My mother loved the paintings, sculptures, and violins painted and carved by her grandfather, Charles Herbert Thoener, Sr. His landscapes and family portraits were hung throughout our family home in Yonkers, New York. When my parents retired to Florida from New York, I painted a portrait of their beloved home in Yonkers. It hung in the dining room of their Florida home over their buffet as a remem
brance of family and years past. When I learned the portrait painting technique of the old masters, the Mische Technique, I began painting family portraits continuing the tradition of my great grandfather. I knew my mother would be very pleased to have her portrait hang next to her grandfather’s self portrait. In painting portraits, I use an adaptation of the Mische Technique learned from several of the artists I studied with. This method of painting creates an effect where light reflects from within the painting. It makes possible for great refinement of detail and a rich ethereal quality. As a returning student in my 40s, I studied Fine Arts at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I graduated with a BS in Journalism and Mass Communications with a Minor in Fine Arts. Through succeeding years, I took numerous art workshops in Colorado and Europe…
I attended a three-week workshop on the Mische Technique at Castle Kuenberg in Payerbach, Austria, just outside Vienna, studying with Philip Rubinov-Jacobson, Professor of Painting, Naropa University; Michael Fuchs, Artist-in-Resident and Mentor in Painting and Drawing; Brigid Marlin, Artist-in-Resident and Mentor in Painting; and Ernst Fuchs, Professor Emeritus. I took the Masters Classes at the Santa Reparata International School of Art, in Florence, Italy. A three-week workshop on the Mische Technique with instructors Robert Vanosa, Martina Hoffman, Philip Rubinov-Jacobson and Michael Fuchs. I continued my studies with Robert Vanosa and Martina Hoffman, Masters of Fantastic Realism painting, in a two-week workshop in Cataques, Spain and at several workshops in Boulder. Additionally I studied with Cynthia Re Robbins at a traditional Mische Technique workshop in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. With watercolors, I studied with internationally acclaimed watercolorist Alvaro Castagnet of Australia at a three-week workshop in Southern France.
