Alexandra Tyng is a realist painter whose work combines traditional methods with a contemporary viewpoint. Alex was born in Rome, Italy, and has lived in Philadelphia most of her life. Primarily self-taught, Alex chose an academic education over art school. She learned traditional oil painting techniques by examining the work of the old masters, reading about the methods and materials of other artists, and watching artists paint.

Alex’s portraits incorporate descriptive backgrounds and a uniquely figurative sensibility. Her non-commissioned figurative work focuses on people in the process of living and interacting in their own environments, rather than in formal poses. In other paintings the figures become distant focal points while the setting predominates. Alex’s landscapes range from intimate views of particular places to mountaintop panoramas to large-scale aerial views of the glacially carved land formations of coastal Maine.

Alex has had solo shows in New York, Maine, and Philadelphia. Her work is included in many public, corporate and private collections in the U.S. and abroad. Her figurative paintings and portraits have garnered awards from the Portrait Society of America, the Allied Artists of America, the Woodmere Art Museum, The Artist’s Magazine, and American Artist. In 2008 Alex was selected as one of Maine’s outstanding artists by Maine Home +Design; in 2009 an article on her landscape work appeared in that same publication. Her Maine landscapes have also been featured in The Art of Monhegan by Carl Little, and in art magazines including Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, The Artist’s Magazine, International Artist, and O&S (Poets and Artists). Alex leads workshops in Maine and Philadelphia, and teaches portraiture in the Philadelphia area. Alex is a member of the Maine Landscape Guild, and the founder of Portraits For the Arts, an ongoing philanthropic project that uses the power of portraiture to raise money for the arts in the Philadelphia area.