Posted on: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

New York artist commissioned for governor's portrait

By Virginia Wageman
Advertiser Art Critic

New York artist Daniel Greene has been selected by Gov. Ben Cayetano to paint the governor's official portrait.

A call for portrait artists by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts brought portfolios from 58 artists, 45 from Hawai'i. Six finalists (three of them Hawai'i artists) were presented to the governor.

Cayetano selected Greene based on his style and previous portrait commissions. The portrait will be unveiled in late fall.

Greene was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Society of Portrait Artists in 2001, and the society's John Singer Sargent Award in 1995. He has painted portraits of Eleanor Roosevelt, Ayn Rand, William Randolph Hearst and numerous mayors, governors and university presidents.

Greene taught at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design, both in New York, from the 1960s through the 1980s. He taught privately through the mid-1990s and has led workshops on Maui, Kaua'i and O'ahu. According to the foundation, a Kaua'i artist suggested that he apply for the Cayetano commission.

Greene is exhibiting floral subjects, still lifes and interiors at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco.