I was a creative child who liked to sit at the dining room table and draw. I took art classes at the local library during the summer in the small, rural village where I grew up, in Southern New Hampshire. After high school I studied art in Boston and San Francisco, where I earned a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Using mediums such as acrylic, oil paint encaustic wax, and tempera, Calkins will create scissor-cut paper stencils to make complex paintings on surfaces including wood, paper, or canvas.

Watch Francesconi bring the figure to life in watercolor with a juicy, spirited brush!