Eileen Lyons is a fourth-generation painter. A resident of Jupiter, FL, she previously lived and worked as an artist and arts educator in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area for more than 20 years. Her work has been intimately shaped by the changes in her environment and by the experiences that come with each new stage of life.
Born and raised on Long Island, NY, Lyons spent countless hours by the ocean, drawing and internalizing the natural settings around her. As a teenager, she moved to West Palm Beach, FL, where she graduated from Cardinal Newman High School and attended adult drawing classes at the Norton Museum of Art. She received a BFA in painting from St. Mary’s College of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN. After graduation, she moved to Germany, where she concentrated on technical drawing, cartography and military illustration for the United States government.
Upon her return from Europe, Lyons lived and worked in New York City for several years before settling into the Washington, DC area. Lyons attended the American University in Washington, DC and received an MA in Museum Studies. Her artwork developed through master’s-level drawing and painting classes at the Corcoran School of the Arts & Design. While building a new body of work, Lyons also attended the University of Virginia, where she earned certification to teach secondary education. She taught high school studio art in Washington, DC, for decades.
Lyons moved back “home” to Florida in the summer of 2018. She is now painting full-time from her studio in Jupiter, and will also be teaching adult art classes at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, FL, starting in the fall of 2019. Lyons remains on staff as a Teaching Artist for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where she conducts adult drawing workshops throughout the year. Her work is exhibited widely, and can be found in many private collections across the United States and Canada.