I create life-affirming paintings that communicate the rough beauty present in human brokenness and healing.

My driving interest has always been story and the "text" of shared cultural communication. I came to painting as a humanities educator with interests ranging from museums to public speaking to poetry, but one project — a book about the religious traditions of Deaf people — particularly influenced my visual thinking. Learning the language of signs expanded my sensitivity to interpersonal spaces and visual communication. This way of seeing continues to be a strong influence on my painting language today.

When I paint people, I am a studied realist, but the spaces around them are as varied as the places we call home. Here perception, art history, and interior contemplation interact in intuitive ways. Objects and rooms are metaphors for the darkness and light of our life struggles, while visible textures and imperfections of paint show the unmistakable connection of mind to hand.

I grew up in Texas and now live in Maryland with my husband, portrait photographer Joe Portolano. Together we have six grown daughters — five of them adopted from Ukraine — and an ever-growing, international tribe of grandchildren who sometimes pose for portraits in our home studio.

Join my email newsletter (button below) where I delight in sharing my journey through real and re-imagined worlds.

Lana Portolano is an artist & educator based in the Washington/Baltimore corridor.

Art Education
The Rome Workshops, Rome, Italy (2024, 2026)
Compass Atelier, Kensington, Maryland
Master copyist program, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (ongoing)
*I have workshopped with some of the finest figurative artists working today, including Steven Assael, Roberto Osti, Hollis Dunlap, and Zoey Frank

M.A. English literature & Ph.D. Rhetoric (1997), Catholic University of America

Selected Exhibitions
Accepted for 2027: Solo Show "Learning from Masters/Learning from Life," Bernice Kish Gallery, Columbia, Maryland
2026 6th Biennial Maryland Regional Juried Art Exhibition (BMRE), UMGC Arts Program Gallery, Adelphi, Maryland
2025 National Gallery of Art Master Copyist group show, Nepenthe Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia
2025 Maryland Federation of Art Members Exhibit, Maryland Hall, Annapolis, Maryland
2024 Kensington Paint the Town Plein Air, first place, Kensington, Maryland, Juror: Teresa Oaxaca
2024 Covington Emerging Artist Award, third place, Howard County Maryland, Juror: Robin Holliday

Teaching Background
- Until 2019, I directed the M.A. in Humanities program at Towson University, where I am professor emerita.
- Today I teach drawing & painting out of my home studio and at local community arts centers.
- I have taught literature at the U.S. Naval Academy and poetry at the Johns Hopkins Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning.
- During the pandemic, I created a middle-grades homeschool curriculum based on classical education methods.

Community Service
2025 Portrait life model sessions moderator, Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, Maryland
2024 Canine Humane Network, pet portrait collaborations, Highland, Maryland

Professional Organizations
Portrait Society of America
Maryland Federation of Art
DC Art Model Collective (artist member)

About me

C.V.