Maria Teresa Rafferty was born in Rome, Italy. She resides in Salisbury, NC, since 1984 after having lived in Libya and Saudi Arabia for several years with her husband.
Since very early age she was interested in art, but only when in Libya she started to paint seriously. At that time (the seventies) she studied watercolor under Peter Charles and completed correspondence courses from the Famous Artists School in Westport, CT.
Upon establishing her residence in Salisbury, she joined the Waterworks Visual Arts Center where she has continued her artistic training. Her instructors have been during the years, Ron Crusan, Connie McNeill, Lou Murphy, Phyllis Steimel and more recently Harold Frontz.
She works with varied subjects preferring portraits and landscapes, using oils, pastels and watercolors. Her interpretation may be realistic or abstract.
One of her paintings “Purple Tree” is on the cover of “A Lenten Book of Days” of Fuquay-Varina United Methodist Church, Lent 2009.
In the spring 2009 she participated to “Faces of Abundant Living” making a portrait of one of the residents.

She is a Member of the Waterworks Visual Art Center, The Carolina Artists, Plein Air Carolina.