arjorie Sarnat has collected beautiful things from an earlier era since childhood. Her extensive collections of vintage ephemera and antique children's books provide vital inspiration for her artwork.

The highly detailed nostalgic fantasy images found in her paintings come from much knowledge gained through a lifelong fascination with earlier time periods.
Marjorie has had a lifelong fascination with art as well. After high school she attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in her home town. Marjorie later enrolled in Eastern Michigan University where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She has also studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, and later with painters, Joe Abbrescia and Max Turner. Marjorie's first career in art education was impressive. She was a fine art instructor at painter Joe Abbrescia's Village Art School in Skokie, Il., and has served as editor-in-chief of Arts & Activities, a national art education magazine.

Her artistic emphasis has always been on the traditional. "I have great respect for the skills displayed by artists of 100 years ago, and I feel a special attraction to their visual world. I scrutinize old time artworks, both whimsical and serious, and try to make my own work look as though it were done long ago, using rich, aged colors and textures. I have found a way to make the surfaces I work on look aged as well."

After moving to California in 1980 Marjorie began a career designing giftware. Many months spent working with factories in various Asian countries has taught her the practical aspects of creating art for the commercial marketplace.

This combination-a warm nostalgic style and technical expertise-makes Marjorie Sarnat unique in the giftware industry.

Marjorie's professional design work appears as lines of collectibles for such companies as Enesco Corp., The San Francisco Music Box Co., and Westland Giftware, and as textile designs for fashion apparel and home products, books of paper dolls, greeting card illustrations, dolls, fine art prints, and more.