"If you look behind a good artist you'll see square miles of canvas"

I started on my professional artpath by Faux Finishing and painting Murals in clients' homes....hoping to get those 'square miles' behind me! I took workshops at 'The Finishing School' on Long Island, NY, and then studied mural techniques from the set designers of the Metropolitan Opera in NYC. I've included a few examples of my decorative painting in my portfolio and believe me when I say that whatever an artist puts in his toolbox is pulled out whenever it's needed!

Clients were always putting the challenge to me, first by requesting mural elements and then more decorative finishes. I studied floral painting techniques and then started taking intensive workshops at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, studying color and Impressionistic portraits. I got the portrait 'bug' ....it's like a Pandora's box, once opened you can't get it shut... I've studied anatomy by taking sculpture classes knowing that by touching and feeling the clay would imprint on my consciousness of the human form. Just pushing and pulling, carving the details of the eyes, the nose and shaping the mass of the hair have made an impact on my portraits. Painting believe it or not is alot like sculpture.

So after studying the form and color, I am now concentrating on the concept of painting 'light' ...how it travels across the form....illuminating and fading...glowing, sometimes radiant and then others 'mysterious'. This path I'm walking, sometimes running, surprises me at times. There's always the challenge....what's next?

I am a member of the Portrait Society of America and the Laguna Beach Plein Air Painters of America LPAPA and SoCal Artists Association.

I invite you to peruse my portfolio, not only for the portraits but Still life paintings as well. If you would like to commission a portrait of yourself or an 'heirloom vignette' please email me at

debraschott@gmail.com