New Work..The Four Elements and the Moon, Sun and Stars!

June 2, 2019

I am so excited to show you all my newest portraits! I have eight new paintings from my recent show at City Art Gallery in San Francisco!

The first series (the larger pieces) are based on the four elements…Earth, Wind, Fire and Water

The second series is and ode to the Sun, Moon and Stars.

Bonus painting: In Bloom.

All of the paintings are done in watercolor and gouache paints.

My apologies for not getting this post up earlier, May was a very busy month.

Here are the new paintings!

For Earth, I was inspired by the Renaissance and their stiff collars, and the business of bees.

Debra Styer, The Queen of the Bees, 2019

Art Print available here!

For the Fire Element, was inspired by the Victorian beauty and the ugliness and total destruction of the California wildfires.

Debra Styer, Waiting with the Ashes, 2019

Print available here in my shop.

My Wind portrait was inspired by the Medieval Era and the strength of women.

Debra Styer, Leaning into the Wind, 2019

Print available here.

My Water portrait was inspired by the Edwardian era and focusing on the power of relaxing and letting of all the things that pull us down.

Debra Styer, Floating with the Lilies, 2019 (detail)

Print available here in my shop!

Debra Styer, Her Face in the Sun, 2019

Moon Love…

Debra Styer, The Moon and Mr. Fox, 2019

Debra Styer, With Her Head in the Stars, 2019

Debra Styer, In Bloom, 2019

I hope you like them! Prints will be available soon.

Introducing Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens...My New Writers Portraits!

December 10, 2013

Here's my latest illustrations for my series, "The Writers Project". I'm having such an amazing time creating these portraits. It gives me time to study the faces of my literary heroes. It is kind of like reconnecting with old friends.

Meet Charles...

Charles Dickens started my obsession with the Victorian Era . He showed me people and world I'd never new existed and he did it with such compassion. Something that seems pretty rare these days. He grew up poor and spent his life trying to help those he could.

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to each other".
Charles Dickens

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_dickens.html#TQkTTIfzzK5PbOj1.99

Charles Dickens in Blue by Debbie Styer 2013

Charles Dickens by Herbert Watkins, 1858

Charles is now available here in my shop!

And welcome Virginia...

Virginia Woolf has always been inspiration. Her courage and ability to speak the truth in her writing is both courageous and so sad. Virginia's writing paved a way for me find away of taking myself serious as a artist and a women. I'll always be thankful for her brilliant essay, "A Room of One's Own".

"For most of history, anonymous was a woman."
Virginia Woolf

The Sad Eyes of Virginia Woolf, by Debbie Styer 2013

This lovely Virginia Woolf print is also available in my shop.

I would love to do a bunch of these writers portraits. Who is your favorite writer? Maybe I'll paint them next...

Introducing Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens...My New Writers Portraits!

December 10, 2013

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to each other".
Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens in Blue by Debbie Styer 2013

Charles Dickens by Herbert Watkins, 1858

"For most of history, anonymous was a woman."
Virginia Woolf

The Sad Eyes of Virginia Woolf, by Debbie Styer 2013

This lovely Virginia Woolf print is also available in my shop.

I would love to do a bunch of these writers portraits. Who is your favorite writer? Maybe I'll paint them next...

Art Hero: Amedeo Modigliani

February 6, 2013

One of my first art loves was the Italian Expressionist artist and sculpter Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. The way he painted portraits was magical to me. His art was seemingly so simple but the artist created so much emotion in each face. Modigliani's gorgeously rich color palette is incredible and I find him influencing my portraits everyday.

Just look at the way he did his eyes of his subjects. They sort of look right through you, don't you think? The sitters almost become ghosts. I love that some of his characters eyes are sometimes just blurred-out grays? So simple but so powerful.

When I paint my portraits I try to do the same thing, I focus on the eyes. Each person I paint seems to come alive when I finish the eyes..

And that little twist of the head, amazing...

Here are a few of my favorite paintings:

Seated Young Woman, 1918

The Servent Girl, 1918

Portrait of Paul Guillaume, 1916

Reclining Nude, 1917

Victoria, 1916

Jaques and Berthe Lipchitz 1916

Nude Sitting on a Divan, 1917

Madame Kisling 1917

Marie, Daughter of the People, 1918

Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne, 1918

Dedie Hayden, 1918

Tragically, Modigliani died young at the age of 35. He lived the prefect bohemia artist lifestyle and he influenced generations of artists through his painting style and way of life.

Modigliani in his studio

Which artist has most influenced you?

Art Heroes - Southworth & Hawes Photography

May 22, 2012

Some of the most inspiring (and oldest) photography was done by the photography firm of Southworth & Hawes ( Albert Sands Southworth (1811–1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (1808–1901). They were primary active between from 1843-1863 in Boston.

These guys really amaze me. I love the way they arrange their subjects. The sitters seem a lot more real then most of the Victorian photography I've seen before. They photographed some of the most famous people of the time including Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Daniel Webster. But the daguerreotypes that really stand out for me are the everyday people...the "unidentified" people.

Unidentified Child, circa 1850

The Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Family, 1849

"The artist, even in photography, must go beyond discovery and the knowlege of facts; he must create and invent truths and produce new developments of facts. "

--A.S. Southworth, 1870

Death of Pain (first public administered Ether anesthesia)1847


Rollin Heber Neal


Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1857

Alice Mary Hawes, 1852

"Learn to look and see the difference under different lights in the same faces. Learn to see the fine points in every face, for the plainest faces in the world are human faces, belonging to human beings... "

--A. S. Southworth, 1873

Unidentified Girl with Ringlets, circa 1850's

Unidentified Woman, circa 1850

Unidentified Dead Child, Circa 1855

"In the nice production of light and shade which is the perfection of modelling, the Daguerreotype will be found to surpass the Artist's best efforts, being capable of representing independently, action, expression, and character to a great extent; and in some instances approaches very nearly, if it does not equal these higher branches, thus developing beauty in grace of motion and in repose, which is the first object and the supreme law of all Art."

--A.S. Southworth, 1855

Two Women Posed with a Chair, ca. 1850

Unidentified Woman, 1852

Laura Bridgman, 1855

Winchester Family Tomb, Mount Auburn Cemetery, circa 1853

Unidentified Girl, 1850

Winter Portrait with Fur Coat and Gloves

Unidentified Child, 1850

Of course this is only a tiny bit of work by Southwork & Hawes. You can find more in the book, "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawes. You can also see more Photographs in this flickr set from the George Eastman House.

I hope these daguerreotypes have inspired you as much as they inspire me.

Now, I'm off to work on a custom portrait...