Welcome to my world of

color,

detail

&

joy!

These 3 words verbalize the visual essence of my art, whether the style is abstract, photorealistic, whimsical, or a combination of these styles. While making art, I love getting immersed in vibrant hues and intricate patterns that radiate positivity and joie de vivre. Always exploring, I use a variety of media in my work, such as acrylics, alcohol markers, colored pencils, paint pens, digital programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, and whatever else I can get my hands on!

On this page I'll tell you a little about myself, but first I'll answer a question I'm commonly asked: "How do you pronounce your name?" To make sure you're thinking it correctly in your head as you read this - my name is pronounced "tuh-nee-yuh".

Here you'll find my bio in 2 different formats. Over the past 2 decades, I've crafted several different forms of my bio to suit different needs and different audiences—from the short, formal professional bio filled with sound bites and highlight reels, to the lengthy, rambling bio that I first drafted as a college student in 2002. To update my informal bio, rather than rewrite the whole thing from scratch as the years rolled on, I simply appended new paragraphs onto the end every few years. The result is a long-winded look back at the events and activities that have influenced my life and my art over the years. I've considered scrapping the informal bio and crafting a new one that is fully current, but somehow the long-winded bio feels more authentic because it captures who I was, and what was important to me, at various points in time.

Read them both or take your pick! Either way, hopefully this page will help you get to know me a bit better. Thanks for your interest!

Thaneeya McArdle is an internationally-collected artist, having sold hundreds of original paintings and drawings to private collectors across the United States, Europe and Australia throughout the mid-to-late 2000s. Thaneeya creates colorful art in a variety of styles ranging from abstraction to photorealism, with a special focus on creating vibrantly detailed art that combines her love of global folk art traditions with her upbeat whimsical style. By the late 2000s, Thaneeya's creative focus shifted from selling original artwork to making art accessible to everyone by launching her art education website, Art-is-Fun.com, which has received over 57 million pageviews and counting. By the early 2010s, Thaneeya's artwork and art lessons began attracting the attention of numerous publishers and licensees, resulting in multiple book deals and licensed products (from puzzles to calendars to jewelry and more) that have appeared in a wide range of brick-and-mortar stores including Target, Michaels, JoAnn, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Walmart, Publix, Whole Foods, Toys R Us and many other stores in countries around the world. Thaneeya's coloring books have sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide, attracting an enthusiastic audience who connect with her whimsical, uplifting style. In 2022, Thaneeya launched a new series of online video art courses, providing dynamic content in a fun-to-follow format!

I was born in California in the summer of '79, and six weeks later experienced my first intercontinental plane ride. My earliest years were spent in California and Saudi Arabia before my family settled in Florida, where I mostly grew up. After graduating from high school in 1997, I first attended Warren Wilson College, a tiny college nestled in the mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina, which provided a supportive environment for learning how to relate to the world in healthy, meaningful and sustainable ways. It was the perfect place for me to round out my teenage years and step into adulthood.

As much as I loved the fun, open-minded environment of Warren Wilson and its beautiful natural surroundings, its Art Department was still rather young at that time, so after 2 years I left for a school with a more established program. I applied to the Savannah College of Art & Design and received a scholarship, but reality set in before the school year started when I received a bill in the mail for $20,000—just for the first year's tuition. Yikes! I decided to take a more practical route and spent four years at the University of South Florida on a full scholarship. Most of the artwork I created there falls under my Composite Realism category and reflects a time in my life when my artistic output correlated with my search for a sense of identity through my cross-cultural connections.

After graduating in 2004 with a BFA in Painting, I happily meandered in other contemplative ways. Always a lifelong student, the world became my classroom as I drew inspiration from the intersection of my external travels and experiences, and my inner life and observations. For a few years I traveled frequently to Europe, spending time in England, France and Wales while growing my fledgling art business. During this time I began experimenting with abstract art and whimsical art, growing more and more comfortable following my creative curiosities as I relinquished the need to "impress" others by creating photorealistic art. To this day, I still love learning new techniques and using new materials. With each new piece of art that I create, my skills are continually challenged and expanded, and my concepts become richer and more fully defined. Like life, my creative endeavors are an endless learning process that is often surprising and always enriching.

I created my website, Thaneeya.com, in 2002, and over the following years I sold hundreds of original artworks to collectors all over the globe. I also began offering my art for sale on t-shirts, cell phone cases, jewelry, pillows and countless other items. In 2002 it felt amazing to be able to reach a worldwide audience as a young artist just starting out in my career. I was excited to seize the unprecedented opportunities that the Internet provided. Remember, this was several years before social media existed (and long before it evolved into the influential powerhouse that it is today). It was also a few years before Etsy was founded, so at the time people weren't yet fully comfortable buying original artwork and handmade items online as they are now. In many ways, I and other artists were exploring uncharted digital territories during a time when many of my artist friends from college were chiding me for not going the traditional gallery route. But, I followed my gut because I saw the immense potential that the Internet provided for creatives like myself. Thanks to the Internet, I've been able to live the artist's dream of being fully self-employed and making a living doing what I love most. It brings me great joy and fulfillment to know that my artwork is being enjoyed and appreciated all over the world!

As the mid-2000s rolled by and more people discovered my artwork online, I started receiving a ton of emails from people asking for tips on painting and drawing. This was several years before the ascendency of online learning—before YouTube became a hub for people to post free tutorials, and before educational sites like Skillshare existed—so there wasn't as much "how to" info out there. In the beginning I replied to each email individually, but I quickly realized that doing so was labor-intensive and ultimately not as productive as sharing that information with a wider audience. So in 2009 I started typing out everything I knew about making art, and www.Art-is-fun.com was born! On Art-is-fun.com I share tips and tutorials about art and art-making - such as this demo on how to paint abstract art and these tips on how to sharpen your colored pencils. The site also includes information about various art styles and subject matter, along with art supply recommendations for various media. If you like my art and want to learn how to paint or draw or improve your coloring skills, be sure to check out Art-is-fun.com!

In the past 12 years, Art-is-Fun.com has delivered over 57 million pageviews to over 27 million visitors, and counting. I frequently receive emails from happy site visitors who tell me how much they've learned from my site, and that it's inspired them to start painting or drawing. It feels great to know that Art-is-Fun.com is achieving its objective—helping other people get excited about art, and empowering them with information to make their own amazing pieces! Although my schedule has gotten a lot busier since I first started Art-is-Fun.com, I still enjoy adding new content when my schedule permits.

As Art-is-Fun.com grew in popularity, I began receiving so many fascinating emails from passionate, knowledgeable artists from around the world, that I knew I had to find a way to bring them all together so that they could share their ideas, energy and art with one another. I researched the possibilities and decided to create a social network, which I dubbed "The Art Colony"! I spent months creating the design and setting up the details of the site, then opened it to the public in June 2011. Every day on The Art Colony, members from all over the world shared their art, helped one another, and connected with each other. The friendships formed on The Art Colony transcended the boundaries of location, language and age, uniting artists simply by their shared love of making art. It was a joy to watch the community blossom to over 10,000 members. But, after several years my personal and professional schedule had grown so busy that I could no longer run The Art Colony, so in September 2015 I handed ownership of the site over to one of the moderators, who carried the mantle for several years. As of 2020 the site no longer exists, but it was fun while it lasted.

In 2011 I released my first set of printable coloring pages—a decision that would ultimately be life-changing and set my career on a whole new trajectory. I created the coloring pages on a whim, after receiving lots of emails from people who enjoyed my tutorial on How to Draw a Mandala, but struggled to draw their own. At the time, coloring wasn't the huge trend that it would soon become, so I didn't know if people would even buy the coloring pages. To my surprise and delight, sales were so strong that I created several more sets of printable coloring pages over the following years.

In 2014, my coloring pages caught the eye of Fox Chapel Publishing, who offered me a publishing deal! My coloring books ended up in stores around the world and to date have sold over 3.8 million copies. 😍

In 2015 my Good Vibes Coloring Book made it all the way up to #10 on Amazon's list of top-selling books on their whole site, which was humbling and mind-boggling! It’s been an honor to see many of my books jump in and out of Amazon’s Top 100 over the years. My Good Vibes Coloring Book also spent several months on Publisher Weekly’s list of Top 20 Best-Selling Trade Paperbacks.

I was also tickled when my Peace & Love Coloring Book made a brief appearance on the Ellen show in 2015! I continue to enjoy creating new coloring books and new printables on a variety of themes. I love it because it offers me a chance to explore different subject matter, while enjoying the thrill of seeing how other people color in my line art. It's truly an honor that people spend time with my art in that way!

One more important thing I can tell you is that in 2010 I got married to Marcus, the love of my life, who shares my passion for art, travel, learning, and books. We spend practically every minute of every day together, because in addition to being my life partner, Marcus is also my full-time business partner. In 2012 we formed Thaneeya LLC, which encompasses all of our various enterprises, from running our websites to the art we sell on merchandise. He also coordinates with our licensing agent, which has resulted in multiple licensing deals such as calendars (which I created for 7 years), puzzles, stickers, jewelry, dog collars, and more. With Marcus on board, our art business has grown in leaps and bounds, and we can't wait to see what comes next!

(Side note: After getting married I kept my maiden name, because the concept of me changing my name was a cultural tradition that never felt natural to either of us.)

In October 2013, Marcus and I gave most of our stuff to Goodwill, put the rest in storage, and became full-time nomads in a slow-roaming journey that took us to 4 countries and 19 US states. We fed kangaroos, walked the Golden Gate Bridge, explored ancient cliff dwellings, watched snow fall in June, and got lost in the bustle of Mexico City. It was a liberating adventure though not entirely fun and games—we also worked full-time while traveling, which gradually became more difficult as our workload increased. Less than a year after embarking on our new lifestyle, we became too busy keeping up with our publishing and licensing deals to have any time for sight-seeing, let alone truly experiencing each new location. It was certainly an extremely "good problem" to have so without complaints, we hung up our nomad hats after 2 whirlwind years of full-time travel, settled down (to a degree) and decided to separate work from wanderlust so that we could be more productive while working and feel more untethered while traveling. Maybe when we're retired we'll become full-time nomads again—who knows!

And now?

These days Marcus and I are focused on creating new online video art courses and YouTube videos!

After a busy year of learning the ins and outs of filming, lighting, sound, and editing, we launched our free alcohol marker course in September 2022, and our Ultimate Guide to Using Alcohol Markers in December 2022.

We launched our new YouTube channel a few months later in April 2023. With me in front of the camera and Marcus behind the camera, we’re super-excited to share my art knowledge in a whole new way!

Here’s a pic of me in our little filming studio:

Subscribe to my YouTube channel if you’d like to see my fun art videos! 😊

When I have time, I also enjoy creating new coloring books and printables, as well as creating art for licensing. You can also find me experimenting with a variety of tantalizing art supplies like alcohol markers, gouache, paint markers, liquid watercolors, paper-cutting and whatever else I can get my hands on! I also enjoy creating digital art using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and various iPad apps. When I have time, I add new lessons and content on Art-is-Fun.com.

If you want to know more about me and my art, check out my FAQ where you'll find answers to tons of questions I've been asked over the years.

If you want to keep up with my latest art and activities, you can follow me on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, where I post my art and tutorials. You can also subscribe to my newsletter to get my monthly update in your inbox! 😃