Hi, my name is Monika Harmund Csanyi. I‘m an award-winning Hungarian-American contemporary oil painter. Creating art has been a part of my life since I first held a pencil in my hand, and I love sharing my colorful world with others. As an oil painter, I find inspiration in fragments of nature and manmade world. I love to see things from a different perspective, which perspective is also a part of our reality. My main goal is to open the eyes of the viewer by expressing my feelings and thoughts through focusing on simple everyday things. This way I would like to help others to realize how beautiful and colorful our life is. I would like to build bridges between the fantastic world around us and the people who appreciate the tiny, but precious and timeless moments. After moving to Florida in 2008 I've started my new career as a freelance graphic designer. In my spare time as usually I continued drawing, but I really missed new techniques in my artwork, so I tried traditional oils. At the very moment I touched the canvas with the brush, I knew I didn’t want to deal with anything else but oil painting. I consider myself a self-taught painter, but of course I was influenced by a lot of artists – including my middle school art teacher who was an illustrator. She was the first one back in 1991 who told me that I’m really talented and I have to be an artist. Here in the USA I was tutored by Tom Sadler landscape painter. MY STYLE My work is representational - sometimes with a little twist of impressionistic or abstract elements. I tend to paint series in regard to the exploration of a particular theme or image. My oil paintings can be recognized from strong, intense colors and meticulously elaborated subjects. My biggest passion is water, especially rain, and I’m working on a series using this element. I live in Central-Florida, in a quiet suburban area near to the Wekiva State Park, so I enjoy the rain every day from May until October. This really influences my work, such as my European origin. I was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary – surrounded by rich culture, amazing architecture and treasures of nature, so my memories and experiences constantly inspire me. I had 27 gallery exhibitions and I won 26 awards to date. I have paintings in private collections in the US, UK, France, Belgium and Hungary. I am an associate member of Oil Painters of America (OPA), National Oil and Acrylic Painters' Society (NOAPS), American Women Artists (AWA) and the Winter Garden Art Association.