Her first memory ever, is of lying in her crib watching a beam of light hitting the pattern on the crib sheet. A third-generation artist, her life as a painter began very early, with her mother as her first teacher. She minored in art in college, since “everyone” said she should major in something practical. After years doing something practical, she turned back to her first love, Art. She received a full-tuition scholarship from Scottsdale Artists' School to take a workshop with Gregg Kreutz. Over the years, she has studied with several prominent artists, including Scott Christensen, Michael Alberchtson, Camille Przewodek, Daniel Greene and Joy Thomas in the US and John Wardley in England. She likes to hike and kayak into scenic areas to collect information for her paintings. All her painting gear, including easel, fits into a backpack. Most of her landscapes are of the area near her home, in West Virginia, where the changing seasons and light conditions continue to offer new challenges as she tries to keep up with the growing demand for her work. 

Schweitzer finds plein air to be the most challenging and rewarding method of painting. “We normally don't really see the world... We see our ideas of the world. In order to paint a subject, I have to really see it, which means letting go of all concepts and expectations and just witnessing what is there. This involves seeing with a kind of innocent vision, the way we saw before we knew the words for things. The more a person practices this, the more open their vision becomes and the more they see. The beauty of it all can just be overwhelming, and I'm constantly being amazed.” 

The artist is the recipient of many national and regional awards. Her paintings have been selected for numerous juried exhibitions, among them: Art for the Parks, Watercolor USA, The American Artists’ Professional League, Oil Painters of America Regional Exhibit, the Westmoreland Art Nationals, and the West Virginia Juried Exhibit, where she was recently honored with the Award of Excellence.