About Deborah Cole
I grew up in an in a working class neighborhood with no expectations that I would go to college, but my art talent was discovered in elementary school and thankfully directed me to go beyond high school. Due to limited finances, I started at a community college, where I majored in art education and then onto a bachelors at Towson University, where I dropped out of art and majored in psychology due to frustration with "modern" art. After becoming a psychologist, I went for more art training at Schuler School of Fine Art, a rigorous atelier. I enjoy being a member of the MidAtlantic Plein Air Painters Association and the Maryland Pastel Society. I have pursued art workshops in oils and pastels at Chesapeake Fine Art Center, Schuler, and Zoll Studios. These include workshops with Lisa Mitchell, Jean Hirons, Jeanne Rosier Smith, Liz Haywood Sullivan, Christine Ivers, and Barbara Jaeneke, Nancy Nowak, Desmond O'Hagan.