Michelle Winters has been professionally creating art for over 25 years and has had a passion for the arts since childhood. As a child, she created her own little imaginative world through painting, poetry, music, writing, designing costumes, and experimenting with color and style.
After a long career in the fashion industry, she decided to pursue a career change, and studied Graphic Design at Parsons School of Design. This is where she was encouraged by her teachers to take fine art and illustration classes. Michelle was extremely hesitant, as she did not see many career opportunities in art. Regardless, a voice inside of her said to take the classes. This decision resulted in a cohesive body of work of New York scenes that she made into a little book.
One of her friends suggested that she have them printed, and make them into holiday cards. She had no idea if they would sell, and they would be very expensive to print. Being that her friend’s husband was a printer, she loaned them the book to explore options.
That night her friend happened to go to a restaurant for dinner on the way home. She excused herself from the table to make a telephone call. (This was pre-cell phone days). She had the little book in her hands, and a woman from a paper company spotted it. She asked if she could see it. The woman loved the images, said that her company would print the cards free of cost, if they could have permission to use the images for a paper promotion. The paper company printed the cards, and Michelle had the cards that she needed to show the stores!
She started with eight images and decided to present them to Bergdorf Goodman. (Her first job was there when she moved to New York as a Buyer right after graduating college). She knew that Bergdorf’s was a leader in the industry, and that if they bought the cards, others would follow.
They DID buy them, and were very successful. Her cards have been in some of the finest retailers in the country—Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Papyrus, etc. She participated in several personal appearances, had the opportunity to meet her customers, and developed an international clientele.
From there, she started selling original paintings, and has been commissioned by several corporate and private collectors. Her passion for New York, Paris, London, architecture, the Cote d'Azur design, style and background in fashion prevails throughout her work. Her paintings are whimsical, colorful, happy narratives, populated with stylish people living the “good life”. She has the keen ability to capture the essence of a moment of a day and make it come alive.
As one of her collectors said, “Nobody captures New York life like you!”
Michelle’s work is very personal, and consists of childhood memories, and observational daily experiences. From there (as the paints), she creates imaginative story’s, that she calls “my little world”.
Michelle lives and works in NYC with her two Poodles Lola and Lulu. You may recognize the three of them, in some of her paintings, walking down a street among some stylish, chic people, carrying lots of goodies from their favorite, fashionable stores, in a park, sitting in a Cafe, or at the Opera!
When asked advice to give others she says, “Go with your intuition and don’t ever give up!” Don’t stop yourself from pursuing your dreams, inner vision and talents! Enjoy the journey!
