About the Artist

      I  grew up in Norwich, Connecticut. My parents, Sidney and Dorothy Beller, were both very creative people. I was very fortunate that they sent me every Saturday morning through my elementary school years to the art school at Norwich Free Academy, our local high school.  I enjoyed classes in painting and drawing, pottery and sculpture there.  I have four wonderful sisters, who have been great friends through the years. 

       I attended the University of Connecticut as an art major, and met my husband, Joe Pompano, there.  We lived in Massachusetts for many years, and I received my B.A. and teaching certification in Elementary Education and Art Education from the University of Massachusetts.  In 1981, we moved to Richmond;  and then in 1988, to Hanover, Virginia.   In December, 2023, we moved to Barboursville, Virginia, to live near our three daughters and their families in Charlottesville. I have always loved the Blue Ridge Mountains, which surround us, and I feel deeply thankful to be living here amidst such beauty.   

     

   

      I have worn many hats over the years, having worked as an elementary school teacher, art teacher, portrait artist, scrimshaw artist, and landscape painter in oils and pastels.  I have also done illustration work for 22 book covers for Thorndike Press, and greeting cards for Sunrise Publications. For thirty years, I taught piano lessons, and art lessons, to children and adults, in my home, the Harvest Moon Studio.    

       I am very proud to have been given the opportunity to write a book on woodburning for Fox Chapel Publishing.  Woodburning Project and Pattern Treasury was published in October, 2011, and is available for sale at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Fox Chapel.  This book is still selling very well after over 13 years, and has been translated into Chinese for the Asian market!  I taught woodburning classes for five years at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. I feel very gratified knowing that thousands of people have spent peaceful, creative hours working on my designs and projects, especially during the pandemic.     

      I no longer do woodburning work, and I have transitioned back to my first love, which is painting and drawing, since 2012. 

      I love to paint wildlife, children, landscapes of rural scenes, and nature studies of flowers, gardens, animals and birds. I have written and illustrated a children's book called Mother Earth's Special Day: A Message of Hope,  which is about climate change.  I am a member of the Society of Children's Book Illustrators (SCBWI) and I hope to find a home for my book someday, since I care very much about our earth and wildlife, and I would like to help preserve that future, as an artist. I also enjoy doing Poem Paintings that illuminate poetry, weaving images together that express the meaning of the words.  I am deeply moved by the beauty of the Blue Ridge mountains, and I look forward to renewing my passionate love of landscape painting in our new life here.  

     I enjoy gardening, reading, sewing, playing the piano, singing in the choir, cooking, and spending time with my family and friends. My husband and I enjoy contemplative meditation and are members of a Centering Prayer group.