Suzanne Brooker received her BFA at the California Institute of the Arts in 1979. In 1990 Brooker returned to the West Coast and studied life drawing with Gary Faigin at the Gage Academy of Art and completed her MFA in figurative painting under Domenic Cretera at California State University, Long Beach. The author of Portrait Painting Atelier (9780823099276), Brooker currently paints and teaches drawing and painting at the Gage Academy.