dabbled in art. Her grandfather, a sign painter and gilder, was her inspiration.

Fabula’s grandfather painted murals on the walls of his home. Some of the murals were Asian scenes inspired from his time in the military. Others were paintings of birds in Florida swamps. He also painted the names on the sides of ships as well as the names of the officers in gold beside their doors. He also was an accomplished woodcarver.

As a child, Fabula sat at her grandparents’ dining room table and admired the scenes her grandfather had painted on the walls.

“I wished I could paint like he did.” Fabula said.

It was not until she was 57 that Fabula tried her hand at watercolor.

“I love the way the watercolors blend and the transparency of the paint,” Fabula said.

Fabula started illustrating a book she started to write when she was in her 20s. It took her a couple years to finish the book, which is titled “Saving Sandbury.” Sandbury is a sand crab in the book. It is about the friendship between a sand crab and a sandpiper living on the Outerbanks of North Carolina.

“Reading and writing was something I turned to when my parents were going through a divorce,” Fabula said. “When life becomes difficult, I turn to my books. If I am not painting, I am reading.”

“Illustration became another way to immerse myself in another world,” Fabula said. “It takes me somewhere happier.”

Fabula joined the Sykesville Painting Club in 2019. She has made many good friends there. The club participates in local shows. They also do plein air painting, which means to paint outdoors. The members support each other and their craft.

The club offers art classes that are open to the public at the Eldersburg Library. Fabula taught classes on watercolor through the club. The club has a gallery at the library as well and also shows the artwork of members at the Merritt Athletic Clubs in Eldersburg, and Fairhaven, a retirement community also in Eldersburg.

Fabula paints images of flowers and birds. She paints from photographs with her imagination added in.

“I have that illustrator bent,” she said. “I like to add to the scene.”

She researches every week and studies botanical aspects of flowers and how to use watercolor techniques to bring them out..

A lover of fantasy, she has drawn fairies and the moon, mystery infused scenes and the night. Fabula wanted to be Arthur Rackham, a famed English book illustrator from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and that is where she got her inspiration. She also studied Chinese painting at McDaniel College.

“There is something hauntingly different about Chinese art and the simplicity of the lines,” Fabula said.

In the past, Fabula has done printmaking including etchings and linocuts. Linocuts are made by carving a design into linoleum and then prints an image from it. She has also done some jewelry making and leatherwork.

Fabula hopes to get her artwork into an art gallery. She can be contacted at terrifabula@yahoo.com. Her website is terrifabula.com.

Lyndi McNulty is the owner of Gizmo’s Art in Westminster. Her column, An Eye for Art, appears regularly in Life & Times.