NEIL DREVITSON (b. 1944)
Born in 1944 in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Neil Drevitson was exposed to art at an early age by his mother, an accomplished artist, and decided to follow in her footsteps. He attended Vesper George School of Art in Boston, Massachusetts, and spent eight years taking individual classes with several nationally recognized professional artists in New England. He was educated in the Boston School Tradition and has remained a firm proponent of the style throughout his career. Settling in Woodstock, Vermont, with his wife and fellow artist Janice Drevitson, they opened the Drevitson Galleries in 1971 to showcase their work and that of local artists.
Although he has worked in a variety of media, including oil and watercolor, Neil Drevitson found that pastel provided the technique and vibrancy of color he preferred. He developed a keen eye for the abundance of colors found throughout the New England landscape, from the busy harbors and fishing boats of Massachusetts to the scenic valley and rivers of Vermont.
Neil Drevitson has exhibited widely throughout his career, including with the National Arts Club, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, the National Academy of Design, the Salmagundi Club, and the Allied Artists of America. The Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, Massachusetts, held a solo exhibition of his work in 2015. He is a member of the American Watercolor Society, the New England Watercolor Society, the Boston Watercolor Society, the Pastel Society of America, the Pastel Society of Cape Cod, the Salmagundi Club, and the Guild of Boston Artists, where he serves on the board of trustees. His paintings have won numerous awards; he received a bronze medal and The Founders Favorite Award for his watercolor Cobalt Bottle in the 1993 Arts for the Parks National Competition, was the recipient of two Elizabeth T. Greenshields Memorial Foundation Grants, and in 1995 he was selected from over 500 Grumbacher Gold Medal winners to be elected to the Grumbacher Hall of Fame. His works are in many public and private collections across the country, including the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and the Fleming Museum of Art at the University of Vermont.
