About Sharon Hunter Putsch

Sharon was born and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. Always the artist, she took the bus and street car to the Kansas City Art Institute for Saturday classes, at the age of 12. After high school, she attended Baker University, and the Kansas City Art Institute. Sharon got married, had three children, and decided to go back to school at the age of 28. She earned an undergraduate degree from Avila College, which is now Avila University. She taught at a suburban public high school for nine years while pursuing a graduate degree from University of Missouri, Kansas City. It was there that she completed her first Heirloom Painting, depicting her  own family after the death of her mother as a gift to her father. She left teaching in 1981 to serve as the Director of Admissions at the Kansas City art Institute. After moving to Washington D.C. in 1984, she worked as the Director of Membership at the national headquarters of the American Institute of Architects. In 1986, Sharon became the Director of Admissions at the Corcoran School of Art, teaching drawing and painting in the adult continuing education program, and then became Associate Dean of the college. In 1991, Sharon and her husband, Henry E. Putsch were recruited as a team to lead Lyme Academy, a small art center in Old Lyme, Connecticut, to full accreditation as a college offering a BFA degree.

Sharon's first studio was above the Connecticut River Museum, with a stunning view of the river below. Every morning from 5:30-8:30 she observed the sunrise over the river, which prompted a watercolor and oil painting River Series. Old Saybrooke, Connecticut was the home of her second studio. Deep in the woods-filled state, she missed midwestern skies, which spurred her watercolor series Memory Landscapes. It was then that she returned to Family Heirloom Paintings, as well. Semi-retiring in 2003, Sharon moved to a downtown New Haven studio on Chapel Street. The view from her window- an urban street, filled with people waiting for the bus-- inspired her Bus Stop print series. She worked as a Development Consultant at the Creative Arts Workshop, where she enjoyed free access to the printmaking department. In 2007, Sharon and her husband moved back to her hometown of Kansas City and settled into a new studio and condo in Crown Center area in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. In 2009, Sharon began teaching watercolor, figure and portrait drawing and painting in the School for Continuing and Professional Studies, at the Kansas City Art Institute. To date, she has completed 16 Family Heirloom commissions.

She finds joy in her painting, and is energized by teaching-- and she has come full circle, back home to the Kansas City Art Institute.

Hunter is self-represented and takes clients on a limited basis. Inquire about her availability: