Dr Santina Portelli was born on 26 June 1948 in Ragusa and has been paralysed in all her limbs since birth. She moved with her parents to Milan at the age of six where she still lives today. She is a PhD holder in Psychology from the University of La Sapienza in Rome in 1985. She was a bright kid throughout her education life. In the following years, she learned the technique of painting with oil in masterclasses with Gianni Guidolini Santamaria. Although she still prefers this technique, she cultivates a wide artistic repertoire and is also an accomplished ceramics painter. She received her first scholarship from the Association in 1966. She became an Associate AMFPA Member in 1991 and has been a Regular Member since 2000.
Her paintings are an expression of contemporary beauty, which is not to be found in the mere abstract formalism of line and colour, but rather in the morphological purity of her compositions revealing what is most essential to the human spirit: the eternal agony within. Santina Portelli has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Italy and abroad during the course of her artistic career. She has also won many different prizes and acknowledgements for her works.
