Amber Carrying Shanna

Asfour’s creattions have been enthusiastically lauded as “Timeless Classics” with a “constant appeal because of their traditional base”. All titles are extremely collectible.

My Armenian father was an inventor. Thanks to him, my natural curiosity as a child was greatly encouraged.

During the troubled times of World-War-1, he was forced to escape his birthplace near the Russian-Turkish border. The only escape route open to him was down the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. His journey ended in Cairo, where I was born.

My sojourns were of a much more pleasant nature. I traveled to Italy, Germany, France, Tahiti, and Mexico, before traveling to many cities in the US and finally settling down in Malibu, where I have lived since 1982.

I started my professional career as a magazine and book cover illustrator. The next big assignment was as a portrait artist at Universal Studios. Encouraged by the many sales that followed, I opened my own art gallery in Beverly Hills in 1970. There, I sold my own paintings as well as those of other artists, and gave private art lessons to a few celebrities. When my only daughter Amber was born, I felt compelled to stay home to take care of her. I gradually went back to painting as Amber grew up and became more independent.

Education: From Kindergarten through high school, I went to the French school Le Lycee Francee. That was followed by six years of strict Italian tutoring at The Leonardo Da Vinci Italian Academy Of Arts, from which I graduated with a BA in Fine Arts. My Italian instructors taught me how to paint alla prima.

Immediately after immigrating to the US, I enlisted at The Chouinard Art Institute. Shortly after, I took private lessons from Sam Markitante, an 80-year old French artist who taught the techniques he learned in the Paris studio that he rented after the death of Renoir.