Despite winning first prize in a country art show at the age of six, Roxie Munro didn't take her talent seriously until her sophomore year at the University of Maryland. "I'll never forget the day when I became an artist - October 20, 1964," recalls Munro. "I was drawing a figure, and when the professor came by, I realized my drawing was very good and I could do real art, not just high school stuff. Back in my dorm room I put my drawings up on the wall, and I remember saying to myself, 'If I can be an artist, I'll work hard. I'll give my whole life to it."Living up to that promise, Roxie Munro has achieved considerable acclaim as both a fine artist and an editorial illustrator. She earned a BFA in painting and drawing from the University of Hawaii, where she feels her sense of color awakened. Graduate school at Ohio University lasted only one year because Ohio was "too gray" after the resplendence of Hawaii. From Ohio she travelled to Washington DC where she lived for 10 years, supporting herself doing illustrations for The Washington Post and The Associated Press and doing television courtroom art, covering trials for CBS affiliates and other TV networks. The Watergate sentencing was among the more sensational courtroom scenes she sketched.In the mid-70's, Munro began taking the train to New York City to see galleries and get illustration work. The New Yorker magazine bought ink drawings immediately, and in 1981 bought one of her paintings for the cover piece. She moved to New York City within the month. Fourteen of Munro's paintings have since been featured as covers of New Yorker magazine. In addition to New Yorker covers, Munro has illustrated numerous non-fiction books about architecture, most notably "The Inside-Outside Book of New York City," which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year. Her maze books are translated into several languages.Roxie Munro spends most of her artistic time at present concentrating on painting and books. She is involved with the urban landscape... "I don't like to paint with green", says the artist, "hence very little nature in my work...I like man-made things, environments, machines...sometimes the same scene at different times of day and season. I think of my work like music...patterns, colors, harmonies, relationships. I love to play around with creating interesting spaces in paintings and use paint heavily, with texture.." Equally comfortable in both watercolor and oil, Munro's work is most notable for its graceful line quality and luminous color. Particularly unique is her wonderful originality, magical imagination, and great sense of fun.Munro's work has been shown in exhibitions in museums throughout the United States as well as in England and Canada. It is included in major corporate and private collections. Roxie Munro has won fellowships at the artists' colony Yaddo. She travels frequently with her Swedish photographer / writer husband and teaches an art workshop each summer on the shores of Lake Como in Italy.