Maria lived in Europe and had the opportunity to travel to Spain, Italy, France, England and Switzerland. At eighteen she moved to the United States making Denver, Colorado her new home. There she attended Colorado Institute of Art and graduated with a degree in illustration design. Relocating to Dallas, Texas she worked for Southland Corporation and pursued her art education at University of North Texas. At UNT she graduated with abachelors in Fine Arts.

Moving to Austin, she worked with several different companies, as a contract artist and started to work on creating her portfolio of artworks. With a diverse background in design and illustration this gave her a foundation for teaching art classes and continually developing her art. Maria has been teaching art classes at Austin Community College for over 16 years. She teaches Basic Illustration, Graphic Design and Illustration Techniques I in the Visual Communications Department at Austin Community College. She also taught for 9 years at Laguna Gloria Art School.

She has displayed her pastels in galleries and restaurants for the past 20 years. Her other mediums are oils, watercolor, acrylic, charcoal, pencil, pen and ink and airbrush. Her travels and illustration background has helped her structure concepts and has given her a strong foundation to build on for her present art work. Her contact information: Marialyle.com