About Me....
Elaine Rittler

Artist

Welcome to my website. Thank you for visiting!

Although I am now retired, I am maintaining this site as a way for people to enjoy looking at some of my favorite pieces.

During my art career, my favorite subject was all things nature. Must say, I selfishly enjoyed rendering beautiful subjects such as flowers, wildlife, and landscapes for the very reason of looking at something so beautiful while I work. .Lol  And no doubt realism is what I do best. 

I've  enjoyed many mediums over the years including my favorite ones: colored pencil, watercolor pencils, and acrylics. I also still enjoy other mediums, such as oil pastels and graphite.

Many of my earlier pieces were rendered in oil and inspired by the summers I spent in the Finger Lakes and Thousand Islands Regions of New York State. The reproductions of "Girl with The Pearl Earring" and "Story Book" were inspired by the original works created by Johannes Vermeer and William Bouguereau, respectively.

My back story is while growing up, I realized I was artistic and loved to draw all through school.  I received a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from University of Rochester and subsequently enjoyed a career in human services while managing to keep my hand in art occasionally.

Then, while staying home to raise my family, I was able to develop my artistic skills through a combination of classes, mentoring from regional artists and self-teaching.

Subsequently, I participated in shows (solo  and group), won several awards, and began self-publishing to make prints of my work available. I also published a coloring book entitled "Coloring for the Joy of It."
Rendering numerous pet portraits and other commissions over the years has been rewarding delightful as well.

I also enjoyed providing 15 years of colored pencil art classes to seniors at retirement homes, one of the joys of my most recent  life that came to a successful close in 2026.

It was also my complete pleasure to provide numerous art instruction articles and tips for beginners on my blog, "Your Art Box."  I spoke to many folks around the world who expressed their appreciation of my guidance.; so heartwarming as I was was only too happy to share  my experience to help others and blessed that I could! It was with great satisfaction (and a little sadness, not gonna lie) that I closed the blog in April of 2026.

Today, I'm fully enjoying all retirement has to offer and now  being able to create art sinply for the fun of it!

Thanks again for visiting,
Elaine