Camille Engel
Camille Engel (born April 21, 1955) is a self-taught American realist painter currently living in Nashville, TN. Her diverse pictorial themes include contemporary still lifes, landscapes, fruits and flowers, trompe-l'œils, figuratives, and animal portraits. She is best known as a bird artist depicting sharply realistic, colorful birds of intricate detail and textures, characteristically breaking through torn trompe-l'œil holes in her art paper. Engel's work has been repeatedly featured in "Southwest Art," "The Artist's Magazine," "International Artist." Her oeuvre has received numerous awards, among them the People's Choice Award at the Gilcrease Museum 's “American Art in Miniature” exhibition in 2008, and the third place of the Artistic Excellence Competition by "Southwest Art" in 2015. Career. Engel was born in Tulsa, OK. She attended junior college at Tulsa Tech, majoring in fine arts while working as a graphic designer in a department store. She continued working in graphic design for a number of years until establishing her own design firm, first in Tulsa (in 1974) and then in Nashville in 1984, where she served corporate clients such as Random House, Fruit of the Loom, Aladdin, MCA, and RCA. She also designed music album  covers for a number of artists including George Strait, Reba McEntire, Randy Travis, Hank Williams, Jr. She began painting in 2000 under the guidance of realist painter Charles Brindley. Praise at the gallery scene and competition success came shortly after. She has been painting on a full-time basis since 2003. Awards. Engel's painting "Strike A Pose" has won the following distinctions: Awards for other works: