Category: Newsletter

Rhea Groepper Pettit is a contemporary realist painter, and her subjects are typically people, animals, and still lifes. Pettit’s practice is rooted in traditional oil painting technique, while using contemporary subjects, compositions, and rendering. Pettit says, “You have to know the rules in order to break them”. Her experience as a graphic designer also influences her composition and color choices.

Pettit majored in fine art at the University of Texas, but the huge abstracts that were all the rage back then just weren’t her style, and she wanted to earn a living. Pettit switched to a more “practical” degree in graphic design, and for the next 25 years was a professional designer, doing a few paintings here and there, and a lot of digital collage for fun.

Since 2013, Pettit has diligently devoted time to practice fine art and grow as an oil painter, taking many workshops and painting from life on a regular basis (pre-pandemic). In 2016 she transitioned to painting full time as a professional artist.

Pettit has shown in Austin, Georgetown, Round Rock, NYC, Taylor, Waco, Dallas, and Conroe gallery group shows, and has had small solo shows in Austin, Georgetown, and Pflugerville (her home for 12 years). She has also won several awards in juried shows, and is honored to be a member of Capitol Art Society.

“I recently created a series of figures in nature, which I call “Heavenly Bodies” Twenty-eight of these paintings were included in a show at Dougherty Arts Center in December. I am currently working on a series of clothing on clotheslines, which is both nostalgic and modern.”

“I love Miller Imaging, and have been a customer since my design days back in the 90s! Dana is amazing, and has a great eye for detail and color. She is a true miracle worker; I always trust her to scan my paintings for fine art prints. Larry and the rest of the staff who I’ve worked with have all been professional and very welcoming. I feel like I’m walking into “Cheers” (where everyone knows your name) when I visit. That is a rare thing these days, and is very appreciated!”

Website: www.rgpettit.com
Instagram: @rheapettit

Contact our fine art specialist, Dana Burton, for more information on fine art scans and reproduction.

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, I am a child of Mexican immigrants. From a young age, I’ve enjoyed creating art—weaving, watercolor, mixed media, and recently acrylic painting. Nonetheless, art had been a sideline to a lifelong career in public health and epidemiology. Now retired, time allows me to paint with purpose and passion.

The story of my parents’ journey to the US has been a point of pride among our family. I wrote a book about their journey from Mexico to Texas and our family’s early years in America. The book, published shortly after my mother’s death in 2019, was edited by a journalist friend. With me not being able to afford her professional services, she bartered her skills for a painting—the subject matter left to me. At the time, my thoughts were on my mother, her life, and our world as youngsters. Experiencing her loss conjured up her kitchen, her endless tasks making tortillas and foods of her native land, her traditional tools to grind the corn—molcajete, the vegetables from her garden, the Navidad tradition of making tamales, and her stove. So, I filled my canvas with these memories—the figure of a young woman doing the work, thereby producing joy in the form of flowers flowing from her skirt.

I’m not a professional painter, strictly amateur, still learning. Still, I was loathed to give up the painting, but a deal was a deal. I normally take a photo of my paintings using my iPhone for my beginning portfolio. But for this painting, I took it to Miller, specifically to Dana, to preserve it in the best image possible. I am grateful to Dana, who made sure that the colors, particularly, the red in the skirt was true to the original painting.

-Lucina Suarez

Contact our fine art specialist, Dana Burton, for more information on fine art scans and reproduction.

Contact our fine art specialist, Dana Burton, for more information on fine art scans and reproduction.