Beaux Arts of Central Florida

My work follows in the tradition of the “Abstract Expressionists” movement in which the painting process is the subject matter.

Vibrant, exuberant, and colorful shapes, lines and marks create a sense of energy and mystery.

www.jean-banas.com

My mixed media art is composed of handmade paper using banana leaf fiber infused with dyed and marbleized silks. The resulting piece reveals the silk as it emerges through the paper creating undulating creases and folds. I choose to superimpose these works on copper which I organically patina to correspond to the colors and textures of my art.  My work is then sealed to protect the art, but is exposed such as a painting on canvas yet dimensional in nature.  These works are influenced by the evocative qualities and energy of nature’s everchanging landscape. As the silk bursts forth from the paper  it suggests new life, budding, blossoming, and unfolding an enchanted mystery. I strive to create beautiful mixed media images to uplift the spirit. Working with a varied color palette is driven by the mood I am trying to convey.   I have won numerous awards over the years from being a past veteran of the Art Festival scene locally in Florida and across the US. Select venues include museum exhibitions with The Florida Women’s Museum, The Ormond Memorial Museum, The Deland Museum of Art and The Tampa Museum. My proudest accomplishments come from being part of ART IN PUBLIC PLACES. My art is in the permanent collection of The International Airport in Daytona, Bert Fish Medical Center, The New Smyrna Beach Library, Port Orange Library, The Deland Court House, Lincoln Center and The White House as well as in many private collections in the US. Canada and Europe. For me the creative process continually renews the spirit and brings meaning and depth to my life. Being an artist is a spiritual journey that I believe connects all of us to our innermost being.

I consider my self an experimental artist, specializing in watercolor. Finding new ways to use watercolor with other mediums and on different surfaces, leads me on a journey that has become my passion. When I work somewhat traditionally in watercolor, I am drawn to painting in the “negative” as this defines the positive shapes in such a way as to give my work an unmistakable depth. I also find great pleasure in teaching and sharing my discoveries with others.

–Gail Bokor

My life-long love of and involvement with horses drives my passion to create equine theme art. Horses are beautiful spirited animals, full of energy and truth. I use the horse to elicit a feeling or mood or to create a story. My one-of-kind and limited edition sculptures are all hand sculpted in clay, mixed media, wax, metals and other permanent media. With my unique mixed-media sculptures, I can indulge my artistic passion to work in three dimensions, sculpting, carving, shaping and painting. I strive for my works to intrigue the viewer, invite a closer look, and exhibit strength, determination and vulnerability. My works are in private and public collections across America and abroad.

–Mindy Z. Colton

www.mindycolton.com

My art is about creating, manipulating, and playing with space using paint, mixed media and collage. As a non-objective artist, how space appears is reflected in the ever-changing internal states of self and experience.

A personal exploration of the attributes of space are part of the process of creating it: open-closed; distant-close; dense-light; infinite-finite; background-foreground; too much-too little; floating-structured; layered-bare.

To the viewer, the resulting work becomes a visual record of the spontaneity inherent in non-objective painting combined with the push-pull power of space to inspire, intrigue, energize, and relax.

–Cheri Erdman

www.cherierdmanart.com

My art is a like my dreams where fleeting moments in time have been captured. Someone, somewhere, an emotion that has registered within my subconscious. I start by doing quick marks in a very raw and fundamental manner, with paint, paper and any other media which I feel a piece demands. I then allow the piece to take me on a voyage without a destination. In short it’s like capturing a dream and transferring it for the viewer to observe.

“Sharing the soul through creativity is a great feeling and it happens every time one creates.”

–N.C. Hagood

The journey in fiber arts is an exciting one, always changing and challenging, never staying still always in motion, such as Nature. A small shell or rock, a unusual twig, a beautiful leaf filled with holes where insects have fed always fill my pockets while on a walk. Nature has always played an important part in identifying who I am as an artist and person. My mind is like a butterfly dancing from one flower to another. New ideas, new techniques, pushing the boundaries, and experimenting are always there pollinating, ready to try.

Using unusual non traditional fabrics continues to delight me, ranging from my ice dyed silks to burlap. Any fiber is fair game ranging from the humble cheesecloth to the finest silks. Upcycled clothing, thrift store finds, clothing off the back of friends, paints and embellishments find their way into my work. I am very much enjoying doing three dimensional work. The sewing machine is my paint brush.

Over many years I have collected textiles while traveling. It could be a torn doily, a fragment of chicken feed sack, a belt from Guatemala or Peru, bits and pieces of the lives of unknown women. Feeling very connected to the unknown artist, my work is evolving again, joining together with theirs giving new life and new purpose to the pieces. I feel a tremendous connection to these women, there is a peace, a tranquility, I feel their smiles as we are Sisters of the Cloth.

My fiber art can be found at the Hub on Canal, New Smyrna Beach, Florida.

www.lindashoffmeister.com

I enjoy creating cities and figures that only live in my heart and not the real world. Perhaps my architectural background sneaks into my work.

I use expressive backgrounds combined with abstracted figurative and urban sketches to give each work an unique personality. I love the use of lines – fat, skinny, broken, any kind I can make – and exaggerated and sensuous shapes in bright colors and energetic quick strokes.

Each piece is fun, funky, and heartfelt, and seeks to speak to the viewer on a very personal and poignant level.

–Carson Kapp

www.carsonkapp.weebly.com

I’m currently working in mixed media – my goal is to successfully integrate realism and abstraction into cohesive paintings and drawings. The colors of Fall, the variety of textures in nature, fossils, and ancient artifacts all inspire me and influence my work. I look forward to and embrace the journey – the process of creating, the challenge of resolving problems, and the setbacks and successes along the way.

–Sharon LaDue

I believe the authentic experience one can have is with nature. I am fascinated by the intricate designs created within the small space of one’s vision. The lines, forms, colors and textures of the natural elements are what motivate my art. As an artist, I reach deep within myself in order to express as image inspired by nature, or man’s interaction with it, that will touch the viewer as it has me, or cause the viewer to go on and look more closely at the wonders that surround us.

–Carolyn Land

www.perceptionsbycaland.com

I have been sculpting for over 20 years, first in the UK and then here in Florida. My interest lies in the human form – I enjoy expressing its beauty and movement, and capturing emotions in both faces and bodies.

My medium is earthenware, which is hand built, fired and usually finished with paint to give varying effects. I have also worked in concrete and stone.

–Marilyn Leverton

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Renee Schwadron Lewis always loved the combination of texture and color. The confluence of cultures in NYC was especially an influential part of her life. Lewis received a B.F.A. in Fabric Design from the School of Art at Syracuse University. As part of the University’s Foreign Studies Program she studied Art History in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In her focas on Fabric Design (which included silk screening and weaving). Lewis developed an eye and proficiency with repetitive patterns – which continues to be a theme in her current work.

Her Post-Impressionist style drawings are created with a combination of oil crayons, color pencils and pastels – producing bold, stunning colors and creative themes capturing the colorful nature of women. At the core of her work are women – empowered, strong, yet vulnerable, linked to others, each other – and beautiful from within.

Lewis is an award winning artist and is represented by The Hub on Canal, New Smyrna Beach, The Dancing Crane Gallery in Bradenton – and has exhibited work at the Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, the Orlando Museum of Art with the Artist’s Registry, The Gallery at Mills Park, Orlando, City Arts Factory, Orlando and the Gainesville Fine Arts Association Gallery. She is also a member of Beaux Arts of Central Florida. Additionally, she teaches classes and workshops for children and adults at the Orlando Museum of Art, the Casselberry Art House and The Hub on Canal.

www.reneeschwadronlewis.com

Collecting art has always given me great pleasure. My home is gallery with a wide range of genres – pieces that calm me and inspire me – they have become part of my soul. And now, I create art that I want to share with the world. We all need to surround ourselves with beauty and inspiration reflected in the shapes, patterns and colors of our planet.

Choose art in all of its forms… You will be enriched.

-Babz Lupoli

www.artbybabz.com

My foundation in the arts was built by experimenting with several different media.  With each came an acquired level of skill and knowledge.  In many ways, clay offered me the most freedom.  It responds to physical pull and push resulting in a three-dimensional expression of what has inspired me. Like many artists, nature, travel and life’s experience provide the emotion I react to.

The science of clay and glazes is an integral part of the success in pottery.  Skill on the potter’s wheel and hand building techniques develop only by doing and failing.  I have never given up on my passion for clay and creating.  I can’t…. I have too many ideas that need to be built.  Time ticks on and rolls faster as I chase these ideas downhill, but joyful music and laughter radiates from my soul as I move the mud.

Fire transforms the ceramic structures to the hardness of unrecyclable stone. Now my creations are future relics to be discovered by archeologists in the next era, offering a look into my time on earth.

My artistic life has always been inspired by this quote by an unknown author: “Dreams don’t have deadlines”. 

My works are primarily non-representational conveying my emotions through abstraction. Shape, color, mark, texture and space are my descriptors. The compositions begin with process and serve as a point of departure. Working improvisationally is challenging and allows me the freedom to experiment with the natural properties of both traditional and non-traditional media. I like the richly processed surfaces that result. They show a history of their own.

–Gretchen Nass

I am an experimental artist. I like to explore different techniques and materials. I collect ephemera and discarded stuff to use in my work. My current explorations are with paper, cloth and paint restrained by a minimal palette. This series all start with a painted black background and then I compose a piece matching old script and images with cloth to created an image that satisfies.

www.artbyomeara.com

I have always been involved in some type of artistic pursuit, first in high school and then at Scripps College where I minored in studio arts. I began my career in 1972 when I started a needlepoint design business. I specialized in custom and liturgical work, along with creating a signature line of designs which is still distributed nationally. After retiring  I turned to painting full time, with acrylics as my medium.
 
My Landscape and Bird Series are based on memories I have of growing up in the Midwest, living on an eighty acre farm in Minnesota and traveling further north to summer on Madeline Island in Lake Superior. My intention for these paintings is to not represent any specific place or thing, but rather to create an emotional sense of place, one that evokes a feeling of stillness and calm.
 
My work on paper is influenced by my growing interest in abstraction. I create my collage material by using acrylics and mediums applied in various techniques to very thin paper. I incorporate pieces of this material into my work, which produces added texture and color interest. Memory Series are simply layers of paint applied to thin paper with no additional support other than the paint itself. They become fabric in a sense.
 
I summer on Madeline Island in Wisconsin where I maintain a studio and gallery, and winter in New Smyrna Beach in Florida where I  share a studio with three fellow artists.

www.katherineparfet.com

Sometimes just one small minute in time can become a painting. I like to capture that minute and explore it. Every painting is a challenge and I love to use color, value, edges, texture and interesting shapes to express the effects of light.

My inspiration comes from our adventures travelling from the Dry Tortugas near Key West to Penobscot Bay, Maine on our thirty-eight foot sailboat. I love to paint water, sunlight and people who populate these scenes all while capitalizing on the wet, splashy nature of watercolor.

As an artist painting in both oil and watercolor, I express my love of the painting process. My inspiration usually comes from nature especially from flowers and the human figure as seen in my many portraits. From these, hopefully, something pleasing to the eye has been created using color, shapes and patterns.

–Jane Rockhold

I began painting as a very young child. I love all things beautiful and believe the important thing about a work is that it is beautiful and invites the viewer in and holds him/her there for a passage of time. I paint in the classical tradition of using transparent and semi-transparent glazes which allow the light to pass through the scenes on my canvas creating air and atmosphere. And, of course some mystery is important too.

–Amelie Rogers

I enjoy the creative process of art making whether it results in abstraction or contemporary realism. To me art is timeless and is not dependent upon specific techniques or content.

My figurative paintings are created on multiple sheets of layered plexiglass. Each sheet of clear plexiglass contains a part of the final image. The effect creates a 3 dimensional kinetic painting that moves and changes as the viewer’s perspective changes.

I’ve been influenced by the 1960’s optical and kinetic art of Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. Also the French Pointillist painters of the 1880’s, American photorealist painter Chuck Close, and the dramatic lighting of Dutch master Rembrandt van Ryan.

My aesthetic focus is to create an image of drama, beauty and sensuality. Not just with the subject matter, but with the composition, materials and application of color. An image that is fun to view with unexpected surprises. I'm adding textural drama and contrast to my recent paintings with the addition of soft exotic organic papers that contrast nicely with the smooth and shiny plexiglass.

I love watching the dance and delight of the viewers eyes while discovering the movement, harmony and depth created by layer upon layer of images in my paintings. I am constantly reinventing the way I create images. Always searching for a playful bridge between the 3 dimensions of sculpture, and the 2 dimensions of painting.

www.robertshirk.com

As I travel, I am intrigued by the surfaces that surround us. It could be a ceiling, a floor, most often it is a wall. My intent is to interpret these surfaces in a way that will evoke a response in the viewer. There might be words, remnants of notices, or playbills. There might be layers that are being exposed because of age or climate. There surfaces are a history lesson a warning of what may be coming, or what has been. A surface can be elegant or tawdry, happy or sad, substantial or crumbling. The response to the art will vary from viewer to viewer.

www.antoinetteslick.com

After twelve years of learning the wonders of clay and practicing my art as a ceramic sculptor, I began learning a new medium, acrylic painting/ mixed media art. Working in three dimensional vs two dimensional art forms has similarities, but for the most part is a totally new experience.

What I love most about painting is having a large surface to apply bold colors, shapes and marks with the option of telling a story related to my experiences in life both past and present.

http://www.kattysmithfineart.com

My painting centers on the representation of the human form as narrative. Exploring the body, through inventive gestural mark making, creates a history in each work and imbeds emotional context. Observing and drawing people provides an unending source of ideas for me.

Through a long history of making art and extensive drawing skills from a background in graphic design and illustration, has provided a life experience that produces a broad visual field.

Ultimately, my goal is to create a piece that transports the viewer into a world of their own visual imagination.

My paintings start with a big-bang of colors, which swirl into quiet spaces and are sometimes obliterated and reformed into new creations. The canvas is my edifice, where my meditations and my prayers are heard. Since I have no end image in mind, my hands and mind are free to explore where these layers take me.  Acrylic paints and mediums lend themselves well to my process.

Ultimately I want each one of these paintings to touch a chord within me.  Then, I believe I can touch you.

www.lillianverkins.com

As early as I can remember I was an observer. Many questions intrigued me then and continue to intrigue me now. Why do people do as they do? What motivates their actions and reactions? What makes us all tick? Whether it is an elderly woman’s feeling of isolation, the outsider’s anxiety when courting a new friend, the conflicting joy and sadness of the surrogate mother, the unforgotten lives of those who have passed, these deeply empathic connections are sensitive glimpses. While I assume the objective position of the observer, these glimpses open a small window through which I also look inside my own emotional life.

www.beauwild.com

Various processes in nature, cause deterioration of natural and man-made materials. I am inspired and intrigued by the result. Using a camera macro lens, I capture images of mineral seepage and lichen growth on aging rock, or the peeling paint and rusting metal of old machinery. When enlarged, the small imaged area I capture, reveals amazing, and often, surprising content. Highlighting the lines, textures, and colors, that combine to bring character and interest to those images, I create vivid, abstract art, that showcases their brilliant beauty and intricate designs. Always experimenting, seeking improved avenues to enhance and display my discoveries, I have recently begun printing my creations on art paper. This allows the inclusion of texturization that more closely simulates the original surfaces, and results in a finished piece that resembles a painting.
I hope my work excites the viewer’s imagination and opens their eyes to see what an incredibly, beautiful world surrounds us, even in the smallest and least expected spots.

peggary2@yahoo.com