At the age of five, Miriam Briks came with her family to New York where she had an early introduction to the classical arts and, most importantly, to painting. A graduate of Art and Design, she had a thorough training in figure drawing and portrait painting, as well as a deep and lasting experience sketching the everyday life on every corner and bench. Her intense training in her youth set a foundation of strong draftsmanship and discipline.

During these formative years an intense attraction for classical and romantic painting, especially for the French Impressionist style, directed her to fortify her training at the famous Arts Students League in downtown New York City, the training center for many famous artists such as Jackson Pollack.

After her schooling, Briks moved to Los Angeles where she joined a staff of professional artists and was commissioned for a twenty-four book series of illustrations of classical literature. During the next six years her development of composition and character skills brought out the fresh inventiveness essential to any true artist.

When the book publishing pressure ended, she was invited to continue the illustrations in Europe for a foreign division of the same publishing house, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. This time her maturing and influences were bringing about change in her drawings. The coloring of the Italian school prevails in Europe throughout history, and so it has also influenced her art.

During her six-year stay in one of the most artistic cities in Europe, a classical continental influence broadened her already sharpened technique. The subtle color transitions oppose and again balance with such delicacy that the strong gestural strokes underlie a hidden character. Form, playful yet learned from experience, is softened by her poetic play of hues.

From such influences as divisionism, which took place in Italy during the Post-Impressionism period, the science of color application became a major tool in Miriam's approach. The over-all usage of reoccurring colors gives her paintings the atmosphere in which her figures share and breathe.

While living in a small villa in the Toscan Hills, she helped run and teach a small art school with classes in drawing, portraiture, and composition. Although the students numbered fourteen at most, they were all working for the publishing house and were experienced artists.

Briks has left Italy and is primarily concentrating on her first and deepest love, Impressionism, which is now becoming available to collectors in Europe and England, as well as in the United States. On a recent trip to South Africa, she was invited to show some of her work at a very prominent gallery in Johannesburg. She has recently settled in England, where most of her major works are on display at George Harrison's manor in Letchmore Heath. Most likely, wherever she paints, the loveliness of her character will prevail throughout each painting.

Cosmopolitan Fine Arts is proud to present the art of Miriam Briks.