Fine Art Oil Portraits
Born in1953, Denise Diffee Hall spent her formative years in the small town of Burlington, North Carolina. Drawing people primarily from a young age, Denise seemed to gravitate to the arts above all other activities. Upon graduating high school, Denise attended UNC-Charlotte her freshman year - majoring in Visual Arts. She transferred her sophomore year to East Carolina University to pursue a Communication Arts degree. Since graduating she worked as a graphic artist for a few years, then returned to East Carolina to pursue a teaching certificate to teach art in public schools for 30 years. She continued to free-lance in advertising for some of those years.
16 years ago she began studying portrait painting techniques and skills - taking workshops with such noted artists as Peggy Baumgaertner and Marvin Mattelson. She attended the atelier of Mrs. Baumgaertner in La Crosse Wisconsin and organized and cosponsored a workshop with Mattelson at Greensboro College in Greensboro, NC. She also attended workshops organized by the Portrait Society of America with Dawn Whitelaw .
Being active in the portrait world takes a lot of work - being competitive, delivering a product that is guaranteed, and striving to create a true work of art with each portrait. Denise tries to do all of this and more within each painting. Settling for less is just not a choice. Satisfaction is guaranteed.
Denise paints in her studio in Greenville, North Carolina now - with many clients from the area. She also travels to different museums all over the country whenever she can to study the great works of art - learning as much as possible to ever improve her work. .
