Hello, my name is...

[Linda Ciallelo]

Greetings all. I have been here for awhile, but will bite the bullet and do this properly.

I have been selling artwork since high school, that was in the sixties. I have done hundreds of colored pencil portraits . I have sold work in oil, egg tempera, pastel, watercolor, pencil, and ink. I have sold it under three different names. First Rockwell, then Vredenburgh, now Ciallelo. I managed to get one year of college when I was forty(1988-89). In the last two years I have learned more from these forums than the entirety of the last fifty years. I drive a school bus four hours a day, have five or nine cats, depending on if you count the neighbor's cats, who live here. I am hoping to retire from school bus driving in April, and FINALLY have a full time, profit making, art business. I have three grown children and a husband.

It's nice to meet all of you. The computer is a wonderful thing. I'm not alone anymore.

[Jean Kelly]

I was just doing a search on you and found the oil paintings you have done. Also have visited your website a few times. You have a very soft style that is a pleasure to look at. I'm honored to have you as a guide.

Jean Kelly

[Linda Ciallelo]

Thanks, Jean.

I have spent the last two years trying to adapt to oil, instead of pastel. I still have trouble with color, so am using a limited palette, increasing the number of colors gradually. There is a still life on my web page, in oil, in which I used ONLY cadmium scarlet, yellow ochre, and ivory black. I have tried every medium, brush, and painting surface, every possible procedure from detailed underpaintings with glazes to quick studies. But, the good news is that I am finally settling in, and even though I haven't produced very much that is worth while in the past two years, I have learned a great deal.

There are so many different artists with different views. Everyone gives you different advice. I always look at an artist's work before I decide to listen to what they suggest. Then I try it myself and evaluate the results. It is expensive and takes time. A friend of mine said that the money and time was invested in "Research and Development". Taking college courses would be even more expensive and time consuming, and you would not learn as much. The forums are a very good thing. We artists can share what we learn with each other. Maybe there won't be any such thing anymore as a "poor starving artist".

[Linda Ciallelo]

I forgot to attach my self portrait. This was done with Nu-pastels on Canson paper, while looking in the mirror, lit with a single light bulb. I usually work from photos , but this proves that I can work from life also. :-)

Unfortunately, it's the REAL me.

[Doreen Lepore]

Hi Linda, I really like your style in whatever medium you use and your self portraits are really well executed.

My family lives up in your neck of the woods. In fact my youngest brother lives in Binghamton right now.

From someone who was 40 in 1989 too, your perseverence and driving skills are also admirable. See you around!

[Linda Ciallelo]

Thank you, Doreen.

I have found that most people in the world overlook upstate New York, or they think that all of New York state is "Big City".

I'm glad that you like my style. When I was fortyish I did some research on several famous artists, specifically to see what "age" they were when they started producing the work that they are famous for, the work that is really good. I found that many of them never did anything worthwhile until they were in their fifties.

Richard Schmid said, in his video "The Captain's Portrait", that in Europe people don't expect an artist to come into their own until they are in their sixties. He said that it takes that long for an artist to mature.

It is not unusual for an artist to struggle all his life and then finally achieve the results that he has been pursuing, around the age of sixty. You're not dead until you're dead. This is especially true now days, since people are living longer and healthier lives than ever before.