Silvia Sierra’s interest in pastel and oil painting started at an early age and was reinforced in oil painting in her Art Class at the Deming High School by her teacher Arturo Alva. Later she enrolled at New Mexico State University (NMSU) to pursue a Masters of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, in Art, Marketing and Anthropology. It was at this point in her life that she felt enriched and motivated to venture into pastels by her professors and other artist at NMSU. It was during this time she concentrated to learn more on the work of impressionist that she admired such Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, Joaquin Sorolla and Diego Rivera.

For the next 30 years or so Silvia’s priorities shifted to raising her two sons Luis Carlos and Adrian and work with nonprofits and later with Dona Ana County Health and Human Service Department as the department head. Artwork in oil and pastel painting shifted to the sideline of her daily life, but not from her awareness and appreciation.

During a community class at Dona Ana Community College in 2014, Silvia was introduced to artist Rick Rotante. Through his training and guidance Silvia enjoyed learning new techniques for painting with oil as well as pastels. During her training under Rick, Silvia had the joy of venturing into her own artistic quest of painting with pastel as a medium from hard to soft to the enticing beauty of oil paints that has guided her to a deep-seated level of self-expression.

Sylvia Sierra