Steider, Doris Adeline

Biographical Information

Steider was born on April 10, 1924. She attended Purdue University and graduated with a BS in Home Economics in 1945. Her major area of study was applied design. After graduation, Steider spent some time as a fashion designer. In order to fulfill her desire to focus on art, Steider returned to school and earned an MFA from the University of New Mexico. While studying for her graduate degree, she chose to focus on realism, which was an unpopular decision with her graduate committee. As a compromise, Steider agreed to learn the egg tempera style, which involved layering as many as forty coats of pigment mixed with beaten eggs. This style, originally a favorite of Italian Renaissance painters, had largely fallen into disuse. Once she mastered the technique, Steider actually grew to love it and used it for the rest of her career. As she stated, "I find it very difficult to talk about what I do. I express myself in my art. Painting for me is like breathing and sleeping. It feeds my spirit." Over the course of the next few decades, Doris became an internationally recognized artist and the star of over eighty one-woman art shows, in addition to selling her work to more than 2,500 collectors. She appeared in nearly 200 major exhibitions and won more than seventy awards, including a Distinguished Alumni award from Purdue University. Steider was a pillar of the art community in New Mexico, so much so that a street has been named in her honor in Albuquerque. Steider also practiced photography and traveled the world with her husband, Carroll McCampell, who she married in 1972. She also published a book titled The Egg Tempera Landscapes of Doris Steider in 1996. Steider passed away in 2010, leaving behind a large body of artwork.