November Artist of the Month
Meet Teresa Higgins
Teresa Higgins grew up outside of Washington, D.C. in a family of artists. “I didn’t pursue art because I 
wanted to be different”, Teresa recalls, “art, however, kept calling me”. In high school Higgins found her creative outlet in both theater and art. She attended the University of Maryland where, with a plan to teach speech and theater, she majored in education, with specialization in speech and theater and minored in English. Her roommate was majoring in art and “was carving balsa wood sculptures while I was reading Shakespeare and agreed to share her art supplies with me”. She encouraged Higgins to move to Boston and take graduate art classes at Massachusetts College of Art.
Upon moving to Boston, Higgins taught English at Boston Latin while taking landscape and portrait painting courses at night. She moved to the painter’s paradise of Marblehead and while teaching speech and theater by day, she developed her painting and exhibited with great success. She eventually moved back to the Boston area and found new inspiration in her son. “I had this beautiful little boy…children are so wonderful to paint.” She moved to Natick where she was able to create a third floor studio in her home. There she began focusing on pastel portraits of children.
“Many of my portrait clients were decendents of Ralph Williams Williams’ clients! They thought my style was similar to his. He was the artist who created the Breck shampoo magazine ads and one of my first inspirations as a kid.” At one point Higgins started teaching realistic drawing classes to her son’s elementary school friends. She loved it and developed a program for children, teens and adults. Higgins shared, “I’ve had the unique experience of watching many students develop their skills from 3rd grade through high school. I recently had 2 of my college graduates return to join my adult class!” She’s now been teaching studio art for 28 years.
While early on she was inspired by Ralph Williams Williams and Norman Rockwell, Higgins later started working more in oils and modeled her work after Gilbert Stuart . Currently she is working on landscapes and seascapes, “trying to loosen up and paint big open spaces” while taking classes in tonalist painting.
Higgins has been a member of the WSA for several years and was a past member of the Copley Society and Pastel Society of America. She believes, “If you are blessed with a creative gift, its important to develop it. It will always energize you, lift you up and bring you peace”.