By permission of the artist, The Cyber Art Show is pleased to feature the second of two 12-piece exhibitions of works by American landscape painter Maureen Spinale (born 1948 in Portsmouth, Virginia).

Maureen Spinale has lived most of her life in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Spinale’s love of drawing and painting began early in childhood, with the encouragement and support of an elementary teacher, but raising two boys and a career in Social Work meant her interest in art took a back seat until her later in her life.

Following an early retirement, Spinale began studying at North River Art Society and South Shore Art Center, where she fell in love with the medium of pastel under the instruction of Donna Rossetti-Bailey and Liz Haywood Sullivan. She furthered her studies with workshops facilitated by internationally-known pastel artists. An avid student, Spinale is enrolled in regular workshops today, continually honing her skills and adapting her approach to the medium. She has been inspired by renowned tonalists Francis Murphy, George Inness and Charles Warren Eaton. Most recently, she has studied under Tom Christopher, Ken Elliot and Casey Klahn. These masters have influenced her style, which has evolved from a realist approach to a more contemporary perspective flecked with bold colors, strong lines, and even the use of drizzled paint for dimension and texture.

Today, Spinale is an award-winning artist, exhibiting in Boston, Cape Cod, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Spinale was granted Signature Membership in the Pastel Society of America in 2010, Signature Membership in Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod in 2013, and in June 2015 she was honored with the Master Circle Award from the International Association of Pastel Societies.

Spinale has a passion for painting trees and is drawn to the complexities of tangled branches and fractured light beams through a forest. “Trunks, twisted, bent and straight, sort of like human beings,” she explains. “They teach us about life: strength and fragilities, endurance, weathering the storms.”