Bio
photo by Natalie Bryt 2008
I was born in New York City in 1965 and grew up the middle of five children, in New Mexico, New Jersey and New York. I studied photography with Christopher James and art history with Simon Schama in addition to studying English and American Literature before graduating in 1987 from Harvard College.
After working as a freelance photographer for a few years, for the J. Crew catalog and other clients, I started a family with my husband Bartley Bryt. I wrote and illustrated Baby Love: A Tradition of Calm Parenting (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1998) based on what my mother, a third-generation midwife from Holland, taught me about taking care of babies.
To develop a lifelong interest in painting, I then studied oil painting and pastels with Sharon Sprung, Michele LiCalsi, Lorraine Shemesh and Wolf Kahn at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts in New York. Now I live and work in New York with my family. I am currently studying drawing at the New York Studio School with Graham Nickson, John Lees and Ron Milewicz.