Andrea Swiedler

Art has been my passion for many years, I attended the Fine Arts Program at Arizona State University. I focused on pottery, drawing and painting. Years pass, obligations pile up, children come and I worked in health care for many years. In 2000 I decided I needed a change and went into real estate, covering Litchfield and upper Fairfield County. A friend gifted me my first digital camera to take photos of my listings, and that was all it took, I was hooked. Not sure of what to do with my photographs, I used them in my blogging, which was not only about real estate but about the beauty of Litchfield County, about current events, about our wonderful history. My blog entries were chosen to be featured many times and I received multiple contacts from prospective clients because of my blogging efforts. Writing is also a passion of mine and has been for as long as I can remember, so being able to marry words and photographs was extremely rewarding.

I was very busy with real estate, both with clients and serving in many capacities on our local and state real estate boards, from president to state director, secretary, etc. I also became proficient at marketing to stay on top of the curve as our markets went through tough times. My photography was always in the forefront of everything I did. I am also an admitted computer geek, building my own, learning how to build my own websites with Wordpress, I really enjoyed the challenge. Now that I have retired my real estate website I will be creating a Wordpress site for my art using my custom url.

After being encouraged by other artists all over the country I had met through my blogging, I decided to try my hand at selling my art online. First I joined FineArtAmerica, then Redbubble. On FAA, my art has been featured many times, voted on by other artists from all over the globe. I also discovered what some call "paintography", using Photoshop to enhance my photographs. I was approached by a greeting card company to purchase one of my snow photos for a Christmas card, it is still sold to this day.

I absolutely love taking photographs of our beautiful area covered in snow. Old farms, equipment, silos, cows, barns, and of course fall in new England top my list of favorites as well as creating Christmas cards.

Due to a cancer diagnosis, everything stopped for a while as I worked hard to put myself back in shape and be cancer free. My work, both photography and real estate stopped while I was recovering from surgery and complications from surgery. I have decided to refocus and rededicate my time on my photography and my paintography and am in the process of winding down my real estate career.

I have lived in New Milford and surrounding areas for almost 45 years. I have two grown daughters, three very active grandsons and am married to a ballet master from the former Soviet Union. I was born outside of Boston, lived there for 13 years, moved to a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere in Arizona where I worked hard and fell in love with cows and the desert. From there to Atlanta, and soon realized I am a New Englander at heart, came to Connecticut and have never looked back. Those who are fortunate enough to live in Litchfield County have what I believe to be the most beautiful scenery to fill the senses, and it makes for excellent photo opportunities.

Andrea Swiedler, "Blue Silo"

Andrea Swiedler, "The Farmer's Hands"

Andrea Swiedler, "Orange Throated Ruby Throated Male Hummingbird 2"

Andrea Swiedler, "Vintage Gas Pump"

Andrea Swiedler, "Vintage Tractor 3 Falling Snow"

Andrea Swiedler, "Winter Farm Scenes BW1 Morning Fog"