Hello, and welcome to my first blog as a 2022 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Grant recipient.
My name is Eileen Marquez, and I’m originally from Brooklyn, New York. My husband Randy and I recently moved to St. Petersburg in 2019 and we’re incredibly happy living here. I’m a multimedia artist and what’s unusual about my art is that I incorporate fabric into my oil painting compositions.
Going forward, I will be telling you more about myself, my art process and influences, and most importantly what inspired me to apply fabric to my work and what still drives me to create today. I’ll also be sharing weekly tips about the creative process, in addition to information and insights about the amazing galleries and art institutes that we have here in the Tampa Bay area and all over Florida.
My story begins in the year 1969 when I was 10 years old and my father came home one night after work with an oil painting set that he had purchased for me from a co-worker. I guess this co-worker must have been selling unusual gift items to make a little extra cash on the side. I remember he paid fifty dollars for the painting set which included a lesson booklet and all the supplies that I would need to complete five small paintings. Fifty dollars was an amazing amount of money back then. I remember the rent for our five room apartment on Newkirk Avenue was just over 100 dollars. So fifty dollars was worth two weeks’ worth of rent, or a weeks’ worth of groceries for our small family. Looking back at that purchase, I now see that my father gave me the greatest present he could have given me besides his love. For it was from that moment on that I was “hooked” on painting and art in general.
Artists must go out into the world to look at the work of other artists. Not only to stay current with what’s new in the art world, but to see the work that has come before us. I recently visited The Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida and I can’t wait to share pictures and information about the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany with you. It’s an amazing museum that houses the world’s largest collection of Tiffany lamps, vases, glass pieces, paintings, furniture and jewelry. So stay tuned for those blogs as well as others about current exhibits in our area. I hope you will find them as exciting and inspiring as I do.
I hope I’ve “hooked” you on my series of blogs. So stay tuned for my next entry on how my journey with art continues.
Be well,
Eileen 🙂
Below are two of the paintings that I created in homage of Louis C. Tiffany and his artwork.
(20+) Eileen Marquez | Facebook
My painting: Tiffany Landscape
My painting: Tiffany Still Life
