Mia has studied Japanese brush painting and Oriental art and culture since childhood. As a teenager she studied oil painting with the Austrian artist Rudi Helmo. At the Maulden Bridge School of Art she studied portraiture with Bette Warren of New York and oil scenery painting with William Goetz of Texas. She studied with William Spring of the American Watercolor Society in New York City. She received a BA in fine art with both English and a foreign language minors from the State University of New York, where she specialized in Chinese language and calligraphy with Dr. Woo. Her work has been shown in New York, Montreal and Key West. During and extended period study and travel throughout Hawaii, the Caribbean and Florida, she and her family built a tent house near the Suwannee River to study and paint Florida’s wildlife. She also camped and painted in the Everglades with her husband and children. More recently she built a very successful non-profit butterfly farm and nature trail in North Naples where she created paper cuttings, acrylics and watercolors. She has over 30 years of experience teaching art to children and adults from 6 months old to over 80 years old.
