About me
Hi. I'm Mike Theuer.
I'm a professional portrait artist. I create pencil portraits and watercolor portraits from your photographs by hand. No computer imaging.
I have over thirty years art experience, most of that time spent teaching art at the Pennsylvania State University at University Park between 1994 and 2015, now retired. Since 2007 I've been working in my current job as a portrait artist.
Today I spend my time painting and drawing from my home in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania U.S.A. When I can, I also show my art in pencil, watercolor, and oil paint at local Galleries. And until about 2020 I was the stay-at-home parent for my three boys while they were still young and in school, all the while my wife working as a middle-school teacher/counselor.
As a young man before helping raise three children I worked at different things. For example, I earned a Master's in Psychology from PSU in '89. Afterward I worked several years as a therapist helping families and troubled kids. And during that time I started a couple of businesses.
As a child I was introduced to art by my middle/high-school art teacher, Bruce Bidwell. He taught me how to use different media which I eventually aimed at capturing nature, drawing my first pencil portrait from a photo and painting my first watercolor painting from a calendar, both artworks when I was 16.
Today I've created over two thousand portraits. In each I try to make a striking resemblance. But I try not to make a portrait look smooth and blended like a photo. I feel if I wanted a photo, then I should use a camera. Instead I strive to make a portrait rough especially toward the edges of the paper. Except the eyes. The eyes I usually smooth and blend to look photographic hoping the contrast will draw your attention. To me the eyes are where the resemblance is.
• see a book I illustrated – "Nature in Horsemanship."
• read an interview I gave – CareerDecisionsMadeEasy.blogspot.com
• see me as a featured artist – Pencils.com