Acuzzo Art At Booth Library

Oxford resident Phyllis Acuzzo has been selected as the September artist for the lower meeting room and gallery space at C.H. Booth Library.

Ms Acuzzo will be showing a collection of her paintings September 2-29. The public is invited to an opening reception with the artist on Sunday, September 13, from 2 to 4 pm.

The Oxford resident was born into a family of artists in New York City. Her grandfather, Gaetano Mellino, was a well-known artist in NYC and a professor at the Belle Arte Di Napoli School in Naples, Italy.

As a child, the beauty of her grandfather’s portraits mesmerized her. She hoped she would be able to follow in his footsteps someday.

Ms Acuzzo graduated from Sacred Heart University in 1977 with a BS in Accounting and a minor in Art. In 1999, after working for 20 years in accounting, she retired so that she could fulfill her lifetime dream of working solely in art.

She attended the Frank Covino Academy of Art in Vermont and continued to take workshops with him for several years studying Renaissance oil painting. While studying the works of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Raphael, Renoir, and William Adolph Bouguereau, she became intrigued with the various painting techniques of the Old Masters. Today most of her portraits portray many of the influences of those master’s techniques.

Ms Acuzzo also attended the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York City where she studied portraiture with Dan Gheno and Ellen Eagle. She is currently teaching classes in her studio in Oxford on “How to Paint Portraits using the Old Master Techniques.”