Dee Toscano

Art Brokerage: Dee Toscano American Artist: Dolores Anita (Dee) Burgess Toscano, a painter and sculptor of Indians and other Western subjects, was born February 19, 1932, in Fort Worth, Texas, growing up there and in Lubbock and Odessa, Texas. She moved to Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1950, then Albuquerque, New Mexico, through 1955, when she married James Toscano and lived in San Diego, California until 1957. She won one of the ubiquitous Draw Me contests, but family responsibilities prevented her from completing the correspondence course. Toscano, part Cherokee on her father's side, has visited the reservations of many tribes, including Apache, Crow, Zuni, Taos and Blackfeet, painting figures, portraits, and ceremonials. Toscano also paints Western landscapes and still-lifes. Since the early 1980s, she has also worked in bronze, including a life-size bronze figure in 1986 of St. Walburga for the Walburga Convent, Boulder, Colorado. While, in 1985, she briefly studied pastel with Daniel Green, and sculpture with Bruno Lucchesi, Toscano is essentially a self-taught artist. Moving to Denver, Colorado in 1957, Toscano began painting western subjects and commissioned portraits. In the mid-1960s she entered local art competitions in Denver, establishing her career by the 1970s. A frequent prize-winner, Toscano lived in Wheatridge, Colorado, from 1976-1993.