Draft:Gaela Erwin

Gaela Erwin is a contemporary painter, based in Louisville, Kentucky. She works in both pastel and oil mediums and is known for her incisive, somewhat morbid self-portraits that draw heavily from 17th century pastel portraiture.

Early Life and Education
Born in Franklin, Indiana in 1951, Erwin began painting as a child, and coming from a family of funeral directors, she chose a skull as the subject of one of her first paintings. She went on to get her B.F.A from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1973 and her M.A in Expressive Therapy from the University of Louisville in 1983.

Career
In 2016, The Speed Art Museum commissioned Erwin to create a series of pastels pieces inspired by the 18th century and 20th century pastels from their collection. The Exhibition was titled "Gaela Erwin: Reframing the Past."

In Recent years, Erwin has expanded from self-portraiture to painting close relatives. She has said that the transition has enabled her "to capitalize on fleeting and dramatic light that would not have been possible without the use of a camera."

Influences
Erwin has explicitly stated that her greatest artistic inspirations have been Rosalba Carriera, Maurice Quentin de la Tour, and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.