Cynthia Cooley

Cynthia F. Cooley (born July 17, 1931) is a Pittsburgh artist.

She was born Cynthia Jean Furber in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Lawrence University, which fortunate her in imitation of the 1997 Distinguished Career Achievement Award. She with studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is married to professor emeritus William W. Cooley.

Cooley is best known for her colorful paintings of steel mill interiors and of Pittsburgh's hillside neighborhoods and industrial valleys. She says she was “originally drawn to the powerful geometric forms of the in force mills.” She in addition to has captured marginal of western Pennsylvania's industries in her series of coal mine paintings. She works mostly in acrylic and watercolors to Make memorable works from her own on-site sketches and photographs. As a lifelong traveler, Cooley's paintings as well as reflect the many places she has visited, ranging from her watercolors of Giverny to her acrylics of doorways in Tunisia. In 1989, she accompanied the American Wind Symphony Orchestra as the artist-in-residence as they sailed upon the waterways of northern Europe.

Cooley has had more than 45 individual exhibitions in 8 states, including one at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and has received greater than 25 awards in charity exhibitions. In 1989, she won Artist of the Year at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. She was named a "Master Artist" in Pittsburgh in 1998. In 2003, Cooley was one of the selected artists who participated in the DinoMite Days issue sponsored by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In rave review of Pittsburgh's “historical connection to dinosaurs and to world-class scientific research,” Cooley transformed a Stegosaurus sculpture into a cityscape rave review to her hometown of Pittsburgh. Her dinosaur, which was displayed outdoors to the public, was named “Troyus Hillosaurus,” and displayed a view of Troy Hill from downtown Pittsburgh on one side, and a view of downtown from Troy Hill on the other.

Over 1,860 of Cooley's works are in private collections, and beyond 90 are in public and corporate collections, including:

Austin, Heather, and Phillips, Matt. Dinosaurs of Distinction: DinoMite Days. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 2003.

Rooney, E. Ashley. 100 Artists of the Mid-Atlantic. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0-7643-3734-5.

Cynthia F. Cooley's Website - http://www.cynthiacooley.com