About The Artist
| A lifelong artist, I remember as a very young child drawing on the cardboard that came with my father's pressed shirts from the cleaners; one kindergarten note from my teacher included "Likes to draw." My parents always encouraged my interest in art; supplying me with sketch pads and any materials I wanted. I created cartoon horse stories in notebooks to share with the other students in grade school. In junior and high school I habitually doodled in the corners of the pages in my math and science textbooks (instead of paying attention in class) so that I could flip the pages and have a moving "cartoon". I especially enjoyed doodling eyes and hair, and loved drawing models in fashion ads, in addition to sketching portraits of my family and friends. A strong interest in fashion carried over into my chosen college major - Fashion Illustration - a specialized area of commercial art. I earned my Bachelor Of Fine Arts in this field in 1980. After working for several years as the in-house Fashion Illustrator for a Belk Leggett department store, I branched out into painting hand-lettered signs for various local businesses. When personal computers came onto the scene I began working in graphic design, typesetting, and computer art, in the printing and design industries. Eventually I found commercial production work to be unfulfilling and stressful, and on a whim in 2002 decided to try painting in my free time to get back in touch with my more creative side (I had never painted before), taking up oils. I couldn't decide what subjects I wanted to depict, then a friend who owns Greyhounds asked me in 2004 if I could paint them - and I said I would try. "Art By Billie" was officially launched in 2006. In 2008 I added acrylics to my choices of painting mediums. I also work in graphite, and pen and ink, as I have all of my life. Most of my art centers around pet portraits, but commissions of paintings of seascapes, celebrities, and drawings of people in the private sector (common folk like us) are also enjoyed and offered. I volunteer for Greyhound Friends Of North Carolina, and in addition have donated thousands of dollars worth of my original art to animal rescue and rehoming organizations across the country. I live in Raleigh, North Carolina with my husband and our three dogs, four cats, and five tanks of fish. |
