About the Artist

Lyla Haggard is a lifelong artist . . .who delayed (or stifled) her true artistic expression making a living in the corporate world for twenty-five years. Lyla’s inner artist just couldn’t stand the 60-hour workweeks anymore and demanded to be set free. So, in 1994, she said goodbye to the black and white world of logic and protocols and retired to sunny, technicolor Florida for a lifestyle that provides more time to focus on art. She now resides in South Tampa.

Slightly younger than Grandma Moses when she began to paint seriously, Lyla uses the experiences of middle age as her prime focus. An avid world traveler, she finds the architecture, terrain, colors and vivid light of the Mediterranean—especially the Aegean Greek Isles—to be wonderful stimuli for her use of color regardless of the concept of each work. Her palette, based on the white buildings and red roofs against green mountains and deep blue sea, evokes a particularly calm and pleasing response in the viewer. These scenes evoke warmth, sun and relaxation . . . and simplicity . . . all of which we seek in the second half of life.

Lyla’s family of clay figures also communicates her view of life from the perspective of maturity … . at least, chronological maturity. Most of her figures depict the bodies that most of us own. Few perfect specimens. But her unusual coloration, reflecting her painting style, gives a different kind of beauty to her work. Although whimsical, her clay pieces also strike a chord within about common experiences of the aging process.

EDUCATION AND ART TRAINING

Fine Arts Courses: Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Art Academy, Cincinnati; University of South Florida, Tampa; Ringling School of Design, Sarasota; Art School of the Aegean, Greece; College of Design, Architecture and Art of University of Cincinnati.