By permission of the artist, The Cyber Art Show is pleased to feature the first of two 12-piece exhibitions of works by American landscape painter Cynthia Rosen (born 1952 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

Cynthia Rosen, who loved art but was not interested in college, was gifted with an art education at the Boston Museum School as a winner of National Scholastic Art Competition. In the mid ’70’s she completed the traditional diploma program plus a 5th year certification. She was also a recipient of a traveling fellowship from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

After her first exhibit of highly-finished representational drawings at the Boston Athenaeum, she was invited to sell her then rather newly-entered monochromatic non-objective mixed-media work (primarily spray paint, pastels, and occasional bits of fabric) through Ellen Sragow, LTD in NYC and the Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia. During this time, Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly were her primary influences.

During these years in addition to making art, Cynthia founded Art to People, Inc. (with a grant from the Massachusetts Dept of Mental Health), a not-for-profit organization created to establish art-based programs in social service programs (halfway houses, jails, alternative schools, etc). She ran the program for several years before passing on the directorship in 1975 to others and moving to NYC to pursue her art.

When her first daughter was born, Cynthia took a hiatus from her art and moved to Vermont to raise her family and teach. During this time, in addition to teaching full time and raising her children as a single parent, she obtained her Masters in Education with a focus on art, participated in a number of community organizations and boards and became involved with the local theater, moving from costumes, to set design to set painting. This prepared Cynthia for her subsequent move to muraling. In 2007 she executed over 100 running feet of murals for St. Charles Hospital’s (Port Jefferson, NY) in celebration of it’s 100th anniversary; and starting in 2011 secured a job painting murals for Sarabeth’s Tribeca in NYC which ran over the course of 2 years. These murals brought Cynthia back to the world of fine art.

 

In 2012, Cynthia called her son, Ian Marion--an artist and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and the New York Academy of Art--and told him of her intent to return to art as a full-time career path. His recommendation for her to paint representationally coupled with wintering in Arizona (set in motion when her husband, Dr. Ira Malter, retired) sent her up in the desert hills to paint plein air (outside). Dog and easel, a small canvas board, (actually three) and mini brushes found a home in the great out of doors. But, having learned to paint primarily with a roller on a 30’ olio did not prepare her for the restrictions of an 8” surface. Nor did her rather monochromatic and non-objective background.

 

In order to hasten learning about color and in an attempt to determine whether representational or abstraction held her heart, Cynthia began to work on two boards simultaneously, one interpreting the view in front of her representationally and the other more abstractly. In order to more readily understand color, she moved to the palette knife for painting. These initiatives (modus operando) have stuck with her to this day. Mostly self-taught in the world of painting, she feels that she has only recently found her visual voice. 

 

Cynthia has secured representation at two galleries: Weiler House Fine Art Gallery in Fort Worth, TX and the Desert Art Collection in Palm Desert, CA.

 

In the last few years, since this return, she has won several awards at the few plein air competitions she has entered (Escalante, Utah; Glendale, AZ and Casa Grande, AZ) and is hoping to broaden her reach to apply to some juried events and invitationals.

 

Cynthia has been highlighted in several online journals including Plein Air Magazine’s ‘Outdoor Painter’ as well as Artview Magazine and ArtFoodHome Magazine. Cynthia also feels honored to have been a finalist in a Southwest Art Magazine’s Artistic Excellence Competition and Artist’s Magazine ‘Over 60’ Competition, had works accepted into Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Show and National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society ‘Best of America’ exhibit, and Scottsdale Artists School ‘Best and the Brightest’ Competition.

 

In addition to this, within the last year she has been invited to provide workshops, so she has recently joined that circuit. Teaching, and helping others move towards realizing their 2D artistic potential, no matter what form it takes, remains close to her heart, with "eclectic" being a word often applied to her teaching style.

 

As of late, Cynthia has been branching out into figurative work and is excited at the prospect of broadening her horizons.