Liana M. Moonie

MOONIE, Liana M., of Greenwich CT, and formerly of Palm Beach FL and Scarsdale NY, died peacefully on November 24, 2016 at age 94 after a courageous five-year battle with cancer. Born in 1922 in Trieste, Italy, where she received a master’s in teaching. After World War II, she obtained a two-year visa and travelled to San Francisco where she worked as an assistant to the chairman of the Bank of America, translating documents into Italian for the Italian Marshall Plan. She met her future husband, Clyde W. Moonie, and in 1949 they were married at the Spanish Mission in Carmel. Because of her husband’s accounting and finance business, she raised her family in Mexico, Peru and Chile, before returning to the US in 1965. While she had been taught watercoloring by her talented father, she started painting seriously in 1969 when both of her children left for college and private school. She studied art with Robert Brackman, Edgar Whitney, William Maxwell, Lumen Winters and several other prominent artists. Originally a representational artist, for many years she favored semi and fully abstract painting, and had developed a unique style in creating imaginative paintings in various media, including oil, watercolor, pastel, collage, encaustic, woodcut, etching, monoprint and monotype. Critics have acclaimed her work as "timeless, done with an exquisite sense of design, balance and color harmony" and "holding a sense of movement and excitement" and “possessing great spirituality.” Liana had exhibited in numerous solo shows, including the Coral Springs Art Museum in FL, the Director's Choice show at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, CT, the Treasure Room Gallery of the Interchurch Center in NYC, the President's Choice Show, Greenwich Art Society in CT and a retrospective show sponsored by the Greenwich Arts Council, and most recently by the Curtis Gallery in New Canaan. She had also exhibited in many juried and invitational shows, including The National Academy of Design, NYC, various exhibitions of the National Association of Women Artists (N.A.W.A.) across the US, Allied Artists of America, NYC, and several Art of the Northeast shows at Silvermine. While constantly working on her own creativity and self- improvement, over the years Liana had a deep caring and helpfulness for her women colleagues in the art field. She dedicated herself to several art organizations, especially N.A.W.A. where she served on the Board since 1978. She was particularly proud of her accomplishments as president during N.A.W.A.’s centennial celebration when she founded the permanent collection of the organization housed at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Her purpose was to provide a vehicle for talented N.A.W.A. artists to be recognized in perpetuity. She is also responsible for founding the N.A.W.A. Florida and Massachusetts chapters. N.A.W.A. awarded her the Citation for Inspired Leadership in 1989, the Medal for Outstanding Service to the Arts in 2007 and the Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012. Liana was also very dedicated to Silvermine where she was an inspiration to the staff and artist members and for which she received a Lifetime Membership Award by the Silvermine Guild of Artists. In 2013, after the great recession cut corporate giving to this 94 year-old institution, she and her husband decided that Silvermine needed an endowment and became the founding donors of the Silvermine Art Center Endowment. In May, she was the recipient of the Silvermine Legacy Award at a gala in her honor. She was a dedicated member of the Greenwich Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, which she helped revitalize and for which she received the prestigious Owl Award in 1997. She is represented in the Library of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. Her work is included in several museums and a large number of private and corporate collections throughout the US. Her husband, Clyde, of 65 years predeceased her; she is survived by her son, Gregory, and daughter, Barbara, both of North Stamford CT. A service celebrating her life will be planned for late January. www.leopgallagherstamford.com to leave an online condolence.