Denise VanDeroef received her art education in the northern New Jersey and NYC metro area. She earned her BFA and teaching credentials from Kean University of NJ and graduate de-grees at Montclair (NJ) State University and School of Visual Arts in NYC.
Her favorite medium is acrylic paints, but she also uses watercolors, pastels, paper and mixed media to create artwork. Her last one-woman exhibit “Along the Roads Less Traveled”, a collection of 33 paintings of the scenery and wildlife in and around the Bristol Hills, was displayed at the Wood, Naples, Bloomfield, Bristol, and Victor Farmington libraries in fall of 2018 through summer of 2019.
Denise has always been inspired by the romanticism of the Hudson River School of painters, and by the work of the French Impressionists. She loves to paint idyllic scenery in a somewhat realistic manner. After 37 years of teaching Visual Arts, Graphic Design, and Art History at Morris Hills Regional H.S. in Morris County, NJ. she moved to the Finger Lakes in 2009 to capture the abundant scenic beauty here. Her husband Doug, does all of her framing and helps hang her solo exhibits.
When she is not painting or teaching, Denise does the Graphic designs and maintains the websites for OCAC, the Bristol Library, and the Bristol Hills Historical Society. She also accepts commissions and is currently working on two watercolors of an eastside Canandaigua Lake property. Her painting, “Winter at Glen Hollow”, displayed at the 2020 OCAC Members’ exhibit was also a commissioned work for the owners of that property.
Denise still enjoys teaching painting and drawing classes to adults at many of the libraries in Ontario County. She has also taught art workshops for the Ontario County Arts Council at the Historical Society Museum and at other venues in our area.
Denise is the Vice President and Exhibit Coordinator for the Ontario Co. Arts Council. She frequently exhibits with OCAC in group exhibits at the gallery in the Ontario Co. Historical Society Museum and at the Fort Hill Performing Arts Center. Denise currently has a duo exhibit (with Marcia Mundrick) hanging at Ortho Urgent Care in Canandaigua , which will move to Lattimore PT in Victor,whenever the OCAC Rotating Exhibits program resumes.
Denise’s artwork can be seen at Art in the Bristol Hills on Facebook, and through Fine Art America at: https://1-denise-vanderoef.pixels.com.
You can contact Denise at: dvanartist@gmail.com for commissions or to purchase her original paintings.