Billy Solitario finds beauty among the sand dunes, coastal savannas, and barrier islands along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast. Solitario was born March 19, 1972, in Manhattan Beach, California, where his father worked on the Apollo space program. While he was still a child, his family moved to Gautier, Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico. There he spent his childhood exploring and drawing the marshes, beaches and wildlife of the Mississippi Sound. In 1994 Billy graduated from University of South Florida in Tampa with a B.F.A. Solitario then moved to New Orleans and enrolled in The New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. With the reception of the Gwendolyn Ozols Scholarship Award he was able to study Classical painting, with its strong emphasis on drawing, full time. In 2005, he began teaching landscape and portrait painting at the Academy. In 2003, Solitario received a Master of Fine Arts from Tulane University in New Orleans, where he taught drawing and painting from 2001 to 2003. Solitario, who refers to himself as a “classic realist”, explores various subjects, including landscapes, figure and still life paintings. Solitario says he is inspired by seeking the truth in Nature. He emphasizes that nature can be both beautiful and brutal. Billy Solitario’s still life works honor the rainbow of colors found in the crabs, oysters, and crawfish native to the Gulf Coast. Today Billy splits his time between the Gulf Coast and his gallery in uptown New Orleans.