Edith Neff, Flowers in a Vase

This charcoal still-life drawing is one of Edith Neff's earliest works, created while she was still a student. Drawing, the most immediate of media, shows the artist's process of mark-making and erasure, with the final discovery of form.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Neff received a BFA in 1965 from the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), where her teachers included Larry Day and Louis Finkelstein. Her first solo exhibition was in 1969 at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Her work was featured in numerous juried and group shows in Philadelphia including the 1974 landmark exhibition featuring eighty-one contemporary women artists, Woman's Work: American Art 1974.