Cedar Lee has always been an artist. At age 9, she wrote an essay outlining her plans to grow up, develop her art skills, and sell her paintings for a living.

As a child, she was self-taught, and became more serious about painting around age 12, the transformation of puberty coinciding with her coming-of-age as an artist. That year she started experimenting with oils and sold a painting for the first time, to one of her schoolteachers for $40. It was a painting of a woman with a baby on her back and a basket in her hands, harvesting tomatoes in a field. That teacher was the first of many friends, family members, and strangers to purchase Cedar's work. Today a large, diverse group of people owns her paintings, which are scattered throughout at least 17 U.S. states, and around the world as far as Canada, Sweden and Italy.

In 2005, she received her BA from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, graduating at the top of her class with honors in the field of studio art and a minor in writing. Her senior thesis show was entitled “Roots and Wings,” a series of large-scale portraits of her nuclear family—her roots—displayed alongside landscapes including flocks of birds flying raucously into large colorful skies—her wings. This is when she began her career in earnest with the genesis of her business, Art By Cedar.

She started a website, showed her work in solo and group exhibitions in galleries, arts centers, and alternative venues, and procured regular gallery representation in the Baltimore area. She had her first solo show in a gallery in 2006, resulting in $4,000 in sales on its opening evening, cementing her commitment to pursuing a career in art. She was active in the Baltimore-area art scene for seven years, represented by galleries in several U.S. states and building a loyal collector base during that time.

Cedar's work has always been characterized by her bold, splashy use of color. The same artist's hand is evident throughout all her past work. But her themes are quite varied through the earliest years of her career. She has completed several collections of paintings, practically all of which have been sold to private collectors, including portraits, animal portraits, landscapes, florals, particularly lotus flowers and sunflowers, and a series of tree canopies entitled “Looking Up.”

Since 2009, Cedar has been focusing primarily on her current “Cosmic Dance” series, colorful images of the cosmos, solar eclipses, and the symbolically-rich Tree of Life. “It's taken me a while to find my voice,” she says, “and honestly, I think my style even now is continually evolving. But I've settled for now on cosmic themes, because I see so much potential in this series. I'm still inspired every time I sit down to work, because it's such an interesting direction for me. The interplay of vast celestial bodies seen from afar, and the all-encompassing influence of Mother Nature in relation to us humans—these are universal themes that can touch everyone on Earth.”

Cedar currently paints in a small, sunny studio nestled in the avocado grove in her back yard. She has an office in her home where she works on the business side of things: marketing, writing her blog, packing and shipping her artwork to galleries and buyers. Her paintings fill every wall of her home. “I'm so extremely lucky,” she laughs, “that I've never had to think about decorating, because the walls of my home are already like an art gallery!”

Today, new collectors of Cedar's work often discover her through her presence on the Internet. Through her blog and social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, Cedar provides free career advice to aspiring artists, and she has a large and growing Internet following.

Cedar paints in oils on wood panels or canvas, usually applying the paint over two or three painting sessions, building up layers of color and detail. She has made a commitment to use eco-friendly materials whenever possible to create her work, and her most recent work is painted on panels crafted by hand in the USA from sustainably sourced wood.

Cedar is a member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists and the Fallbrook Artist Guild.