Loretta was a self-taught artist since childhood.  Coming from a fairly large family, she used to find peace in the solitude of a corner of the house with her pencil and paper, making coloring books for her sisters or drawing from real life or her imagination.  In 2nd grade, she drew a charcoal portrait of a classmate whose startling likeness surprised even herself.  Her grandfather encouraged her passion by supplying her with art materials from pastel crayons to oil paints, canvas & easel.  However, he insisted she spend her education in the business fields because "artists can't make a decent living."

Hence, it wasn't until her own daughter was an adult that she took her first art class, choosing the private school across the street from where she lived, Mission Renaissance.  She spent two years in their program, then discovered Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and studied painting and advanced portraiture with their instructors for two years, culminating with one class in France.   Due to her love of learning, her self-education will continue permanently, whether in formal educational settings or the instructional books of the modern great artists that fill her home library.