About Ari Ferro

Ari paints landscapes in oils, both outdoors and in his studio.  Although painting was his occasional hobby for many years, it has become his main activity since retiring about six years ago.  His training in art has consisted of various workshops, but his formal education and career was in science.  He is married (Jean) and has one married son (Luke, 29, Boston). 

​Ari is originally from Salt Lake City and attended the University of Utah, obtaining a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1973.  Following post-doctoral training in Germany and San Francisco, he worked for ten years as a research scientist in the Biology Department at the University of Utah.  His interests gradually shifted from basic research to environmental science. 

In 1994, after additional training at Utah State University, he started Phytokinetics, Inc. (in Logan, Utah), a company that specialized in phytoremediation (using plants to clean-up environmental contaminants).  In 2005 he moved to Raleigh, NC taking a position as Technical Director of Phytoremediation at ENSR, a global engineering firm. He later moved to a second larger engineering firm (URS) from which he retired in 2014. 

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Workshops have focused on oil painting as well as water color techniques.  Instructors have included Jay Hennifer, Scott Boyle, Albert Handel, Alia El-Bermani, Marcelle Hooks, Jason Tako, Nicole Kennedy, Bekah Haslett, Chad Smith, Jim Carson, Jean Grunewald, and Jeremy Sams.  

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Ari won several awards including Second Place in the 311 Gallery Juried Show (2015), and two Honorable Mention Awards, one at a Matthews Artists Guild exhibit in 2016, and one at a Paint-Out Event in 2017 sponsored by Mint Hill Arts.  He is currently a member of the Cary Gallery of Artists and is scheduled to show his work and the Sertoma and Pullen Art Galleries. 

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