Ames artist Chris Cowan says she was always one of those kids that doodled on the margins.

In school she says she filled her math papers with more drawings of faces and forms than numbers.

When deciding what her major should be in college, Cowan says “art wasn’t really considered a very practical option for me so I went into the nursing profession and I was a nurse for about 20 years.”

In fact, she did not actually start her serious art career until she became a stay-at-home mom about seven years ago. This allowed her time to explore and develop her talents.

Cowan now specializes in many types of media, including pastels, watercolors, nature photography and calligraphy.

Whether it is the ocean splashing against the shore in her home state of Maine or an Iowa prairie blowing in the wind, a common theme that runs through most of Cowan’s work is nature.

“I see nature as though it’s a veil and then behind it there is this energy of the universe, that someone called God,” Cowan said. “To me that is a very transcendent experience, and to me the way to get to that is through realism.”

Another trait that is always constant in her art is personal experience. Cowan says that at times she will spend months studying a place and taking pictures before returning to her studio to complete the piece.

Cowan maintains a work space at the Creative Artists’ Studios of Ames, 130 S. Sheldon Ave. The new non-profit organization is a community of artists and art students formed for mutual support and education.

Cowan is also a local art instructor. She has taught private students as well as workshops at the Octagon Center for the Arts, 427 Douglas St., and the Creative Artists’ Studios.

Cowan’s display, “Solitary and Transcendent Places,” will be featured on the second floor of the Memorial Union until Aug.16.

“It’s a very complete experience, a visual experience,” said CASA President Lee Anne Wilson. “You feel like you can walk right into it and be somewhere and you have a sense of that somewhere. You have a sense not just of the visual but you start to feel as though you can smell it or you can tell if it’s warm or cold.”

Wilson said she likes Cowan’s work because it draws the viewer in, whether it is a drawing, painting or pastel.

“It’s a whole world that she can evoke in some of her drawings by being very, very careful, and having very good attention to detail.”