SHELBY MARZONI has not always been a painter, but she’s been a teacher for 48 years! She began as a graduate instructor in the Sociology Department at Purdue University and transitioned to health education after completing her Ph.D. in 1983. Before moving to San Diego in 1987, she became certified as a Childbirth Educator and taught classes for Sharp Healthcare for 15 years. During the later years of raising her five children, her creative drive began to stretch and awaken from its long dormancy. She wrote and completed a yet-unpublished novel and began to paint; studying with Olya Losina at Losina Art Center. Shelby has experience teaching painting to students ranging in age from 12 to 94; at an after-school art program for junior high and high school students and in a weekly acrylic painting class at the Imperial Beach Senior Center. She has also led paint parties at churches, birthday parties, corporate events, and vineyards. Whether it’s a serious painting class or an event “just for fun,” Shelby tries to work in some technical takeaways or a tidbit of art history for the curious. For the past several years, Shelby began to turn more to oil as her preferred medium. She loves the buttery texture, the amazing blending capabilities, its longer drying time, the luminous colors one can achieve, and the ability to layer glazes. A lifelong learner, Shelby is always a painter, a teacher, and a student. She has an ongoing coaching relationship with Oceanside painter, Margaret Chiaro, whose magical realism style continues to influence her approach to landscapes, portraits, and multi-figural scenes. Shelby has shown her work at Art on 30th, the Athenaeum, Escondido Arts Partnership, Studio Door, the Coronado Art Walk, Studio 21 in Spanish Village, and the first annual Chula Vista Art Festival. She was honored to win First Prize in the Front Porch Gallery juried show in 2019. Shelby currently lives and paints in the South Park community of San Diego.

Landscape Painting in Oils