Dorothy Fillmore

I live in historic Windsor, Ct. where I create and teach art in my home-based studio. I'm best known for portrait work in a traditional style suggestive of 18th and 19th C. American and English portraitists. My portraits can be precise representations of museum originals or period-style interpretations painted to include a likeness from photographic reference. Another special interest emerged from the love of antiques and antique ornamentation and led me to study early American and English decorative arts, both as historian and as a practitioner. As a result, I have been active for many years in all aspects of conservancy of The Historical Society of Early American Decoration. Through years of study with master craftsmen and artists within the organization, I have learned and perfected the varied techniques for restoration and replication of antique designs on furniture and other decorative ware.

I attended Pair College of Art in Hamden, Ct. and specialized in Sharp-Focus Still Life Oil Painting. Primarily a realist painter, I pay meticulous attention to detail in my compositions and this, in addition to a strong sense of depth created by applied glazing techniques, has become the signature style of my "trompe l'oeil" pieces.

I have won awards in a number of regional and national exhibitions and am a member of numerous art organizations. I have been an instructor at the American Folk Art museum in NYC, New Britain Museum of American Art in Ct, Seton Hall University in NJ, Fletcher Farm School for Arts and Crafts in Vt, and Brookfield Craft Center in Ct. My work is represented in private collections and has appeared in national publications such as Traditional Homes and Early American Life magazines.