Antonia Turner Krause (Toni) was born with an artistic gift which, for the most part just until the year 1999, had not been fully realized.  After a difficult childhood, raising three daughters and going through two failed marriages, art had not been on her list of priorities.  In the year 1999  things changed for her when she met and married Larry.  After seeing the only two paintings (“Santorini” and “Xios village”) and two portrait drawings (one of which is the drawing “Kylia”) that she had ever done, he recognized what a truly special and unique talent she had.

After an uninterested daughter dropped out of a correspondence art program, Larry insisted that Toni take over and complete the four year program, which she did successfully with straight A’s.
In 2005 Toni then entered her drawing “Kylia” in an international juried art contest which was hosted by the school and won second place.    Meanwhile, she proceeded to do her initial painted portraits, the first of which was “Jessica”, “Doodles” was second, "Memory" third, and finally, “Cecil” fourth.

In 2007 the drawing “I’m Happy, Now”, was entered in another international juried art contest and won a second place Award.

After joining the Atlanta Portrait Society she entered three of her pieces; “Doodles”, “Memory”, and “Cecil” (the drawing) into one of its juried exhibitions, all of which were selected.  Ultimately “Doodles” won a merit award in the exhibit. 

In January of 2007 Toni opened an art studio in Marietta, Ga.  She attends art workshops and seminars for continued growth as a portrait artist.  Toni has also been passionately drawing and painting, resulting in some of the works shown on this site and is now teaching both in and outside of her studio.