Profile

Zenaida has lived, painted, and exhibited in New England, Africa, Japan, and California. She has a B.A. from the University of California, classical art training with Maria Sanchez and Elizabeth Holland, and has studied and had numerous workshops with, among others, John Seerey Lester, Ned Mueller, John Banovich, George Strickland, William Scott Jennings, T.M. Nicholas, Simon Combes, John Budicin and Scott Christensen.

The preservation of remaining open space and wilderness has been a major concern as well as the primary influence on and inspiration for Zenaida’s painting. A studio and plein air oil painter, she specializes in landscape and wildlife, and gets her inspiration not only from her native California and the west, but also from her travels to Europe, Mexico, Africa and this fall to Bhutan.

“Zee Zee” grew up hiking and backpacking with her family, whom she credits with teaching her not only a deep respect for the land and its wildlife, but also a strong sense of responsibility for helping preserve them.

To help “give back” at least a little of what she feels the land has given her, she became a founder of the BayWood Artists, a group of professional landscape artists dedicated to preserving open space and habitat restoration through benefit exhibitions.

She is a signature member of NAPPAP (National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters), the American Impressionist Society and the Baywood Artists. She is an Artist member of the California Art Club, the Oil Painters of America, The Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) and the Worldwide Nature Artist Group (WNAG).

She has been a Featured Artist in, among others, the Plein Air Magazine, March 2005, seven page feature article; Art of the West magazine, July-Aug. 2002; Southwest Art Magazine, July 2002; Conservancy Art Shows.com, November, 2000, The Plein Air Scene, September, 1999; and in the May, 2003 issue of Southwest Art.

She has participated in over 100 group shows, and five recent solo shows have featured her work, among them Ansel Adams Gallery in the Sierra, and California Collector’s Gallery in Kentfield. Her paintings have been featured on KRON’sBay Area Backroads three times and are in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.

Among recent invitational or juried exhibits are the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters Exhibit at the National Arts Club, New York, 2005; Colorado 2006 and the Texas Art Gallery 2007, the Napa Valley Museum’s Plein Air Biennial (2003 and 2005); Invitational Paint Out and Exhibition at the Huntington Museum, San Marino, California; Featured Artist at Sequoia National Park, 2006; Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters Annual Exhibit, 2005 & 2006, Colorado; the Oil Painters of America Annual Exhibition at Gallery Americana in Carmel, California; the American Impressionist Society’s first three National Exhibitions in Florida, Ohio, and California; the Millennium Exhibit and Historic California Winery Exhibition at the Riverside Museum and the California Heritage Gallery, San Francisco; the Conservancy Artists Exhibition at Lake Tahoe, California [Blue ribbon award]; Sonoma Plein Air Exhibits, the Sonoma Valley Museum’s “Introducing Sonoma Plein Air;” Marinscapes, Larkspur, California, 11 years, 2004 Featured Artist; MALT’s Ranches and Rolling Hills Exhibits, Featured Artist 2005, Nicasio California and all BayWood Artists Exhibitions.

Jean Stern, Director of the Irvine Museum, says, “Zee Zee reveals her poetic spirit and everything she does. Her landscapes capture the majesty and scope of the scene, but more importantly, they transcend the visual and become more noble through her subtle sense of calm, serenity and awe”.