Grace Mehan DeVito

Grace Mehan Devito has a deep appreciation and respect for the insight, power, and humanity of the Classical academic approach to painting. She is particularly aware of the composition, the disposition of light and color, and the handling of space. On a deeper level, Grace strives to capture the essential dignity, emotional truth, and beauty of her subject matter providing insight into their unique qualities to engender a relationship between the viewer and the subject.

Before devoting her career full-time to portraiture and gallery painting, Grace worked as an illustrator painting for such clients as the United Nations, the Ford Motor Co., and many publishers of books and periodicals. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including twice being awarded first place at the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists Annual Show. She has received the Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators, a Gold Addy, and an honorable mention from the Connecticut Art Directors Club. Grace has been included in many prestigious shows including Inspiring Figures at the Butler Museum of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, for which she received an Award of Honor, the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Show, and the American Artists Professional League Annual Show.

Grace was born in Stamford, Connecticut. She is trained in the style and technique of the Old Masters, equally adept at portrait, figurative, still life, and landscape painting. Her early training began with renowned sculptor Martha Clamage, with Grace earning her BFA from the School of the Visual Arts in New York City. She has also studied with Laurel Stern Boeck and attended workshops with Sarah Lamb, Jeremy Lipking, Travis Schlaht, Edwin Minoff, Marvin Mattelson, Michael Klein, Joshua LaRock, and Chris Gallego.