Painting in pastels is a process that brings me peace and great joy. As a child, I used to love going through the beautiful fashion drawings my mother had done in high school, and I was encouraged to paint by her brother and my favorite uncle, Bruno, who bought me...
Painting in pastels is a process that brings me peace and great joy. As a child, I used to love going through the beautiful fashion drawings my mother had done in high school, and I was encouraged to paint by her brother and my favorite uncle, Bruno, who bought me an oil paint set and pastels, both of which I still have. I spent hours in my parents' basement creating greeting cards and paintings and still have a few of those art pieces I had done with those sets. In fifth grade a classmate invited me to an oil painting class given by her neighbor, Mrs. Helen Reidy. She was a small but dynamic lady with a great sense of humor and I loved her and her art class. I stayed in that art class through high school. However, once I started college and married, painting slipped to the sidelines for me. After a number of years working and while dealing with a medical issue, I joined an art class given by Elaine Sgambati at her Riverview Art School. She was another wonderful art instructor and artist, and in her class I was surrounded by an inspiring and talented group of classmates for eight years. One day on a whim I picked up my old pastel set and did a colorful sketch of my sister's Westie, Opal. From that time on, I was hooked on painting with pastels again. I transferred what I had learned from Elaine about oil painting to painting with pastels and haven't looked back.
