Stephanie Deshpande

Stephanie Deshpande (born 1975) is a contemporary American painter, best known for her portraits and narrative paintings. Her work is inspired by John Singer Sargent, and deals with personal allegorical themes. She currently lives in northern New Jersey.

Deshpande attended high school in Massachusetts, and completed a BFA with honors in painting at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1997. In 1996 she studied at the Ingbretson Studio in Framingham and was instructed in the “Boston School” method by Meg Mercier. She was awarded the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship to attend the Yale Summer School of Music and Art in 1996. She continued her studies at the New York Academy of Art earning her MFA in 1999. While attending NYAA, she studied under Vincent Desiderio and Steven Assael. She teaches at the Teaching Studios of Art located in Long Island, NYand at Chelsea Classical Studio of Fine Art in New York City

The Fall

Exploring The Basement

Assembling The Pieces

Deshpande is involved in promoting recognition of women in the arts. She currently chairs the New Media Relations committee of Portrait Society of America's the Cecilia Beaux Forum. Her work has been included in several Women Painting Women exhibitions, and appeared on the Woman Painting Women website. Her articles about the importance of classical training in the arts have appeared in Artists on Art Magazine and on the Cecilia Beaux Forum blog.

Deshpande has received recognition for her paintings by the Portrait Society of America, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, the Art Renewal Center, Allied Artists of America, and Oil Painters of America. Her work appeared in publications including Poets and Artists Magazine, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, The Artist's Magazine, Artists on Art, Artistsnetwork, the New York Optimist, and Arte Fuse. Her paintings have been shown nationally in juried and invitational exhibitions in New York, New Jersey, Florida, South Carolina, and California. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art. She is represented by Arundel Contemporary in West Sussex, England.

Deshpande works in oil paint, and paints figures, portraits, narratives, and still lives. She often uses chiaroscuro to create a dramatic tone in her paintings. Her depiction of female characters is realistic and focuses more on an internal dialog than on the external beauty of her subjects. Her themes often include playing cards, games, electricity, light/shadows, dolls, children, religion, and the dynamics between people.In "The Fall" (2013), Deshpande explores darker themes inspired by life and dreams. Using a predominantly warm palette and closely related values in The Fall was a choice Stephanie Deshpande made to “up” the thematic intensity but also to establish the figure as having an equal part in the narrative as the child’s toys. The young girl in the painting is Deshpande’s daughter. It’s an intimate scene Deshpande imagined one day in the car, but it’s also slightly sinister, made all the more so by Deshpande’s other inspiration for the painting—a nightmare in which she witnessed a child falling to the ground (that child is represented by raggedy andy).

In 2016, Deshpande was one of the artists who participated in the Emanuel Nine Portrait Project at Principle Gallery, honoring the victims of the Charleston Church shooting. She painted the portrait of Myra Thompson, one of the nine victims.

• 2015, Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor, Allied Artists of America
• 2015, Award winner, 8th Annual Fine Art Competition, RayMar Art
• 2014, 1st Merit, Non-Commissioned Portrait, Member’s Only Competition, PSoA
• 2014, American Artist Professional League Award, CLWAC 118th Annual Open Exhibition
• 2014, John Young-Hunter Memorial Award for Painting, Allied Artists of America
• 2014, Honorable Mention for painting in Artist’s Magazine’s 30th Annual Art Competition
• 2014, June Best of Show, RayMar Art Competition
• 2014, ARC Staff Prize, 2013/2014 ARC International Salon, Art Renewal Center
• 2012, Honorable Mention for painting in Artist’s Magazine’s 29th Annual Art Competition
• 2012, Best in Show, Images 2012: The Juried Exhibition of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Robeson Gallery, PA

• Allied Artists of America, Inc. 102nd Annual Exhibition. New Castle, PA: Typography and Printing: Commercial Printing Company. September 3, 2015. p. 17. 
• "RayMar Art Painting Competition 2014-2015 8th Annual Competition Winners". www.raymarartcontest.com. RayMar Art, Inc. Retrieved 18 February 2016. 
• "2014 Non-Commissioned Winners". www.portraitsociety.org. The Portrait Society of America. Retrieved 18 February 2016. 
• "29th Annual Art Competition: Portrait Figure" (PDF). www.artistsnetwork.com. F+W. Retrieved 19 February 2016. 
• "Raymar Art Painting Competition Finalists (8th Annual Competition Month #3 - June 2014)". www.raymarartcontest.com. RayMar Art, Inc. Retrieved 18 February 2016. 
• "Additional Awards". www.artrenewal.org. Art Renewal Center. Retrieved 18 February 2016. 
• Haas, Cherie. "Portrait/Figure Winners in the 2012 Annual Art Competition". www.artistsnetwork.com. F+W. Retrieved 18 February 2016. 
• Rosenblum, Chris (July 1, 2012). "Living Local: Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts Images 2012" (PDF). centredaily.com. Centre Daily Times. Retrieved 18 February 2016.