Keith Mueller

A Sketch of the Artist I started drawing and painting as a child, beginning my first private lessons at age eleven. From early on, I found the human face and figure the most interesting, challenging, and expressive subject matter. I continued drawing and painting throughout high school, and went on to study art at Arizona State University and Taylor University in Indiana, completing my BA at the University at Albany in New York. I began painting portraits professionally in 1973. Since then my work has been exhibited in art galleries across the United States and has received numerous awards from prestigious organizations, including the Portrait Society of America. My drawings and paintings are in many private and public collections, including the Boy Scouts of America, the Billy Graham Center Museum, and the United States Congress. Congressman James Howard wrote of his portrait to me: "I know you didn't just reproduce my face, but that you spent hours and hours considering how my face got to be the way it is. I think you did a splendid job capturing the accumulation of ebbs and flows that culminate in a man's posture, facial expression, and the look in his eyes." I also teach drawing and painting classes in my studio, as well as on cruises, and private lessons in individual students' homes.