Born in Colombia in 1953, Cecilia del Toro is a Colombian and American talented contemporary painter. She is a very versatile artist who masters oil painting, jewelry and metals, pen and ink, glass, ceramic and porcelain painting.

A trained physician, Cecilia was a general practitioner and surgeon in her native Colombia for over 25 years. It was her love for music, dance, poetry and Nature that eventually prevailed and led her to devote her full time to the Arts. She was soon to become a recognized artist. Cecilia has three daughters and a grandson. 

Versatility and creative talents are the foundation of her genius as an artist. Her work displays artistic originality delivered with scientific precision. The richness and variety of her many forms of expression echo her background of solid intellect. As a physician Cecilia published treatises on Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) with the same skill and passion she now displays in her artistic work.

Cecilia began her formal art training as a porcelain painter in Hamburg, Germany. In 2003 Cecilia moved to Rockville, MD, where she received a AA in Arts and Sciences at Montgomery College. As a student at MC she was honored with several awards for her artistic work, with particular emphasis in the areas of painting and jewelry. 

A key feature in Cecilia's work is her unique use of sunlight and color, which she regards as "perhaps the main characteristic of my work."  "Sunlight and color are particularly important to me," explains Cecilia, "because they reflect my inner self, along with my intense love for Nature and all its creatures". 

Cecilia enjoys 'naturalism' and 'sensuality,' and she loves to paint faces. Among the Old Masters, she is a fervent admirer of Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. She also holds great admiration for the Impressionists, in particular for the lives and work of Renoir and Monet -- even though she admits to prefer to integrate a marked sense of spirituality in her own work. 

Cecilia likes to explain that her love for Art started at the moment she was born. "Art comes from my ancestors; it is in my genes," she says. Indeed, her father was an active intellectual who loved philosophy, wrote poetry, and played harmonica. One of her brothers is a musician, and two of her daughters are accomplished painters. 

Cecilia was born in Plato, Department of the Magdalena, in Colombia, a place known as the "Crocodile Man City" -- a small but prosperous city with a rich and intense folklore and active cultural life. As a young adolescent, Cecilia moved from her provincial Plato to the more cosmopolitan city of Barranquilla, where she came to know, and to love, its famous "Carnival" -- a popular festival of colors and rhythm. Soon she was at home in the richer cultural environment, enjoying not only the sunny and colorful tones of the Caribbean islands she often portrays in her work, but also the local tropical rhythms, particularly Salsa and Cuban music, to which she loves to dance to this day.