Ian Begg
Canadian-born artist Ian Begg demonstrated his artistic talents early with a keen interest in design and color.
The artist spent his early twenties at the Ontario College of Art where he was introduced to a multitude of media and techniques. He began with watercolor landscapes with elements defined by lines and large wash areas. Experimenting with linoleum block, Ian expanded the watercolor technique to develop large, flat graphic images with vivid color. Changing medium to acrylics, he began painting boldly sized portraits and landscapes on canvas and paper. By eliminating distracting extraneous objects, and with loose brush strokes he creates movement within the art.
His work is enticing to those intrigued by seductive, expressive, and enigmatic images. Ian achieves a unique quality to his work; a parameter that bestows them a life of their own.
Lynn Armstrong Coffin
Always on an artistic path from childhood, Lynn received her BFA from University of Georgia and began a career as an Illustrator in Atlanta. After arriving in Sarasota in the early 90’s, Lynn used her signature scratchboard style to expand her portfolio to include clients such as Coca Cola, Budweiser, Tropicana, Barnie’s Coffee and Tea and GNC.
Lynn’s current unique style is based on her love of Black and White Minimalism. Experimenting with different substrates, tools, composition and technique, Lynn created an exciting series using India Ink on Yupo paper. Always looking for new and different forms of expression, her portfolio is full of creative and original contemporary works. Black and White is the genre but not the limit. Lynn continues to explore various mediums and is constantly experimenting and producing works that are energized and relevant to the contemporary market.
https://armstrongcoffin.com
Melanie Carlstein
What do you get when you combine repurposing, sculpture and assemblage? A peek into a fantasy world inhabited by the many unique and quirky characters created by artist Melanie Carlstein. She enjoys the freedom of mixed media, the evolution of her characters and the final whimsical beings. Whether she is creating from paper clay and wood, recycling vintage forms, or putting together a found object assemblage, Melanie’s art is happy, curious and sometimes very colorful.
Influenced in part by having lived in and visited many countries, particularly South Africa, many of her pieces have a slight tribal feel. She is self-taught and currently resides in Longboat Key.
www.melaniecarlsteinart.com
Dana Clark
Dana Clark started carving wood at Milburn High School in New Jersey. He sold his first piece to the Paper Mill Play House in 1970. Dana studied art at USF, MCC, and Ringling School of Art in 1983, and understudied with many individual artists. He works with clay, stone, wood, steel, and aluminum.Dana worked with clay and wood for many years and graduated to alabaster and marble at Ringling School of Art. Dana’s major focus has always been the surreal and abstract. He started exploring figurative surrealism with clay in the late 70's, and has returned to this side of himself recently.
Liz Cole’s professional career as a Professor of Art focused on the artistic and aesthetic development of young children. A nationally recognized expert on this topic, she co-founded the Toledo Museum of Art’s early childhood program in 1978, which remains a cornerstone for the Museum’s education division.
Her work in mixed media allows her to stretch the artistic response through rich surfaces of paint and materials. All this evolved through her many years in the academic world. Liz’s fascination with “writing” in color and line is strongly rooted in her intense interest and research into the mark makings that are part of our developmental process. "From the early scribbles of childhood to the use of combined lines to communicate through handwriting, we all are telling stories whether obvious or obscure. Likewise, color and emotion are closely linked and evoke reactions, memories, and attitudes that are personal to our own stories."
“Brushes, color and markings take me into a world of known and unknown places. They transform me as I respond to each flash of paint or mark of color that begins to tell a story. Sometimes it is nature in an abstract sense and other times it is the pure joy of seeing color and lines form patterns that lead the viewer into their own interpretation of my work.” www.lizcolegallery.com
James was born in Minneapolis Minnesota and now lives most of the year in Anna Maria, Florida. He is a sculptor and has had a passion for three dimensions all his life. James graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a Degree in Fine Art. However, throughout most of his adult life his creativity was channeled into a career as a retail entrepreneur. Late in 2008, with the sale of his businesses, and he and his wife, Barb, becoming empty nesters, James took the opportunity to return to his passion. James’ works have won awards in Minnesota, Florida and New York.
"I create art to lift and enlighten the spirit, to touch the heart, to awaken the intellect; to be provocative, that is, to provoke the mind, heart or spirit to experience something new or rekindle something forgotten. I believe art should be beautiful. Its proportion, balance, and aesthetics should draw the heart and spirit into it and leave with something more. I strive for my art to be a unique contribution to our collective understanding of humankind."
Donna Grossman
Donna Grossman began her art career in her fifties as an oil painter. She was trained by internationally known Florentine artists. Her work has been well received and recognized, and she later taught at the highly regarded Atelier at Flowerfield, on Long Island, NY.Donna moved from Long Island to West Bradenton and with that change came the desire to discover new media and to explore color. A self taught mosaic artist, most of Donna’s work is created using recycled stained glass and found objects.
She uses simple hand tools to push the glass to its limits.
Donna’s work has been displayed in galleries across the United States, and her work is in private collections here and abroad.
Christine Hales
A graduate of Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Christine Hales’ paintings have always been concerned with the mystery and grandeur of nature. Her paintings have a fresh, innocent quality that make her landscape paintings fresh and consonant with our times.Over the years Christine’s work has shifted from representational landscapes to more abstract, symbolic images of nature, including horses, birds and trees but the goal has remained the same. Her work is about the authentic power of nature and the genuine desire to connect the viewer to the beauty and spirit of the natural world we participate in.
Now, more than ever she is passionate about supporting and responding to the crisis in our natural world with her creative efforts.
https://NewChristianicons.com
Myron Hansen
"I’ve always enjoyed making things. I spend a lot of time looking at my works in progress and weighing the elements against each other. When I was teaching, our art faculty invited the artist Robert Hodgell to come and show his paintings and speak to our students. He said, 'I work on the paintings, and they work on me.' Those are my feelings also."
"In recent years I have begun working more directly from my memory and imagination beginning with a basic design concept and colors. I seldom put these thoughts on paper before beginning to paint. As I start, my movements and my paints are very fluid. Intuition, discovery, and acceptance are important parts of the process. The immediacy of working this way can be very risky, but it keeps the painting fresh. I want my paintings to express my energy as well as aesthetic."
Esther Jensen
Esther K. Jensen was born on the west coast of Denmark, close to the North Sea. After moving to the U.S., she spent most of her life in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved to Florida in 1998. She has always had a keen interest in glass, and in 1995, while in Denmark, was introduced to Else Willumsen, a renowned Danish glass artist. That year and for 4 consecutive years, she attended glass fusing courses and finally set up her own glass studio in Boca Grande, Florida. There she is still a member of the Boca Grande Art Alliance, where she participates in several exhibits every year. In particular, she is one of the founding members of the "Five Women Show," which takes place every year in February.
Jensen's work is very inspired by her proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, using colors and shapes kindled by the beaches and fauna of the west coast of Florida. Jensen is an exhibiting member of the Boca Grande Art Alliance, and a member of the Sun Coast Glass Guild.
Deborah Kadagian
Deborah Kadagian is known for her amorphic swirls, and curving shapes, leading into each other and away from each other. Often having many different interpretations depending on the viewer, Kadagian shared that she feels like she almost moves herself out of the way as she works on a canvas. She states that art comes through her. She doesn’t have an inkling about what her paintings will morph into as she begins each canvas with a singular shape and allows the painting to reveal what it wants next.She is thoughtful with her color harmony, often changing a dominant color to something completely different as the painting goes along. Always wanting to come to a point where the painting begins to hum, she carefully curates color vibration and shapes, until “the painting begins to sing to me.”Born and raised in New York, Kadagian spent from 1990 - 2017 living in Connecticut, ten of those years spent studying under the guidance of Kirill Doron at Silvermine School of Art, who she credits with teaching her harmony and beauty in the simplest of objects. Currently living on Longboat Key, FL, she shows her work at Art Uptown Gallery in Sarasota and is also a juried member of the Santa Fe Gallery Association. Deborah is also an integrative psychotherapist.
Tammy Keller
Following a successful career as a pharmacist, Tammy began her studies seeking a contemporary approach to her work. After attending the Cincinnati Art Academy, her further instruction included work with acclaimed artists Al Lachman, Nicholas Wilton, Theresa Girard, and Sally Cooper. Tammy's work is informed by her proximity to the ocean and her love of water and movement. The artist states, "My work seeks peace and serenity from the hectic pace of life." Tammy lives in Venice, Florida and is a member of The Center for the Arts Bonita Springs, the Naples Art Association, and the International Society of Acrylic Painters.
Joan Libby Hawk
Rooted in a modern sensibility, I strive for directness and disarming simplicity, whether working with porcelain, stoneware, burnished pieces, raku or mixed media.
I seriously engaged with ceramics and studio art while living in Oxford in the early 1970’s. The venerable Ruskin School of Art offered classical art training and the Oxford Polytechnic tethered me to the potter’s discipline. After returning to New York City, the desire for further study drew me to City of New York’s MFA program, from which I graduated in 1977. After exhibiting and teaching in NYC, in 1982 I hung up my potter’s apron to help support my family (eventually two boys) and built a career in nonprofits, working nationally and abroad. In 2001, I joined United Nations Women creating programs to advance women’s rights and combat gender-based violence globally. After moving careers to Sarasota, I soon became drawn once again into studio art and ceramics and in 2017 I took the plunge opening my studio, a haven in good times and difficult ones, where I explore, exhibit and teach.
Maro Lorimer
Maro grew up in Bellport, NY—a beautiful waterfront village on eastern Long Island. As a child she enjoyed exploring the woods and sailing her small boat across the bay to a natural barrier island. Her appreciation of wild places grew throughout her life and has always been evident in her paintings. After graduating from Brown University, she lived many years in the Colorado Rockies. She showed and sold her work in state-wide exhibitions, which led to membership in the Colorado Watercolor Society. Since moving to Florida in 1999, her favorite mediums have been collage and acrylic.
One of the first things to captivate her about Florida's west coast was the wildness of the many natural beach access paths, which inspired a collage series. From there, the theme of her paintings emerged from the paths, to the beach, and then beyond, out onto the water. Sometimes, as she paints, her imagination and memories take her back to shore, into the woods or the mountains. Many of her abstract acrylics can be seen and felt in more than one way, but, always, there is the sense of awe she feels for the natural world.
Janet Mishner
Janet Mishner received a BA in Art Education from University of Maryland, with postgraduate classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Towson University. She studied painting for many years with distinguished Maryland artist, the late Gladys Goldstein. Her work was featured in numerous solo shows, galleries and private collections in Baltimore.Since moving to Florida in 2002, she continues to participate in national and locally juried shows. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists, Women’s Caucus for Art, Florida Artists Group, Inc., Women Contemporary Artists and Petticoat Painters. Her work is in several public collections including the U.S. Embassy in Manilla, Goldberg, Rosenstein & Khan, Pa, Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, Florida Cancer Specialists, and Kaizen Total Wellness Center.
"I work both abstractly and figuratively, and occasionally my paintings convey a narrative. In the case of a narrative work, my challenge is to leave some of the interpretation open to allow a viewer to resonate or not, on their own terms. The prevailing theme in all of my work is my interest in psychology, exploring and conveying ideas with the visual vocabulary. In my abstract paintings, I enjoy playing with boundaries, inside and outside, above and below the surface, and often a delight in permeating those boundaries. My process is not direct observation. It is an evolving dialogue between me and the canvas". JanetMishner.com
"I was born in Bradenton, Florida, a product of multi-generations of native Floridians. Lucky to be raised in the traditional Old Florida lifestyle, I spent a lot of time around water, on the beaches, in a boat, or in the backwoods."
"I took painting lessons downtown at Wells Art Studio as a child and was always drawn to painting and drawing, continuing to explore all facets of art in college, actually multiple colleges, eventually graduating from FSU with a degree in art."
"Other than a few years in Vermont and three years in Virginia, raising three sons while my husband attended Graduate school, my life has been in Florida. My kids have dispersed, I now have grandkids, and my husband and I are still enjoying the old Florida life in our old house on the Manatee River."
"I’ve been very fortunate to have the luxury of painting, with a few ventures in my adult life creating and operating some local art and artisan filled stores, Magnolia Market in downtown Bradenton, and Restlessnatives on Anna Maria Island." cherylmoody.com
Cecile Moran
My work speaks to the power of nature, providing the means to life. The influence of the elements of air, wind and fire are presented in the images of the exhibition. Their life-giving forces are symbolized in the trees and plant life that give us the air that we breathe.
Cecile Moran has been a teaching artist for many years, including 2 years in Spain. Her painting is allegorical in nature and relies strongly on the interaction of brightly colored images to project the story. These images are based on personal experiences. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University College of Fine Art and a Master of Arts in Art Education from California State University at Long Beach. Additional study was provided by scholarship to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Wildacres Workshop in North Carolina through the Ringling School of Art and Design. Her work is found in numerous private collections and has been exhibited in Massachusetts, California, New York and Florida.
"My paintings have a unique appearance due to the layering technique used in the process. Layers of color are placed one over the other and then removed in some areas to reveal new color relationships. I have been impressed with the layering of color in the Molas of the San Blas Indians. The process used in my work indicates this influence." cecilemoran.com
Evelyn McCorristin Peters
Evelyn is originally from New Jersey and Delaware, and has lived in the Sarasota/Manatee County area of Florida for over 25 years. She received a Bachelors Degree from the University of Delaware and has attended The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Ringling College of Art and Design.
Evelyn’s work is held in private collections throughout the US, Canada, Australia, France, Spain and the Netherlands. She is a member of The Petticoat Painters, one of the oldest, continuously exhibiting women’s art groups in the United States. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Jentel Foundation, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Zion National Park and Weir Farm National Historic Site. Evelyn's work evolves from a lifelong fascination with, and dedication to, the natural environment. She creates in order to to express her commitment to the preservation of our native flora and fauna, to celebrate its diversity, and document its fragility.
evelynmccorristinpeters.com
Dáša Pierce
Dáša Pierce is a Czech-American painter who explores concepts and boundaries between dimensions.
Versatile in oils as well as acrylics spanning many genres, in her current masterworks, Dáša fuses realism and abstract concepts to shed light on our greatest science problems, such as duality of light, correspondence principle, and superposition, to name but a few. Dáša's intent is to visually translate math and physics concepts from an artist's point of view in order to inspire those who can mathematically verbalize new associations in math and physics.
For collectors, to see more paintings: www.dasapierce.com.
For commissions, painting lessons, or artist-scientist collaborations: [email protected].
Past commissions include portraits (pet, child, adult, posthumous, residence), master copies, Sarasota landscapes, abstracts, family recipe still-lives, Children's room murals, and more.
Dan Reeves
Born in Western Pennsylvania, Dan Reeves has been involved with art and music all of his life. He has taught at Illinois State University, Ball State University, Wright State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Arkansas State University. At VCU, he held various posts as professor of art, art department chair, music department chair, director of international studies and associate dean of fine arts.
He has worked as an art consultant and has served in editorial and graphic designer capacities. His work has been published in the fields of art, art education, visual perception and aesthetics.
Most recently, he served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Arkansas State University from 2000 to 2012, which included the Departments of Art, Music and Theatre as well as Fowler Center for performing arts, and Bradbury Museum, the largest art museum in Northeast Arkansas.
Maureen Riesco
Originally from Colorado, Maureen Riesco is a professional, award-winning artist, who now makes her home in Sarasota, Florida. Maureen spent most of her childhood and young adult years living in Southern California and also lived on the east coast of Florida in the 90's. She has been an artist from a very young age and has received both private and university classical training in painting and drawing. Having lived on both US coasts, Maureen has a special love of all things related to the ocean, and this is reflected in her style and portfolio. Her work has always been diverse, since she enjoys painting almost any subject. Additionally, she has created many theme-based series, including boat and coastal compositions, wildlife, domestic animals, botanical and still life scenes.
Maureen is primarily a contemporary realism oil painter, but she has recently expanded her portfolio to include acrylic abstract paintings. Her artwork features engaging and cheerful colors and has often been described as happy and whimsical. Her driving passion is to bring joy and beauty into people's lives. She has received numerous awards, and her work hangs in both private homes and public buildings around the country. Her art is currently featured in a few Colorado galleries, as well as in Art Uptown Gallery in Sarasota. https://www.maureenart.com
Rita Rust
Watercolor is Rita's passion - for its translucence, spontaneity and proclivity to create unintended results. Her subject may be anything interestingly illuminated, because it's all about the quality of light. She captures the beauty that surrounds us, but is so often overlooked in our fast-paced lives.
Rita grew up in Kettering, Ohio and Wyckoff, NJ. She attended Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA and graduated from Georgetown University, spending 11 years working in New York in graphic art, primarily in publishing.
Rita is a signature member and past president of the Florida Suncoast Watercolor Society, past president (twice) of Art Uptown Gallery, and has exhibited and won numerous awards throughout Florida. Her work is widely held in corporate and private collections. ritarust.com
Kathryn Adele Schumacher
Kathryn Adele Schumacher received her BA degree from Rollins College, Winter Park, FL with majors in Fine Art & Art History. After graduation, she embarked on a career in the advertising and broadcast industries. After sixteen years, she decided to further her passion of interior design, starting with the UCLA certification program. She then spent twenty-four years working in residential interior design. In 2014 Kathryn committed herself to being a full- time artist working primarily in mixed media collage and monotype printmaking. This has been her dream since age five while finger painting in school.
Kathryn’s other interests include sewing, photography, travel and golf. She has traveled a number of times to Africa, where she has worked with or raised funds for three non-profit organizations: World Women Work, Save the Elephants & Golf Fore Africa. Her experiences while traveling around the world combined with her photography have often inspired her art.
“While in the interior design business, I assembled various elements and put them together which is similar to mixed media. Shapes, lines, mediums, textures and spaces are all considered. With my collage art I try to provide a pleasing continuum for the eye by connecting these elements or putting them into a flow of pattern and detail. Selecting the images involves an important editing process. Often themes, textures and organic shapes emerge on their own in these multi-layered compositions. I use handmade papers, printed pages, acrylics, glazes, pen & ink, watercolors, pastels, monotypes and photography in my collages. This past year I have explored more Abstract painting in all sizes with and without mixed media.” kathrynschumacherartist.com
Gillian St. George
Gillian St. George produces mixed media contemporary, hard-edge abstract paintings for the modern home. Her approach is to create intense personal moments, inspired by sky, landscape, both urban and natural, water, space and energy: deconstructing recognizable elements to produce a meaning that is multifaceted. This perception has inspired many radiant works and reveals Gillian’s experience of color and light, the ability to define and conceal, to excite and soothe.
"My artistic challenge is to balance the opposing but complementary aspects of my nature. I plan and organize yet embrace a spontaneous and intuitive approach also. I desire for my artwork to mirror nature’s struggle for balance without an end result of total perfection or complete chaos” explains artist Gillian.
Gillian was born in England where she began her art studies in realism. After moving to Sarasota, close to the beautiful blue green water that is her source of inspiration, she evolved into an abstract painter. Gillian has also owned businesses in portrait/wedding and commercial photography, picture framing and an art gallery. GillianStGeorge.com
Elisabeth Trostli
A native Brazilian, Elisabeth Trostli moved to New York in 1961. She received her artistic education at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in Illustration, attaining a BFA’72 and MAE in ’76.
In 1981, Elisabeth Trostli established herself as a successful free-lance commercial artist and designer serving the jewelry, advertising, stationery and giftware industries located in Providence, RI.
In 2011, Elisabeth Trostli relocated to Sarasota, Florida. In this gorgeous cultural, cosmopolitan city, Elisabeth has truly unleashed her creativity. She works as a digital painter, bringing creative ideas and imaginings to life using modern tools of technology. Adobe Photoshop computer software is skillfully used to blend Elisabeth Trostli’s own original hand-rendered illustrations, antique papers, exquisite embellishments, photography and geometrical fractals in a multi-layered unique collage format that is both decorative and meaningful. Her digital paintings are available printed and mounted on gallery-wrapped canvas, and/or archival paper, greeting cards and even on fabric. etrostli.com
Painting bold, realistic landscapes, seascapes and still lifes is Marlane Wurzbach’s passion. Her bright, colorful acrylic paintings are all meant to cheer the viewer, offering a "visual vacation" with a colorful palette, sharp focus and attention to detail.
From Westchester County, NY, Marlane summered on Long Island Sound and spent as much of the school year as possible in art classes at Rye Country Day School. After college, she worked at PepsiCo for the CEO where one of her favorite jobs was to give tours of PepsiCo’s extensive Donald M. Kendall sculpture garden. Moving to Manhattan after marriage, she got a degree from NY School of Interior Design and worked in that field for several years. Settling in Greenwich CT for three decades offered Marlane a series of paid and volunteer endeavors, all of which revolved around some aspect of artistic expression and a desire to try new artistic mediums. In 2005, Marlane and her husband moved to the Gulf Coast of Florida, and she was able to focus on painting and working with other local artists to promote the area's vibrant artists' community. She has been pleased to win a number of local painting awards, and her work is in private collections in the United States and abroad. marlanewurzbach.com