Martha Pease Bronson, a longtime summer visitor on the Vineyard, died Dec. 30, 2007 in Naples, Fla., where she had lived for a number of years.

She was born in New Britain, Conn., on Jan. 31, 1921. She was one of the early graduates of Mooreland Hill School (then known as the Shuttle Meadow School) of Kensington, Conn.

She went on to The Baldwin School, attended Vassar College briefly and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1944, where she received a degree in liberal arts with a strong emphasis on the visual arts.

She continued her studies after graduation and taught at the Potomac School in McLean, Va., and the St. George Academy in Santurce, Puerto Rico.

Although she painted a broad range of subjects during her lifetime, she was most noted as a portrait artist.

In 1977, she married Col. Richardson Bronson. They first lived in Sarasota, Fla., and later in Naples, Fla., summering on the Vineyard. Colonel Bronson died on June 9, 1986 in Naples, Fla.

Survivors include two brothers, Maurice H. Pease Jr. of Chilmark and Allen H. Pease of Leverett and Oak Bluffs; 11 nieces and nephews; and 15 grandnieces and grandnephews.