[1] She studied at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, where she explored a wide variety of styles and media including sculpture.
[3] In addition to formal academic training she has studied under the guidance of established artists, including Melvin Johnson, at the Vesper George School of Art, Boston; Cleveland Bellow, of the DeYoung Museum, Oakland California; and Pierre Parsus,[4] of France, while a resident at the La Napoule Art Foundation.
[5] Initially trained as an art curator, Fulton Ross traveled extensively throughout Africa, Europe, and as far east as China, in order to study and paint.
She developed a reputation early in her career as a portrait artist, and has created likenesses of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Justice Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, Arthur Ashe, and Governor Michael Dukakis, among others.
[8] Fulton Ross has cited several classical artists as influences on her work, including Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Rembrandt,[9] as well as modern-day African-American masters such as Charles Wilbert White, Elizabeth Catlett, Beauford Delaney, and Samella Lewis.