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 when time permitted. She used pastels to develop portraits and pen and ink for detailed renderings of buildings, landscapes and boats. In 2007, she joined a group of 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 plein air 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, she has entered competitions, earned awards and continued to refine her style.

Alana’s style is a soft romantic realism conveying a wide range of values, with select hues and intensities and comfortable perspectives. Her mediums are oil, pen and ink and pastels. Alana connects with her subjects capturing the personality – that inner spirit. “There is that moment when suddenly the person appears on the canvas and I am awed - reminded that my art is a gift from a divine hand.”

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