Rosemarie Morelli Crocker, December 2025
Rosemarie Morelli Crocker with her painting Sailing on the Margaret Todd, oil, 24” x 36”, which was awarded First Place, The National Juried Exhibition, Cape Cod Art Center
Madonna and Child, oil on linen
One of the first paintings that influenced me was John Singleton Copley’s “Watson and the Shark” when my mother took me to the MFA at eight years old. I was taken in by Copley’s rendering of the translucent ocean and decided right then that I wanted to learn how to paint like him. Growing up in Needham, I was lucky to have encouraging high school art teachers, but unfortunately was discouraged from art college by my parents who feared I would end up a “starving painter.”
To get me through the agony of studying business at University of Lowell, I painted self-taught surrealism, then landed a job as a typesetter for a small graphic arts shop. Within a few months, I took studio night classes at art colleges and museums to learn graphic design and commercial illustration — a gateway that opened a lucrative 40-year career in Environmental/Graphic Design; Corporate Art Consulting, and Commissioned Installation Artist for Children’s Hospital.
I continued to paint in my spare time while raising a family and was first mentored under Robert Douglas Hunter, who introduced me to the Boston School of Painters, a methodology revival in the discipline of 19th-century French Academy that was established by R.H. Ives Gammell. I further trained in Gammell’s teaching under Nadia Mahfuz for 7 years, then continued taking workshops under Sergio Roffo, Joseph McGurl, Thomas Dunlay, and David Curtis.
Most recently, I learned portrait techniques of Rembrandt and the Dutch Masters under Eric Johnson of the Academy of Realist Art Boston, portrait artist Lois Wooley of the Hudson River School influence, and the world-renowned genre painter, Hongnian Zhang, of the Beijing Academy of Art.
I have been blessed to have the tutelage of great painters and now enjoy my new retirement job of running an art school out of my home studio, passing on all the knowledge and experiences acquired from both the commercial and fine art worlds to youth and adult students.
Rosemarie is currently a Premier Artist at The Painted Fox Art Gallery in Foxboro Center; Elected Artist of the American Artists Professional League, NY; Juried Artist member of Oil Painters of America; Juried Artist member of Cape Cod Art Center; Member Dedham Art Association.
Art school: RosemarieMorelliArtStudio.com
Instagram: rosemariemorellicrocker