“I’ve been a high school English teacher, a drama director, a college admissions counselor, a professional calligrapher, the co-owner/designer of a greeting card company, and a member of Two by Three Collaborative Collage — but when I discovered watercolors I found a serious commitment to art. That was forty years ago. Although I’ve taken classes at the MFA , the DeCordova, and the New Art Center, I credit Karlyn Holman for showing me how to paint loose and tight in the same painting, and to always keep pushing the medium.

Most of my work has been abstract landscapes and realistic flowers, but lately I have been exploring mixed media and trying to use up some of the extra art supplies I’ve amassed—especially those that I can’t even remember buying, or why. I’ve also been investigating the concept of mindful art: I can meditate with a brush in my hand (though doing art really is a meditation, don’t you think?).

I’ve had solo shows, rejoiced at winning ribbons, tried to be philosophical when I didn’t, exhibited in galleries, taught workshops, given numerous demonstrations, juried shows, and held an annual open studio in my home. Artists need other artists, activities, a sense of community. Active art associations like DAA answer that need. I’m also a Signature Member of the New England Watercolor Society and of the Rhode Island Watercolor Society, and I delight in being part of a tiny group of artists whom my husband has named “The Art Babes.” Although I don’t get out to meetings often, I hope to keep contributing to DAA backstage.”

“Although I always knew that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up, I took a circuitous way to finding myself as a painter after years of doing other things other than what I love: art & nature. Instead I studied Russian language and literature and ended up doing nothing related to my education and became a user experience designer. I now freelance and paint whenever I can. I came back to painting after taking studio classes at the Museum School at the MFA and various workshops with area artists such as Ellen Rolli, Ron Krouk, Karen O’Neill, Al Gury, Julie Beck, Zhanna Cantor, and Martha Wakefield. I gravitate towards nature — especially birds and the landscape. I tend to paint small in an “alla prima” or direct style where I react to the scene at hand and attempt to start and finish a painting in one session. My process includes photographing subjects, making collages of the images and then transforming them into paintings.”

I am a visual art educator, teaching drawing, painting, and digital art at Wellesley High School for the past 11 years and have just recently moved to Dedham. I love to use marks, shapes and symbols in my works! I try to create work that embraces imperfections in materials and my process. My work is impulsive and rough but often pursues elegance.

Whether my work is in dialogue with art history, depicting a new location, or sketching a cartoon, I try to craft content that is both complex and confusing while playful and inviting.

“My creative spirit was nourished as a child during my summers on the beach in Marshfield, MA. Drawing in the sand and in sketchbooks was my way of preserving my many discoveries. As a small child, I was captivated by the world around me. After graduating from Newton HS, I majored in Art History at Wellesley College with a renewed inspiration for creating after studying drawing and printmaking under Sigmund Abeles.

I was able to feed my passion for creating during my thirty-six year career teaching art in in Framingham, MA. From 1968 through 2006 professional development at MA College of Art, Danforth Museum School and numerous other classes and workshops expanded my artistic voice. Those years developed me as an artist with vast exposure to and experiences with many artists, museums and mediums. Giving younger generations their voice through the language of art was rewarding, but teaching and my two children limited my time for focusing on my own work. Since retiring in 2006, I have had the luxury of devoting my time to my painting. My previous focus had been watercolor and pastel. My son’s retirement gift to me was a complete oil painting setup and lessons with Robert Douglas Hunter. I have been fortunate since to study with Susan Kelley, Jonathan Leo Fairbanks, Dianne Panarelli Miller and currently with Rosemarie Morelli. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to manage The Norwood Fine Artists Gallery and Studio in Norwood for the NAA from 2013 until we closed in October 2020 due to renovations and Covid.

My current work is primarily focused on seeing the beauty in the world; it may be a flower in my garden, a stunning beach sunset, my granddaughter and other family members experiencing something special or just something that evokes a memory I want to preserve.

Painting brings me joy. After years of working for others, it is something I do for my own satisfaction. It is rewarding to be able to create whatever I want.”

I fell in love with art as a high school student at Cushing Academy, and went on to major in art history at McGill University. As a student at McGill, I interned in the registrar’s office of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. After I graduated, I worked at the Alpha Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston for a number of years, and it was there that I first immersed myself in the art world and began collecting paintings of artists I liked.  

Working in the gallery gave me a close up view of what it was like to be an artist and a chance to see works up close by some modern American masters, including Milton Avery and Fairfield Porter. I prefer representational painting in general and find the way they simplify form and color appealing. I also admire the work of more contemporary painters working in the same tradition, like Tim Tait. 

Eventually, what I admired in the works of others made me want to paint too! Over the years, I have studied with various teachers, taking courses locally at the DeCordova Museum, Mass Art, RISD, and with individual artists. When I retired in 2021, I began to paint more regularly and joined the Dedham Art Association. Most recently, I have been studying online in a small group workshop with Jean Kondo Weigl through the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts (FAVA) in Oberlin, Ohio, and with Shelby Dillon Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

My husband and I have a home on Achill Island in Ireland, and the landscapes there are a favorite subject of mine. Just gazing out the window of our cottage can make you want to get out and paint! The changing light and weather conditions are as much a subject as the scene itself. Many artists, including Paul Henry, Robert Henri, and Camille Souter, have found inspiration for their art on Achill Island. 

In my own work, I try to create a sense of believable light through the expressive use of color. I’m inspired by the beauty I see around me, whether an expansive view of sea and mountains or a simple bouquet of flowers in a vase. I like to paint loosely, and quickly, to create energy and movement in my painting. I love the physicality of paint and want my paint and brushstrokes to show my hand in making the painting.”

“I am now a retired surgeon. I am a self-taught artist and began painting and drawing shortly after I eloped with my wife in 1963 during our Junior year in college. I started out doing abstract paintings and sold them to help make ends meet. I soon decided to try to emulate the impressionists so I could learn their technique…”