Maria lived in Europe and had the opportunity to travel to Spain, Italy, France, England and Switzerland. She attended boarding school in Geneva Switzerland and at eighteen moved to the United States making Denver, Colorado her new home. There she attended Colorado Institute of Art and graduated with a degree in illustration design.
Relocating to Dallas, Texas she worked for Southland Corporation and pursued her art education at University of North Texas. At UNT she graduated with a bachelors in Fine Arts. Moving to Austin, she worked with several different companies, as a contract artist and started to work on creating her portfolio of artworks. With a diverse background in design and illustration this gave her a foundation for teaching art classes and continually developing her art. Maria has been teaching art classes at Laguna Gloria Art School, Austin Community College and recently started teaching art classes at her own studio.
Maria is self-taught in using pastels to create realistic portraits. She has displayed her pastels in galleries and restaurants for the past 20 years. Her other mediums are oils, watercolor, acrylic, charcoal, pencil, pen and ink and airbrush. She has coordinated photo sessions with photographers and worked with international illustrators in art buying. Her travels and illustration background has helped her structure concepts and has given her a strong foundation to build on for her present art work.