This beautiful view of Livorno, Italy with a rainbow oil on canvas is by well listed Floridan artist Marvin Steel (1936 - ). Dimensions are 12" x 9". Original wood frame is 3" wide. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Marvin Steel is a painter of romantic realism in oil and pastel. He is a resident of Coconut Creek, Florida, and has work in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art.Steel grew up on Miami Beach, then just a small fishing town. His early interests were: painting, fishing and small boats. When he was an early age, his mother noted his talent in art and started art lessons for him when he was six years old with Miss Brook's, then at the Associated Artists art shop. Marvin Steel studied ten years with Dutch portrait painter, Sam Jafnel, who worked for many years painting portraits at Jenny Grosingers Resort in the Catskill Mountains; at the age of 16, he took private lessons from a Russian impressionist Leo Braschansky; and then, became an apprentice and student with muralist Warren Soned. With Soned, Marvin Steel helped paint many of the art deco murals on South Beach. His high school was a vocational art school with Kenneth Bare who advocated the ideas of Nickoliades. The next schools were: Ringling School Of Art, Sarasota, Florida; The Academia De Bellas Artes; El San Fernando in Madrid, Spain; and University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida where he earned a B.A. in Art.Steel painted in a variety of locations including Miami, Sarasota, Madrid, Lengries Germany in the U.S. Army, and Coconut Creek where he now paints. The person that has influenced Steel more than anyone else is writer Ayn Rand.Steel's ethnic make up is a hodgepodge of almost every country in Europe from the north to the south. Steel's wife's family, the Van Loven's, were cousins of the Van Gogh's. Steel's Father was Barron Le Blumste..... something (changed at some to Bloom). Steel's other achievements are that he beat Blindfold World Chess Champ George Koltonowski at the age of 11; Learned to play the flamenco guitar at an early age, and accompanied members of his family and still plays gypsy flamenco for local dancers.Steel has held jobs as a commercial fisherman, boat builder, bridge tender, bronze foundryman, art teacher, mural painter and art restorer. Marvin was married in 1966 to his model who continues to be seen in many of his paintings. They have one daughter, Roxanne, and a granddaughter, Violet.During the past fifty years Marvin Steel has had numerous exhibitions. His first one man show was at the Warren Soned Gallery, Miami in the 50's; another was at the Ringling School Of Art, Sarasota, Florida. Other one-man shows were at the Holly Daly Herman Palm Beach Gallery, Kottler Gallery, Manhattan and Arthur's, Los Gatos, Calif. Affiliations include professional artist membership in the American Society of Marine Artists, a member of the International Institute of Conservation, and a professional member of the American Institute of Conservation.Some of the special awards are: 50th Annual Exhibit Of Contemporary American Paintings; the Phillip Hulitar Award; The Society Of The Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida; Strathmore Award, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; and the Fort Lauderdale Museum Of Art.Other exhibition venues include:Mystic Seaport Museum Sarasota Art Center Longboat Key Art Center Academia De Bellas Artes, Madrid Boone Art Center, North Carolina San Luis Obispo Art Center, California Town Center Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida Salmagundi Club,N.Y.Lowe Gallery, Coral Gables, FloridaArnold Art Gallery, Newport R.I.