Artwork by
Charlene Margiotta
Charlene Margiotta
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c6ea7e_2c731b35e7864d59b2f17472988637ec~mv2_d_1232_1472_s_2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_61,w_1232,h_1411/fill/w_221,h_253,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c6ea7e_2c731b35e7864d59b2f17472988637ec~mv2_d_1232_1472_s_2.jpg)
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c6ea7e_5cec936306114cbf932bcae3a07ce7fa.jpg/v1/fill/w_339,h_488,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/c6ea7e_5cec936306114cbf932bcae3a07ce7fa.jpg)
I was born and raised in New York City.
As a teen, I won a citywide scholarship to study painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where I studied figurative painting.
I graduated from Hunter College with a degree in fine art.
At the Ridgewood Art Association , I took classes hoping
to learn techniques in portraiture. However, I really consider myself self taught, since abstract art was more popular then realism, when I was a student.
In order to learn how to paint realistic images, I studied
the works of artists such as, Gerrit Dou, Vermeer,
Hans Holbein, Frederick Church and William
Adolphe Bouguereau... to name a few.
In 1993, I opened the Art & Design Studio of Rockland,
an art instructional school, located in Nanuet, New York, where my staff and I have been instructing students in fine art and graphic design .