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Tampa portrait artist, portrait paintings, the artist at work, girls' portraits, teenagers' portraits, oil painting portraits, artist's studio
Tampa artist, the artist at work, artist's studio, oil paintings, Tampa oil paintings
self-portrait, Elise Ippolito, Tampa portrait artist, Tampa artist, oil portraits, oil portrait paintings, Tampa oil painting portraits
Tampa artist, soft pastel landscapes, soft pastel paintings, Tampa soft pastel landscapes, artist at work, artist's studio

 

 

My mother gave me the French first name of “Elise” — after the Elisa in Hans Christian Andersen's tale, “The Wild Swans.” Andersen's Elisa is an artist who creates magical clothing out of thorny brambles in order to save her eleven brothers, who have been transformed into swans.

 

After knitting the bramble, shaping it to fit the swans' human identities, she casts it over them like a net, recreating her brothers in their natural forms by pure force of will.

 

When I create a portrait, I'm performing a little magic of my own: a portrait captures a fleeting moment of life, saves that moment from the transformations of time, and recreates it for eternity.

 

Notice that the gift is not enough... Elisa has some kind of special, blessed ability, but it's her grit and focus, her whole-hearted willingness to bloody her hands in the brambles for this literally painstaking work, that brings her brothers to life. Substitute paint for blood, and I can relate to that artistic obsession!   

ABOUT ME

 

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

THE PATH LESS TRAVELED

I've always been an artist, first and foremost, though I have taken a few detours along the way. I grew up fascinated with faces, forever drawing them, and fell in love with pastels at age 12. I studied with the renowned Christopher Stills while I was still in high school. My family urged a more traditional career path, so I attended college at Duke University, where I majored in English and took art classes from the late Vernon Pratt. I attended law school at the University of Florida and practiced law for two years in South Tampa, but I couldn't forget my time studying abroad in Paris, London, and Rome, where I emulated great artists such as Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and John Singer Sargent. 

 

After two years of law, I embraced art fully, in 2005. While I've never been to art school, my whole life has been a sort of continuing art education. Recently, I've learned from studying Daniel Green's and Marvin Mattelson's styles in particular. 

ALMOST FAMOUS?!

Portrait and landscape, oil painting and pastel: each is made of a million pieces, like a multidimensional sudoku puzzle. My job as an artist is to transform these puzzle pieces from their bewitched and brambly elements into a captured moment of life. I aim for something beyond mere delineation of topography, and the end result is a tangible illumination of spirit and personality.

My work has shown at the University of Tampa's Scarfone Gallery, the Tampa Artists' Claire de Lune Exhibition, the Lyssa Morgan Gallery, and at galas in support of various good causes ranging from the Children's Museum of Tampa to the American Cancer Society. In July 2006, my oil painting, “Holding and Beholding,” was chosen from over 200 paintings to represent the LMG Square Show in the Tampa Tribune. As of 2015, you can also read about me on Wikipedia. 

 

I've been featured on local TV news programs, including CBS affiliate Tampa Bay 10 news, and NBC affiliate Channel 8 news. Additionally, the Tampa Tribune caught on to the community's interest in my work, and highlighted me in a profile in their community news feature. The South Tampa Magazine sought me out to create a portrait of JoAnna Garcia, who plays Reba McEntire's daughter on television, for the lead article of their arts issue.  

 

 

  • Portraits featured in Tampa's Mayfair Designer Showcase
     

  • Selected as speaker on arts careers, Duke University Career Conference
     

  • Art shown at Tampa Realistic Artists Gallery 
     

  • Featured in large Tampa Tribune photo spread, article by Dave Simanoff
     

  • Art showcased: Bank of America Plaza's Artist Series, Tampa 
     

  • Art shown at St. Leo's Abbey 
     

  • Chosen to paint law firm's Hill Ward & Henderson holiday card 
     

  • Top billing at Portrait Show, Progress Energy Art Gallery, New Port Richey 
     

  • Selected as Artist (mini-portraits) for Junior League Patrons Party  
     

  • Commissioned annually for Lauro Law Firm holiday card 

Tampa portrait artist, Tampa soft pastel portraits, artist at work, artist's studio

I am married to Ian Ippolito, CEO of Exhedra Solutions, serial entrepreneur, and creator of vWorker.com, one of Entrepreneur Magazine's "100 Smartest, Most Innovative + Brilliant Companies" -- as well as soulmate and best husband imaginable. We have one child, who is the star of my "Gio in Wonderland" series of anamorphic portraits.

 

 

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