Riverview Art School & Gallery

Information may not be reliable

Elaine Sgambati was born in Jersey City, N.J. and raised in Union City in a family of designers, musicians and artists. Self taught since she was 3, Elaine did not begin her formal art training until she was 21 years old when she took her first oil painting class at the Ridgewood Art Institute. She knew immediately that this was her medium and studied the whole of the subject including still life, florals, landscape, seascape and portrait painting. Her principal teachers were Arthur Maynard and Frank Giovinazzo. Four years later she was invited to join the faculty and taught a landscape class for adults and a teenage class for fifteen years. Her move to Vernon Valley, N.J. opened up an opportunity for extensive plein air painting. Other opportunities for outdoor study took place in Monhegan Island. Maine, Warwick and Chester N.Y., Pocono Mountains, and Bucks County, P.A. the Hudson River Valley & towns bordering the Hudson River. Landscape painting became her passion and her love for the Hudson River School painters is evident in her work. Elaine furthered her art education at the Art Students League of New York, which brought her the opportunity to exhibit in this area, mainly the Salmagudi Club, the World Trade Center, Lever House and ABC Studios. Sales and commissions followed this exposure as well as representation in major galleries in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Her paintings hang in many private and public collections in this country and abroad, and through the years have received numerous, prestigious awards including:
The American Artists Professional League Ann Waldron Award.
American Artists Professional League First Place Still Life, First Place Marine,
American Artists Professional League, N.J. State Show,

Elaine's work is featured in the book To The Shore Once More
Volume Two by Frank Finale and on the cover of a book of poetry by John Fields, Reflections on a Long Life.
Her teaching experience includes 15 years at the Ridgewood Art Institue, Ridgewood, N.J. 9 yrs at the Ocean County Artist Guild, Island Heights, N.J. 14 years at the Riverview Art School, Island Heights, N.J. which she owns and operates with her husband, Bill.