Poli's Dogs (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780984785001)

Nicoletta Poli was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, but moved to Molfetta, Italy at the age of three. She began drawing at a very young age and was inspired by her father, Paulo Poli, who was also a painter. She returned to the United States with her family in 1968 and went on to graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. In 1982, during a visit to Provincetown, Cape Cod, she fell in love with the town and realized that there she could devote her life to her great love, painting. She immersed herself in the process of creating art, painting along with other artists and being inspired by the many well-known artist that have lived there. As a self-taught artist, Poli approaches the canvas liberated from theories and doctrine. Immediately evident in her work are her bold choices of color and strong use of line. Poli is known for her elegant and whimsical canvases of animals, especially dogs. Her personal dogs were all rescued when she was living part-time in Tennessee in the 1990's. These dogs form the core of her work, and often generate commissioned work from customers wanting a painting of their own pet. "They give me great subject matter to paint and I can portray my love for them through my paintings," Poli says, "with a simple stoke and vivid color, I'm able to capture their true essence." In 2000, Poli opened the Poli Gallery in Provincetown, MA -"a dream come true."There she incorporates her dog paintings, still-lives and landscapes and accepts commissioned pet portraits. "As an animal lover it gives me great joy to paint not only my beautiful dogs and cat, but also beloved pets of others." "When you paint a painting of a dog or cat, they come to life. Their memory and soul lives on."