After a 15 year tenure in Washington, DC, Shoshanna Ahart moved to Eichstaett, Germany, in September, 2003. Just one hour north of Munich situated on the Altmuehl River, Eichstaett is known for its stunning architecture and picturesque landscape. For more than twenty years, architecture has been the primary motif for Ahart’s artwork and Eichstaett, affectionately referred to as “the baroque jewel in the heart of Bavaria,” provided the perfect inspiration for her.

Working from direct observation has always been Ahart’s preferred method. Armed with her easel, painting cart and art materials, Ahart works outdoors to capture what she calls the “sense of place” of her architectural subjects. Trained as an oil painter, Ahart began working with pastels in 1992 on the advice of artist and mentor, Wayne Thiebaud. Since then she has developed a unique pastel technique, which gives her work a painterly quality. “Often the works are mistaken for oils, but they are created with chalk pastel,” says Ahart. “I call them pastel paintings, because whatever my medium – oils, watercolor, pastel – I am painting.” Ahart’s exquisitely rendered pastels are drenched with color and brimming with light. These works give viewers a glimpse of her wondrous “new” environment and share Ahart’s fascination with her beautiful surroundings.

Originally from Illinois, Shoshanna Ahart attended Marietta College in Ohio where she received a BA in Art/Honors in Art, with a minor in Theatre. In 1988, Ms. Ahart moved to Washington, DC, to attend American University and after receiving an MFA in Painting, opened her Georgetown art studio in 1991. During her fifteen years in Washington, DC, Ms. Ahart taught both painting and drawing and was an invited guest artist-lecturer to a number of institutions, including The National Building Museum. And, utilizing her theatrical background worked as a freelance properties designer, designing productions in Washington, DC.

In 1992, Ms. Ahart was one of three artists chosen from a nationwide competition to receive a Career Advancement in the Visual Arts (CAVA) Fellowship from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts in Miami, Florida. As a CAVA Fellow, she spent four months for three consecutive years as an artist-in-residence in South Beach, the historic Art Deco District of Miami Beach, Florida. At the end of the residency period, the Foundation funded an exhibition in Miami of Ahart’s work, which featured the Miami Beach Deco District.

In addition, Ms. Ahart was a guest-artist-in-residence to Germany three times through the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts’ International Exchange Competition. She received the first of these residencies in 1995, when she spent six weeks at the Oberpfaelzer Kuenstlerhaus in southern Germany. The second international residency took Ahart to Schloss Plueschow, near the Baltic Coast in northeastern Germany. In 1998, she received a joint invitation from the Virginia Center and the Oberpfaelzer Kuenstlerhaus to return to Schwandorf, Germany as guest-artist-in-residence. During the period of 1988 to 1998 Ms. Ahart was the only American artist to have been selected twice for the International Exchange.