As young as five, Alana drew. The happiest hours of childhood were spent when her imagination expressed itself on paper and colors enlivened her subjects – people, horses, buildings and abstract designs. Art was her passion then and is today.

Spirited by a desire to have her own bicycle, rather than share with a sibling, Alana entered a national art contest at the age of nine. With colored pencils, she rendered the subject and won second prize - copious art supplies. The sponsor, Kellogg, was impressed by her talent.

Her mother, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, and her father, an engineer from Case Western Reserve, passed their talents to Alana. She tells of her struggle dividing time between the analytical and the artistic as both influenced her life. Freshman year of college, she excelled in life drawing, and then graduated with a major in mathematics. Alana entered the professional field of Capital Project Management, making it a full time career. During those years, she continued to draw and paint. She used pastels to develop portraits and pen and ink for detailed renderings of buildings, landscapes and boats. In 2007, she joined some plein air artists in Italy and began painting in oil. Since retirement in 2008, Alana has taken several portrait workshops and paints daily. In 2009, she returned to Ravello Italy painting and selling her artwork in the piazza. She looks at this chapter of her life as the launch of her art career. In a short period, Alana has entered competitions, earned numerous awards.  Her paintings hang in private collections in Italy and the US.

Alana’s style is a soft romantic realism composed of a wide range of values, hues and intensities. Her medium is primarily oil. Her work includes landscapes, seascapes, figurative compositions and portraiture.  Her portraits capture the personality of her subjects.

This July, Alana completed a portrait workshop at the Art Academy of Florence under the instruction of Maureen Hyde.

Her artwork may be viewed at the Hamlet Fine Art Gallery, 7 Broad Street, Charleston, South Carolina.

Member of the Portrait Society of America
Member of the Oil Painters of America
Exhibiting Member of the Charleston Artist Guild
Exhibiting Member of the Community of I'On Artists