Text Box: I traveled a lot in my life to different countries in the former Soviet Union and Europe.  My camera was always by my side and I captured the nice places I saw on film so as not to forget.  And I dreamed to someday put brushes and knives to canvas and recreate these nice views as I remember them.  I never had time to do it … there were always reasons, or excuses, that I could not do it at particular places and times in my life.  I needed a miracle and I felt it would come to me if I could only wait, living my life, gathering my potential and experience along the way.  And it has come to pass!  I reached a point in my life when it seemed impossible to keep it all inside; my artist’s soul demanded release!  Painting in oil was a love at first sight for me; nothing pacifies or thrills me more.  And in concert with music, I find a harmony of soul with the world around me and it is pure exultation.  It is the highest peak of pleasure! All my life I wanted to surround myself with beauty and it was possible.  For me, it is not only about the beauty of my surroundings, but also the beauty in the actions of people, manners and even ideas.  For that reason, it has never occurred to me to paint images of sadness in life; there is so much beauty to paint!  I want that my work is pleasing to the eye and soul and I try to transfer the beauty that I have seen to canvas.  I work mostly on canvas with a knife, but sometimes with brushes.  Landscapes and animals, mainly horses, are my favorite things to paint.  I occasionally have done portraits, but more than anything, that was a stage of my training. Since moving to the USA several years ago, I was afforded many possibilities to realize my innermost wishes to paint.  Thanks goes to my family that they support me in my painting and thanks to my nice teachers at UNM who helped direct my early efforts and helped me find myself with my art.  I am also beginning my journey as an artist with the help of the Rio Rancho and Rio Grande  Art Associations and Artist’s Round Town group and have had the opportunity to show my work in many local exhibitions including the Pasta House Café, New Mexico Bank & Trust, Lovelace Medical Center, and various other local businesses.  I was also an exhibitor in the first annual Corrales Quilt and Wine Festival in May, 2008.     Text Box: VERA NEEL  - Artist in Oil                              I was born in a miraculous place on our planet where winter’s ice turns quickly to the heat of summer and you can see amazing changes in the unexplored wilderness all around.  That place is southern Siberia in Russia.  I absorbed that beauty of nature growing up and my artistic soul always looked for an exit through art; therefore ballet, music, drawing and photography were my partners in life as a child and young adult.   At the time I was growing up in the USSR, being an artist was not a good idea, and not a living, so I moved to Moscow where I studied at the Moscow University of Trade and Economics.  There I specialized in Marketing of Commodities including design and modeling of women’s clothes, history of costumes, pallets for cosmetics, dying of fabric and even shoe making.  It was creative and practical study that I’ve used all my life.