It Started With Her Wanting to Draw Her Three Daughter’s Portraits

Virginia Dale Clark Levy has always been interested in art, but became more interested when she was raising her three daughters and wanted to draw their portraits. Virginia attended Michigan State College, where she majored in Journalism. She worked as a reporter for the Lansing State Journal and the Bay City Times, before moving to Washington, DC to raise her family. Virginia received her Master’s in Fine Arts at American University.

She has painted portraits for three different university presidents, including Robert Gates at American University.  Virginia is a well known portrait painter and has a step dedicated to her at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. She has sold many of her paintings and her favorite artist is Edgar Degas, a well-known French Impressionist. One of Virginia’s favorite portraits is that of her daughter, Claudia, as a teenager holding one of the family’s cats. Virginia has taught an art workshop in Potomac every week since 1998, with a focus in portrait painting. At 101 years old, she shows no signs of slowing down.