Anthony C. Billings, M.D. - Antonio Bellini

 

I am Italian, and like many of my ancestors, art has always fascinated me. As a child I spent hours drawing cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck and Tom and Jerry. In 1962 while in medical school, I was stood up by a beautiful woman. As I licked my wounds, I bought paints and painted my first oil painting of a sad woman in a lonely city.  Sculpting using the lost wax process captured my attention in the 1960s and 1970s and I won an award for a woman swinging a baby at a city wide juried show at the Houston Art Museum. 

 

In 1973 I launched my private practice as a surgeon and enjoyed Neurological Surgery for thirty two years in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During that time I painted as a passion and hobby. I also became interested in Bonsai Trees and exhibited my bonsai collection at the local and national level and won both national and local awards for my trees. During this time in what little spare time I had, I also enjoyed painting workshops at various art schools.

 

 In 2005 I retired my Neurosurgical Practice and moved to Mesa, AZ where I was shocked and astounded to learn I needed a heart by-pass surgery. I went from surgeon to patient and gained a whole new understanding of the value of health, vitality and wellness. With encouragement from my wife Dawn, I became the neurosurgeon painter with heart and at her recommendation, began hiding a heart in each of my paintings to remind myself and those who collect my work that art, life and joy are about the heart we put into them. I have vigorously pursued my passion for oil painting, while donating a great deal of time and work to help causes important to me. Rachell Hall's work with women is one of those causes dear to my heart.

 

I consider myself a figurative painter. I especially enjoy painting lovely women in both exotic and mundane compositions. I want viewers to feel when they experience my paintings. A painting should evoke a sense of beauty or feelings of past memories as expressed in the colors and and content of the work itself. 

 

As I became more serious in becoming a professional artist, I began signing paintings under my ancestral Italian name, Antonio Bellini.