You’ve gotta love a local celebrity!

Cynthia A. Dawley, a Cranford native, was born in 1964, and grew up right here in town surrounded by the works of her father, world-renowned artist Joseph Dawley.  Joseph Dawley was originally primarily a portrait painter, but when he was stricken with Parkinson’s disease n his 40’s and could no longer paint intricate details, he taught himself to become a master impressionist.  How’s that for seeing your glass as impressively half-full?  It was this impressionist style that his daughter, Cynthia, learned, at least in part, from her dad, and that she now masters, as well.  She attended Union County Vo-Tech in Scotch Plains.  She worked as a sales and marketing manager at Olsens Press in Cranford, which printed post cards and posters for museum gift shops.  And ultimately followed her calling of becoming a professional painter.

Cynthia’s use of bright color and vivid light help to captivate the observer into a captured emotion or moment on canvas.   Her subject matter is quite diverse, including nearby cityscapes of NYC, to neighborhood points of interest, to beach scenes, to foreign countries. Cynthia has exhibited her oil paintings in galleries all over the country, and her works have also been used on the corporate level by such companies as Cartier jewelers, and even on “The Sopranos.”

Today,  Cynthia resides in the very same Cranford home she grew up in, with her husband and her two children, painting  in the very same studio her father once painted in, albeit with her own signature style.  Her “Collection for All Seasons” is opening locally at Designers Gallery Fine Art and Custom Framing, in the Clarkton Shopping Center at1071 Raritan Road in Clark, on Friday November 15^th from 5:00 – 9:00 PM, and Saturday November 16^th from  11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. New paintings will be on display, refreshments will be available, and Cynthia herself will be there to meet with collectors and admirers.  What a perfect opportunity to meet a friendly neighbor, and an artistic icon, while having the opportunity to enjoy some beautiful artwork!  Why not stop in?