BIOGRAPHY
RALPH GARAFOLA was raised in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and he studied at the Art Students League of New York for seven years. He was an assistant to Frank J. Reilly, instructor at the League and Commissioner of Art for New York City.
Ralph Garafola has made a living as an artist for 50 years; and brings a traditional style to his oil and watercolor paintings of portraits, landscapes, seascapes and still life. He frequently travels throughout the South and Florida, Italy, England and France to photograph, sketch and paint various subjects and locations for his future paintings, while studying the works of Old Masters. He presently teaches at the duCret School of Art, Plainfield, NJ, Art Center of Sarasota, and Longboat Key Art Center of the Ringling College of Art and Design. He is a member of the Art Center of Manatee, Longboat Key and Sarasota Art Centers. His works hang in private collections in California, Florida, New York, New Jersey, South Carolina and Virginia.
Garafola‘s portraits and still life capture the personality and character of his subjects, while his landscapes and seascapes capture the mood of the scenes. “All of my paintings are portraits. Whether my subject is a person, a landscape, a seascape or a still life, my approach is to portray my subject in its natural environment. It puts the viewer inside the painting”, says Garafola. “My paintings realistically depict what nature has created”, he says. NJ Savvy Living Magazine featured him as one of the three premier portrait artists in New Jersey in its fall 2000 Issue.
Garafola
was the recipient of a Certificate of Excellence at the International
2000 Portrait Arts Festival of the American Society of Portrait Artists
Foundation held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
He also won First Place at Long Boat Key Art Center in 2008, First Place
in the Anna Maria Art League Show, Fla. in 2005, Honorable Mention in
2005 at the Park Avenue Club, Florham Park, NJ, the 2000 Marion Anderson
Memorial Award for Portraiture at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts
in Summit and won Honorable Mention at the Juried Show of the Les Malamut
Gallery in Union. Other awards included the Grumbacher Gold Medallion
Award, Best in Show at Somerset Art Association, Gold Medal from the
Art Directors Club of New Jersey, Award for Excellence at the Mountain
Art Show and numerous other awards.
Garafola exhibits on a regular basis at Sarasota Art Center, Longboat
Key, Anna Maria Island and other Florida galleries. You can also see
Garafola’s work NJ at the Somerset Art Association, Watchung Art
Association, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Ridgewood Art Institute,
Westfield Art Association, Mountain Art Show and Art in the Hills Show.
He has exhibited at the Cloninger Gallery, Jewel Spiegel Gallery; Automatic
Data Processing Headquarters (ADP), Children’s Hospital in Westfield,
Berlex Corporation, Beneficial World Headquarters, Park Avenue Club,
Westfield Art Gallery and Warren Public Library. The artist’s
work was included in the Ridgewood Art Institute’s Catalogue for
1997-99. You can view a complete listing on Garafola’s website,
www.ralphgarafola.com/gallery.html.
Garafola’s portrait of the American Revolutionary martyr, Major General Joseph Warren, hangs in Warren Township’s Municipal Courtroom. Garafola’s recently commissioned portraits included a portrait of Lora Codington, philanthropist; Jamie DiNardo, Equestrienne/Champion Rider; Charles McDowell Sr., former law professor at Washington and Lee University of Lexington, VA; Franklyn Babbit, airplane pilot, entrepreneur of Myrtle Beach, SC; the late Rev. Michael A. McGuire, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, South Plainfield, NJ; Monica as a young child of Somerset County, NJ; Jackie LeClaire, Ringling Brothers Clown; Lorraine; Victor DiLeo, Realtor/Business Owner in Central New Jersey; James and his dog Duke and Bobby and his dog Butchie. Garafola is currently working on a full length, life-size portrait of Nicholas, a Fencing Champion.
Garafola was featured in The Star Ledger, Asbury Park Press, Courier News, The Home News, The Journal Newspaper, B.Savvy Magazine of Central New Jersey, Warren Business and Professional Newspaper, New Jersey Savvy Living Magazine, The Warren Historical Society Newsletter, Long Island Power and Sail Magazine, Sino Monthly Magazine, Portrait Signature-Journal of the American Society of Portrait Artists and on the Homebuyers Shopping Channel on Cable TV.
Garafola
maintains a studio and gallery in his Warren, New Jersey home. During
the winter months he works at a studio in the Sarasota, Florida area.
Garafola is available for private lessons.
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