Craft – Miami
My name is Vickie-Ann Margaret. For the last 40 years I have been painting, drawing and creating beautiful works of art. I have studied art techniques and art history at different stages in my life and on some occasions learned things just by trial and error.
I was 13 when I took my first painting class in Venezuela, South America. I used acrylic, my first medium, I learned a technique called impasto, heavily applied layers of paint to create an image without blending colors. This method gave the illusion of depth and 3 dimension on a 2 dimension canvas.
At 15 while taking my art classes in high school in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, my teacher told me that I needed to slow down, take my time when looking at something that I am drawing. Don't look at just the surface look beyond, see if you can find the subtleties in the object and put that on paper.
At 25, in college, Long Beach, California, USA, I took beginning drawing, beginning painting, Art History from the Prehistoric Era to Renaissance. This opened up a whole new world of art to me. I started looking at architecture, sculpture, paintings, drawings, from all around the world. I looked at the Master's techniques and I dove in, I wanted to know and learn more. I became a studio assistant for a successful Los Angeles artist. I studied under her the ins and outs of the art world, I worked in her studio, learned how to stretch my own canvas, visited local galleries, watched her paint, organized her studio and submitted her portfolios to different art galleries.
I took an internship with the California State Long Beach University Art Gallery for the Getty Museum Summer Intern Program at 32. The gallery had just inherited a multi million dollar abstract German Expressionist collection from a prominent Los Angeles lawyer. The stipulation in the will was to maintain the collection at the law firm. So, my task was to go to the law firm everyday for three months to evaluate and learn about the artists in the collection then, write reports about my findings, on the artwork and the artists, to give to the gallery director. This to me was the most memorable and meaningful experience I had in the art world.
Now at 50, I am open to every opportunity to realize my dream as a full time, working, professional artist.