Art is a way to escape and to dream while you are awake.
~ Adrienne Trafford
Adrienne is a fine artist and illustrator who have been formally trained in life-drawing, illustration and graphic design, graduating with honors from Kutztown University. After graduation she took time off to start a family but as her children grew she could spend more time in the studio and is now a full-time artist. In addition to working on canvas with acrylic paints, she illustrates in ink and watercolor, both with a vibrant palette. She is inspired by the lush colors of the landscapes she has witnessed in her travels and also by the valley and hills, which surround her southeastern Pennsylvania home.
During her college years, Adrienne spent time studying art in Italy and France, which expanded her individual style. Her children have turned up as models in many of her figurative work and have emboldened her creativity and subject matter. Other influences are traveling, a good book or movie, museums and gardening. Adrienne’s work has been collected throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia, France, South America, Lebanon and Japan. She has designed sets for local theater and has been featured in local magazines on numerous occasions. She is a published author/illustrator for Dover Publishing and Schiffer Publishing and her books can be found at both Dover and Schiffer websites, bookstores and on Amazon.
Ann Rudd has created art for many years.
Subject: Moods -- especially moments of quiet reflection, peacefulness, contentment in the moment. In a world that's surging with activity, effort and angst, her paintings can be reminders of the quiet times that are available to all of us. Technique: Semiabstract combinations including oil, acrylic, charcoal, oil pastel, and graphite pencil. Ann is interested in paintings that combine the appearance of 3-dimensional depth and 2-dimensional flat surface. The design possibilities seem endless. Color palette: Grays, neutrals, soft palette colors Influences: Berthe Morisot, Alberto Giacometti, Alex Powers and others Awards: Ann loves a good contest and has won numerous awards at the local and regional levels in Charlotte, North Carolina, over the last decade. She was juried into two national shows in 2016, received a Merit Award from the national Art Muse Contest in 2018, was an Art Muse Contest Emerging Artist Finalist in February 2019, and has been listed in the Bold Brush Favorite 15% several times. She continues to exhibit in a variety of venues and competitions. Current direction: Since retiring from a 30 year career in psychology, Ann has pursued painting on a daily basis, creating many small works that explore subjects and process. She is currently interested in oil painting, figures and faces, with architectural elements in the background.
Painting and designing are daily essentials to me as an artist. I must greet the easel on a regular basis to unleash my creative stories. My stories change as I gather up new images within my experiences. I find that no matter what I paint, I handle and place my brushstrokes with deliberate movements, unique color families, and strong compositions. I often let go of details so that the audience has an opportunity to become part of my story intertwining their own experiences, emotions, and ideas.
I have been a huge believer in my Modus operandi “Everything has been painted, so paint it differently”.
I am a retired elementary teacher and I often ask myself how would a kindergartner begin and finish a story? Five year olds have the essential tool kit to create art with such a fresh, uninhibited, and sometimes hilarious approach. When I am researching and pondering my new story I often bring out the saved and treasured art from those five year olds so that it keeps me on my toes.
If I am not at the easel you can find me in my BB Fresh Cut Flower Farm, or in the Pacific Northwest spending time on the Columbia River with my immediate family and friends.
I was born in post-revolutionary Cuba in 1987, and educated in an academic
setting heavily governed by the Russian Academy. This frame of reference is
evident in all of my work. To deny my experiences, perceptions and the
impact of history would be disregarding my own existence. These influences are
the lens through which I create and the motivation that propels me.
Cuban history has guided me in a variety of ways. On the one hand, it
allows me to rethink the way storytelling is part of our memories. On the other, it
allows me to question the accuracy of history and its telling. This conflict
absorbed me during my early years and continues to engage me as I complete
my artistic education. Currently, this near-obsession with the past translates into
figures, scenarios, and most importantly, the recreation of my own stories.
In Cuba, I was exposed to figurative arts by the presence of
the Russian Academy. This presence, as well as the censorship of contemporary
art and the limited access to information, was the accepted dogma.
Consequently, I understood that decontextualizing epochs and artistic symbols
was the tool I could use to establish a connection between the present and the
past. The resulting work provides an escape from reality and creates an illusory
world. I am more fascinated in altering history than depicting it accurately.
If a Southerner talks music, weaving symphonies of vibrant wordplay, I would like to think that I paint similar, creating rich compositions with impressions of Southern life. The abundant flowers and unique cultural traditions of the South sing through me, into my hands and onto the materials that shape my visual song. I attempt to capture the joyful, layered character of the South, working from both childhood memories and life.Flowers are the main subjects of my work, which reflects the bounty of colorful plant life both outside and in the homes of the South. In keeping with Southern tradition, there was almost always a fresh bouquet of flowers on the table of my childhood home. The frequent presence of flowers made a lasting impression—so much so that the floral still life would become the central focus of my work.
The boldness of my work can also be related to the Southern character. Beyond the well-kept exterior and femininity of a Southern woman, like my work, the women of the South can be strong, creative and playful.
I first started painting at a very early age, I was always creating something at the kitchen table making sculptures out of colored homemade play dough, I loved playing with spin art and water colors. I use to put food coloring in my lemonade to sell at my lemonade stand. I loved playing with color!
I knew at a young age I would be an artist the path had chosen me I can’t imagine doing anything else. In high school I had more paintbrushes in my back pack then pencils! I was awarded to attend governors honor’s program in high school, I was also rewarded a scholarship to SCAD and then went on to attend Atlanta College of art. I sold my first paintings at age 18 to IBM a huge milestone for me.
I also had the opportunity to live and paint in England for four years I had my own studio and worked with other international artist. I was exposed to many museums and gallery’s. The Tate Modern and Saatchi Gallery were some of my favorites I would visit them frequently. And although the work there was edgy It helped me loosen up my own work. I started going to fabric stores and wonderful paper shops and it was there that I started really layering my work with these materials.
I am grateful everyday that I have the oppurtunity to get up each morning and paint and have been able to make it a full time career.
My identity, universal personages, and surreal images are part of a search for my dream to travel, share and have fun with my work.
At the age of 13, he began painting to win the heart of a young girl. Since then, David Silva H has taken the artistry of the traditional Mexican painting very seriously; sharing his work in a revolutionary, political, and social context of the past and the present.
The work of this young Zacatecano painter, now living in the city of Rosarito, forces the spectator to turn and observe with profound interest. When observing David Silva's paintings, we find Don Quixote's with a look of surprise, of anguish or of wonder.
We see free gestures, dynamic vitality, and Quixote's that emerge from their meditations, not always optimistic about the condition of humanity. David Silvah, in his relentless effort to express himself, reunites Zapatas, Cristos, Villas, and Don Quixote at the same table. He uses narrative and literary content, as well as many colorful artistic effects, allowing us to enjoy the originality in his fine works.
Each work is a synthesis in which the painter gives free reign to his imagination, without being judged by other different and present pictorials. This allows David Silvah to approach his painting with absolute artistic freedom.
Ellie Sanchez-Galiano’s interests, both personal and intellectual, are without hesitation the search of identity.
The Artist’s intent is to provoke and inspire the viewers to question their “self”, look for their true passion in life and start working towards it. “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Making bold statements without the use of words, Sanchez-Galiano ignites energetic brushstrokes, with intense and expressive tones; the Artist has developed the hallmarks of a fiercely independent style forged through self-education.
Born in Palo Alto CA and now a long-time resident of Maine, I paint with oils on canvas or linen.
Coming from an artistic family background and exceptional high school art program there was no lack of encouragement to create. I studied sculpture and design at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia and have continued my education through classes and painting groups and occasionally teach students individually.
Returning to painting after many years of developing an interior and landscape design business, I focus my work on capturing the likeness and emotions of animals, especially the relationship between man and his canine best friend. I paint other animals as well, inspired by my deep feelings for the Maine countryside, the horses on our farm, and my 7 devoted Labrador Retrievers.
I convey the motion, shape, and love for the animal with loosely applied sweeping brushstrokes or pallet knife. Using glazing mediums, wax, chalk dust, and thick over painting to sculpt subjects on the canvas, I bring them to life in an unconventional form.
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An AJC reviewer once said ” Jane creates dreams in stone”.
My stone sculptures are mystical in nature.The art reflects the coexistence of the conscious and subconscious, the symbolic and literal, and the ancient and modern.
Being a direct carver, I draw directly on the stone. With an idea in my mind, I start chiseling. I usually start with an idea that revolves around the human form. It may be a piece of wood that inspires me because it suggests a drapery or a broken stone that looks like a silhouette.
It is a discovery of the unconscious. Your hands follow what your creative self dictates. My art evolves usually as I create it.
I am especially interested in combining various materials. I pay homage
to the Greco-Roman roots of stone in sculpture. I incorporate broken torsos like in Greco Roman ruins. From the Romans, I borrow the combining of different stones in one figure .
Lately I have been creating full figure images from cypress and stone. The figures are about the gesture of the figure and the various combinations of the different stones. Contrasting the angular with the curvilinear shapes is of interest to me.
My stone sculptures invite the viewer to interpret thus creating their own stories
The Cypress Series combines Cypress wood and various stone elements to create standing figures. I choose wood that already suggests drapery and then carve elements to further enhance the female form. Movement is very important to me. The stones chosen for the head and torso either create contrast or harmony. The sculpture is about gesture.
I was raised in Boulder, Colorado by artistic parents. They quietly instilled their passion into my life, which I finally started exploring on my own in 2010. After taking years of painting classes, in 2019, with major coaxing, I started exhibiting publicly to enthusiastic reviews of my fresh approach. I taught myself to paint in oils which has turned into my favorite medium to work with, whether in impressionistic brush strokes or an impasto method. I tend to rely heavily on nostalgia, memories and scenes, people or objects from everyday life as inspiration.
I believe this quote sums up my style perfectly: “[Her paintings] evoke a strong sense of nostalgia with a side of gorgeous simplicity. Nothing fussy, no overthinking - and that sparseness is what makes them strong. Her brushstrokes are raw, and her shapes not quite finished - as though they’re images from a memory you can’t quite fully recall, and yet the feeling of being there is whole and complete.” (Kimberly Beekman, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles Magazine, Mar/Apr 2021)
From biology student to owning and running a creative agency in London to a career as a fine artist, life has taken Jon Davenport on a rewarding and unconventional journey. Despite his scientific beginnings, he’s always had a strong artistic streak weaving its way through his different career paths.
Growing up in Ipswich, UK, Jon was always an avid drawer, and could often be found with a pencil and paper in hand. With the arrival of his first computer, he embraced the new frontier of digital art, and had work published in one of those early computer magazines. The stage was set!
His creative urges took a backseat to getting a biology degree at Brunel University in London. It was afterwards, in his first job working at Archant newspaper group in Ipswich, that he quickly progressed from plate maker to becoming an integral member of the art studio. It was during this time that he taught himself photoshop, desktop publishing and graphic & web design.
After a few years he setup a design agency, and eventually went full time and moved to London. This proved to be a successful move, working for a number of clients such as Nike and Virgin, and gaining praise from the likes of Richard Branson and Tony Blair.
It wasn’t until Jon moved to the USA to marry his wife, Atlanta artist Christy Kinard, that he began indulging his pure creative urges, with her constant encouragement. Thanks to all the previous twists and turns, as well as embracing a new found love for photography and the paintbrush, it was only then that he could truly begin to create artworks that he was proud of.
Born and raised in Honesdale, PA, Sheila O'Keefe Braun lived a dibble of her adult life in Brooklyn, N.Y., California, and eventually landed in Lancaster. Born to create, in the past few years her work has transitioned from using brushes, portraying an intentional defined object or scene, to reaching for an unknown while provoking the eye. O'Keefe Braun paints from a spiritual perspective while listening and then using her fingers, at times, along with palette knives as her brushes. She layers paint, removes paint, and layers yet again. She hides stories as one story builds into another. Sheila believes that in the rapid movement and stillness happening simultaneously on the earth there is an underlying continuous shifting between the seen and unseen realms. Unnoticed, this can occur so swiftly that our resplendent dreams may drift away and that which touches deepest falls asleep. O'Keefe Braun prefers viewers "visit with her work" and largely view from the perspective of what they are experiencing. She appreciates hearing others insight in order for her to have a greater understanding of what, she calls, the continuous river running through. Sheila teaches listening art in an addiction recovery facility, paints in her studio, during weddings, events, in worship services and by commission. She is also composing a TBI (traumatic brain injury)/PTSD series as well as a series on Jerusalem / Israel.
Sherri Andrews is a fast-rising, award-winning artist, a local philanthropist and community leader, and a well-regarded hedge fund manager. Yet it is her success as a mixed media artist that has been most stunning to her. In less than six years, Sherri has sold more than 100 paintings, curated a highly successful solo exhibition and received recognition, including the prestigious Ben Whitmore Purchase Award from the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie.
As a self-taught artist, Sherri is best known for her bold landscapes, colorful flowers, graceful dancers and abstract images, which she creates using a mix of inks, acrylics and collage. The vivid colors and spontaneity of her paintings convey energy and joy. She is passionately committed to sharing her vision—and her talents—in a way that inspires personal growth in others and helps to support causes that are important to her. She has donated a number of pieces of artwork to support local arts organizations and local charities, including the Arts Council of Princeton, the West Windsor Arts Council and Art-Jam’s Homefront.
As a finance professional with a Harvard MBA, Sherri draws upon her artistic instincts to bring creative problem-solving to her work. While it may seem that these two worlds are far apart, each reward “out of the box” thinking, attention to detail and bold, contrarian approaches. Painting also serves as a meditation and a source of positive, restorative energy for Sherri.
In addition to Sherri being honored by the Ellarslie at Trenton City Museum in May 2018 as Emerging Artist of the Year, her painting called Abstract Poppies was purchased for the museum’s permanent collection. Her work has been displayed at juried venues, including Phillips’ Mill, Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, D&R Greenway, BSB Gallery, and West Windsor Arts Council. Sherri has participated in juried art fairs and had her work shown at Third Street Gallery’s “Embodiment: Figure in Art” in Philadelphia. She has taught workshops at the Arts Council of Princeton and the New Jersey State Council of the Arts. Sherri was honored to have her first solo show at the Plainsboro Library in August 2019 and is currently represented by Karen Anderer Gallery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Sherri resides in Plainsboro, New Jersey, with her husband and 21-year-old son, who is also an artist. She is the former president of the West Windsor Art Council.
Trevor Mikula is a self-taught, contemporary artist from Nashville, TN. Before settling down in Nashville, Mikula owned his own art gallery in Provincetown on Cape Cod for four years. His unmistakable style of painting has the ability to put a smile on anybody's face, due to the whimsical yet sophisticated style that his art portrays. Taking inspiration from the people and things around him, Trevor paints with a vivid imagination, vibrant paint and a palette knife. Trevor has been a full time artist for the past fifteen years. His work can be seen throughout the Nashville area, galleries in Scottsdale, Santa Fe, Tucson, Charlotte, Asbury Park, and Lancaster, PA. He is back living in Provincetown ,exploring and painting daily. His zest for life can be seen in his work through his signature style.