Although she had dabbled with drawing when she was younger, Ena Raquer didn’t devote herself to art full-time until she retired after 30 years as a land use planner.

“I retired in 2010 and I started painting. And once I started painting, it was immediate; it became my passion. It’s what I wanted to do all my life; I just didn’t know it. I’ve been painting ever since,” says Raquer.

“I think about it 100 percent of the time. The way I look at things is through the eye of an artist. You know, where’s the light, shadow, composition? That’s the way I look at everything without even thinking. I’m analyzing everything that I see and I’m constantly thinking, ‘What am I going to paint next?’ ‘How am I going to do it?’”

Born and raised in El Salvador, Raquer came to the United States at age 17, initially living with her sister and brother-in-law in Tacoma, Wash. She also met her future husband there, then an officer in the Air Force, although it would be some four decades before they married, as they lost touch when she moved to Tucson, Ariz.

“We didn’t see each other for pretty much 43 years,” she recalls. “And in 2017, I got this email from Tom Raquer. I never forgot him; he was my first love.”

Six months after they reconnected, they married in Hawaii where he was stationed, and went on an extended two-year honeymoon to Southeast Asia, living out of suitcases.

Raquer says her artistic style was influenced by several remarkable artists, beginning in Tucson where she studied with Master Pastelist Stephanie Birdsall.

“Every Wednesday I would go to her house, and we would paint all day long. There was a group of us that came. She would do a demo first thing and then we would paint until noon, when everybody else left except for another painter, myself and Stephanie. We painted all day long,” says Raquer. While she started with pastels, she now primarily paints in oils.

“I still love pastels, but it’s just too much of a mess. And I am a very prolific painter, so oil, to me, is a better medium.”

When the couple returned from Asia, they relocated to Scottsdale, in no small part so she could take workshops at the highly rated Scottsdale Artists’ School.

“It’s one of the top in the world; it really is fantastic. They have master painters come in and teach there. I was very fortunate,” says Raquer.

Another instrumental instructor was the late Master Painter Dennis Perrin, creator of the Perrin Method, through whom Raquer learned how to paint lush, realistic florals, such as roses and peonies.

“I fell in love with the way he painted roses,” says Raquer.

“He had such a positive, spiritual attitude. His courses taught painting from the inside. His belief was that if something was wrong with your painting, you didn’t fix the painting, you fix yourself inside and then the painting will come along. There was a lot of meditation, there was a lot of time management, there was a lot of positivity.”

Each morning, she says, he instructed them to write five things they were grateful for, adding, “To this day, that’s what I do. It’s very spiritual.”

Classes went online during COVID which worked well for her artwork, but when he passed away six months after a cancer diagnosis, she says, “I was kind of at a loss for a couple of years after Dennis passed away because it was such a shock.”

Another influential teacher was the late acclaimed artist Richard Schmid, from whom she learned the alla prima method of painting with oils in one sitting.

“I just sit and do it. I lose myself; time disappears,” she says.

“I don’t have the patience to do it the traditional way, which is to do a wash. And you have to wait until the next day for it to dry and then you do another pass at it. It would drive me crazy. I’m kind of a maniac,” says Raquer.

Using a sped-up video, she has even recorded herself completing a painting from start to finish.

“I also love portraits. And so, I’m looking for live subjects because there is nothing like painting live. It doesn’t take me long. It takes me like three hours, with breaks and everything. So, anybody that I talk to, I just invite them to come and sit with me,” says Raquer.

She laughs that her husband uses the portrait she painted of him as his Facebook profile photo.

“There was a game the other day for Facebook to tell your age based on your profile photo. My husband’s Facebook said he was 19 years old. And then I put mine and it said I was 29.

So, if you want to look 19 or 29, I’m here for commissions!”

Two years ago, the couple moved to Vero Beach from Arizona, after first trying out a few other Florida cities, and have settled in along with their dog Yogi, a poodle, chihuahua, cocker spaniel, shih tzu, terrier, and Maltese mix. “He’s extremely cute,” says Raquer.

“We love it here. We love the arts here and the beaches are the best. I am getting to be part of the arts community, which is fabulous.”

She is a member of the Vero Beach Art Club and the Cultural Council of Indian River County, and by volunteering is meeting new people. Raquer has painted with the Treasure Coast Plein Air group formed by Katherine Larson, and through that connection became part of the Isola Arts group, which hosts pop-ups and weekend shows at unique venues.

Her work has been shown at exhibitions such as Art by the Sea and, through the Cultural Council’s Art in Public Places initiative, at numerous venues around town.

“I can’t believe that I’m living the dream. I really am.”

Photos by Joshua Kodis