Taking a Break Painting

Drawing and painting have been a part of my life since childhood. As young as five, I remember drawing. I drew mostly from my imagination and observations. People were a favorite subject. My mother, a graduate of the Cleveland Art Institute, encouraged me to enter a national art contest sponsored by Kellogg. At age nine, my color pencil drawing took second place. Both the artistic and the analytic shape my life. Left and right brain hold equal sway. My degree in math gave me a comfortable career in Capital Project Management. I directed and managed building design and construction for Harvard University and the University of Texas. Threw those years, I often did portraits in pastel and pen and ink renderings. Wherever available, I would visit art museums. The masterpieces beckoned me, and I knew that someday I would paint the art that lived inside me. In 2007, I joined a group of artists painting en plein air in Italy. That trip was a turning point. The following year I retired and began a second career as an artist. My formal art training began with life drawing and design the first year of college. Between 2008 to 2010, daily painting, one day workshops and reading art books helped me climb a steep learning curve. In 2011, I completed a month-long portrait workshop at the prestigious Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, under the tutelage of Maureen Hyde. In 2013, Scottsdale Artist’s School awarded me a scholarship which I used to attend a portrait workshop by Romel de la Torre. Later that year, I attended a portrait workshop under the instruction of Michael Shane Neal. In 2016, ASMA honored my work with Signature membership status. And in February of 2020, my artwork was included in the Art Renewal Center’s Living Artists Gallery, and I was honored as an ARC Associate Living Master™ (A.R.C.A.L.M.)