RITA GOULD

Rita Gould studied art history at the University of Florida, and St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts as a Docent. She has studied art at Salt Creek Academy, the Arts Center of St. Petersburg, Kimball Arts Center in Park City, Utah, and completed various workshops.

Before becoming an artist, she taught Italian language, did freelance and travel writing, wrote a history of early St. Petersburg, Florida, and at one time co-authored a cartoon strip, published in Singles magazine.

A Ph.D. in Medieval and Renaissance literature with a dissertation on Machiavelli, and fluency in Italian language fired a passion for travel in Italy. This travel, in turn, aroused interest in painting Italian architectural scenes and landscapes. The majority of Italian paintings emphasize perspective and texture while depicting the play of light and color over brick, stone, and peeling stucco, creating an ambiance of age and decay, yet timelessness.

The artist's passion includes the western United States: horses and buffalo are treated both realistically, and, at times, whimsically integrating the subjects into experimental works that manipulate color and design. Western National Parks offer majestic vistas of color and texture, revealing nature at its most spectacular.

Acrylics are the artist's medium of choice because pigment can be applied thickly using a brush or palette knife for texture, or watered down for a more translucent effect. However, the artist is now rediscovering the advantages of oils�texture, stability of color, and blending qualities.

Works have been exhibited in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah; St. Pete Beach, St. Petersburg, and Tampa, Florida. The artist has had individual shows, and won various awards.