Fine Art

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Each month, the editors select their favorite entries in fine art (paintings, drawings, sculpture, illustration, etc.).
Thanks to all who shared their work.

CLICK ON IMAGES to go to the artists' individual pages.

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Basha Ruth Nelson is the April 2021 Featured Artist. Basha's sculptures - constructions in paper, stainless steel, aluminum and copper - engage the viewer through surface and scale, looking at ordinary materials in a new way. Currently, she follows her heart and deep commitment to Freedom. She creates interactive installations and performances as part of her ongoing Freedom Project. Basha’s work has been exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions and in public and private exhibitions throughout the U.S. International exhibits include: Matinee Art Gallery (Nassau, Bahamas), NY Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum (Copenhagen, Denmark), Florence Biennale, Procidamerica (Italy). Basha was invited to the 2020 Venice Biennial for Architecture and Sculpture and the upcoming edition of 2022.

© Lynne Friedman

Lynne Friedman's work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Booth Western Art Museum (Georgia), the James McNeil Whistler Museum, the Galleria Nacional Museum in Costa Rica, and eight solo shows in New York City at Noho Gallery and the Prince Street Gallery in the Chelsea District. Her work was featured at a juried show at the Albany Institute of Art & History and was selected by the U.S. Department of State Art-In-Embassies Program for the US Embassy in Djibouti, E. Africa and Colombo, Sri Lanka. Lynne’s work is in many corporate and private collections including Pfizer, McGraw Hill, IBM, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Pace University, Ritz Carlton Hotels and Metropolitan National Bank. She has received seven artist residency grants to work in Spain, Costa Rica, Ireland, Southern France and New Mexico.

© Diana Freedman-Shea

Diana Freedman-Shea grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She earned a BFA degree from Pratt Institute and began teaching in New York City high schools when she was 21 years old. She later received an MFA degree from Brooklyn College and pursued a career in painting and printmaking while teaching full time. Diana was an art reviewer for ten years. She has exhibited her work at numerous acclaimed galleries and centers, including The Kennedy Gallery, NYC, Hammond Museum, Flinn Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Minnesota Museum, and George Billis Gallery, to name a few. Her work has been chosen for solo shows at the Noho Gallery and the Prince Street Gallery in Chelsea where she has been a member. She is a former president of the New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA).

© Afi Ese

Afi Ese is one of two February 2021 Featured Artists. She is an African American contemporary realism and figurative conceptual artist living in Houston, Texas with roots in Togo and Mali.
The artworks of Afi Ese represent and venerate the rich history of the West African diaspora with an emphasis on generational trauma and triumph in Black America. She combines and re-imagines historical events and attributes specific to the Black American experience. In doing so, she gets to shine a spotlight on the beauty and resilience of her community by using the gifts and talents given by her ancestors. Afi’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in South Africa. Her works are held in private collections in England, Trinidad, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and the United States.

© Velicia Gourdin

Velicia Gourdin is one of two February 2021 Featured Artists. She is from Boston, MA. She has created illustrative and graphic design work for The New York Times, Jazz vocalist Lezlie Harrison, and a host of others. She has also been featured in many publications, including Urban Bush Babes and AFROPUNK. Velicia is a self-taught digital artist whose work is a blend between traditional methods and the infinite flexibility of today's digital illustration tools. Focusing on diversity in her portrayal of beauty - as it relates to the fashion industry and beyond - Velicia seeks to communicate power, positivity and possibility in her work. She is currently teaching a college-level, virtual drawing class, planning various personal projects (including illustrating a children's book), and looking forward to safely visiting her grandchildren.

© Amy Bright Unfried

Amy Bright Unfried is the November 2020 Featured Artist. She is a Wyoming-based sculptor who has exhibited nationwide in galleries and art centers from New England to Wyoming and Colorado. Her work has been selected for inclusion in many prestigious and selective juried art shows, including those of the American Artists Professional League, Allied Artists of America, the National Sculpture Society, the National Arts Club, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, the Salmagundi Club, The Pen and Brush Club, the Hudson Valley Art Association, and others. She has won dozens of awards, including the American Artists Professional League's Gold Medal, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's Horse's Head Award, and the Wyoming Capitol Art Exhibit's Purchase Award.

© Jessica Baker

Jessica Baker is a mixed-media visual artist based in Woodstock, NY. She creates thematic series of individual artworks and installations that explore the ephemeral nature of art. Her current series, Personal Meditations, is inspired by texts derived from Buddhist and related spiritual and philosophical teachings, along with humorous pearls of wisdom taught to her by a beloved T’ai Chi master. Jessica’s artwork has been featured in an interview for National Public Radio. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally and is included in both private and institutional collections.

© Despina Symeou

Despina Symeou is the October 2020 Featured Artist. She is a London-based painter and printmaker. After studying fine art, printmaking and photography, Despina specialized in jewelry design and received her B.A. (Hons) from Middlesex University in North West London. Despina began showing her figurative work in 2010 with her solo show “Skin Shapes.” Since then, she has exhibited her work in and around London with the Printmakers Council, biannually with The Affordable Art Fair UK, and as a member of ArtCan, a nonprofit focused on artist collaboration. In 2018, Despina was shortlisted for The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Many of her paintings and prints are in private collections worldwide, and her etchings are held in the Victoria & Albert Collection Fund and the Scarborough Museum Trust.

© Merrill French

Merrill French is the September 2020 Featured Artist. She is an award-winning oil painter whose work has been widely exhibited in New York and Connecticut as well as Massachusetts. Merrill has received numerous awards, including the New Britain Museum of American Art’s People’s Choice Award (2019, 2020), several awards from the National Association of Women Artists, a Grumbacher Gold Medal (Kent Art Association), and the Salmagundi Club Award for Excellence. Her work is also included in the following permanent collections: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University (NJ), Adams & Company Real Estate in New York, NY (a 20 painting commission) and the Belfast Public Library in Maine.

© Katharine L. McKenna

Katharine L. McKenna is an award-winning artist and author whose luminous landscape paintings reveal a profound attachment to the natural geology and essence of place in her paintings of Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Utah and Arizona. Katharine's paintings are part of the permanent collections of the Rockwell Museum, the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Booth Museum, the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum and at the Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg, AZ. Her book The Paleontologist's Daughter is excerpted in Sanctuary.

© Debra Friedkin

Debra Friedkin studied at The Art Students League of New York and Westchester Art Workshop. Her narrative mixed media collages, sculptures and metal assemblages are based on concepts of recycling and repurposing, deconstruction and reinvention. Debra is a juried member of the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City, where she serves on the Jury of Awards and the Admissions Committee. Other professional affiliations include National Association of Women Artists, Audubon Artists, and Williamsburg Art and Historical Center. An award-winning artist, Debra has widely exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the tri-state area.

© Valerie Patterson

Valerie Patterson is the May 2020 Featured Artist. She is an award-winning watercolorist based in New York. She recently retired from a 34-year career teaching art. Her paintings have been exhibited extensively throughout the United States in both group and solo exhibitions, including exhibitions at The Bond St. Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), The Visual Arts Center At Clarington (Ontario, Canada), The Dayton International Peace Museum (Dayton, OH), Monkdogz Urban Art (Manhattan), and many others. Her awards and recognitions are numerous, including Juror’s Award Of Excellence for the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center National Juried Exhibition “Ebb & Flow: The Power Of Water” and several Awards Of Excellence and a Featured Artist Award from Manhattan Arts International.

© Pennie Brantley

Pennie Brantley is the March 2020 Featured Artist. She is a New York-based acclaimed artist. She has had an active career for forty years, exhibiting in museums, art centers and galleries. Among these are the prestigious Hyde Collection Museum, Boston Center for the Arts, National Arts Club in NYC, Paul Robeson Cultural Center at Penn State University, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. Her work has been selected for important exhibitions by distinguished curators, including Director of the Guggenheim, Richard Armstrong, and others. Elected to the National Association of Women Artists based in NYC, Pennie has received many honors for her paintings, including the Leibowitz Award, NYC, and was awarded a grant from the NY Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

© Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell

Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell is the February 2020 Featured Artist. She is a Washington, D.C.-based fine artist and mixed media designer, originally from Denver, CO.
Her work is largely composed of messages regarding the experience of the Black woman in America with themes of motherhood and culture. Zsudayka’s work has been included in exhibitions and gallery spaces throughout the U.S, and she is the recipient of several grants. She and her husband, James Terrell (who is also an artist), own Terrell Arts DC and work closely with nonprofits to develop youth art programming in their community.

© Penny Dell

Penny Dell was born in Mexico and grew up in Mexico City and Acapulco. She came to the U.S. at the age of thirteen. Penny is fascinated with the flexibility, experimentation, and the rich materials and technique of print processes. Penny’s works are in many corporate and private collections including Cablevision, Rutgers University and the New York Public Library. From 2005-2007 she served as President for the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA). She is a recipient of a 2019 Dutchess County Executive Arts Award (Individual Artist) which was based on her important contributions to the growth of Dutchess County's cultural life.

FINE ART 2019

© Carol O'Neill

Carol A. O’Neill is a native of New Jersey. Her formal art education includes a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and Master of Fine Arts Degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Carol’s solo exhibitions include A Gathering of Leaves at The Frelinghuysen Arboretum in Morristown, NJ and a solo exhibition at L’Espace Cadres in Waterloo, Belgium. She has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions across the U.S. and has received a number of awards for her work, including a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship and an artist residency at Millay Colony for the Arts in Austerlitz, NY.

Tarryl Gabel was born and raised on a cattle ranch on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. She has lived the last 32 years in the beautiful Hudson Valley Region of New York. Tarryl has been voted by readers of Hudson Valley Magazine as “Best Artist” in their annual “Best of the Hudson Valley” five times to date. She has won awards nationally and regionally, including Paint the Parks and Paint America Top 100. Most recently, at Plein Air Easton, her painting was given the award titled “Worthy of the Met” by David Levy. Tarryl was also chosen to paint an ornament for the 2007 White House Christmas tree.

Marlene Wiedenbaum, PSA-MP, is the July '19 Featured Artist. She is an award-winning pastel artist from New York. She considers herself “a passionate realist, working with a palette of soft pastels, sanded paper, and a kneaded eraser.” Her award-winning paintings have been exhibited internationally, including the International Pastel Artists Invitational in Taipei, Taiwan and the Xian Art Museum in China. Her work is among six International Master Pastelists featured in two text books commissioned by the Taiwanese government. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, and, in 2012, Marlene was selected out of 1500 artists as one of 10 semi-finalists for the prestigious Basil H. Alkazzi Excellence in Painting Awards. As an Award-Winning Signature Member and MASTER Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America (PSA), Marlene is also an elected board member of the PSA Board of Governors, and she is a member of several other prestigious arts organizations.

Deb Brandon is a weaver, respected textile artist and writer. She is also a popular speaker on textiles and other topics. Deb is an active volunteer with Weave a Real Peace (WARP), serving multiple terms as a board member as well as writing the long-running “Textile Techniques from Around the World” column for the organization’s newsletter.
Since 1991, Deb has been a professor in the Mathematical Sciences Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Her books include But My Brain Had Other Ideas (a memoir about her long-term recovery from brain injury), excerpted in Sanctuary, and Threads Around the World. Her essays have appeared in several publications, including Hand/Eye Magazine and Weaving Today.

Sandra Bertrand is the May '19 Featured Artist. She has been immersed in the arts all of her life, as a theater actress, playwright, painter, photographer, book reviewer, editor and art critic. In theater, her accomplishments are numerous. Her plays include Manikin, The Transformation of Aura Ruanes, Days and Nights of an Ice Cream Princess, The Sentry and the Laughing Ladies and many others. Her plays for television include Chameleon and Coming Attraction. She has been an O’Neill Playwright Conference finalist and her plays have been performed Off-Off Broadway at the Courtyard Playhouse, The Viridian and elsewhere. Sandra’s artwork has been selected for solo and group exhibitions in Connecticut and New York. She is a member and Public Relations Co-coordinator of the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) . Sandra is Chief Art Critic for Highbrow Magazine and a contributing writer for GALO Magazine.

Jean Newburg is a sculptor and painter who worked for decades as founding CEO of Weston United, a nonprofit organization providing housing and services for homeless individuals with mental illness and other behavioral disorders. Jean has been studying and making art since the 1970s concurrently with pursuing a career as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. After retiring in 2016, Jean began painting and sculpting full-time. She is currently studying sculpture with Rhoda Sherbell at the Art Students League of New York. She is also studying watercolor at the Woodstock School of Art, and, in 2017, started experimenting with abstraction and pastel landscapes. Jean has exhibited in galleries in New York City and the Hudson Valley region of New York. She is a member of the National Association of Women Artists.

Kimberly Gerry-Tucker is the April '19 Featured Artist. She is an author, artist and vice president of The Art of Autism, a nonprofit organization supporting autistic creatives. She is in charge of the P.O.D.S. (People of Diversity, Speaking) Project, one of the many programs sponsored by this nonprofit. After receiving an Asperger’s/Selective Mutism diagnosis in 1999, Kimberly stopped seeing herself as ‘less-than’ and felt empowered to write candidly about herself as a spectrum woman. Her memoir Under The Banana Moon was published in 2012. Her artwork has appeared in many books and on the cover of three.

Katherine Kean is the March '19 Featured Artist. She is an award-winning painter from Los Angeles and a former visual effects producer, designer and animator whose film credits include The Fly, Ghost, Stargate, and Willow. Her paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the U.S. and have been acquired by many private and corporate collections. Her work has been presented in many publications and collections, including Bloomingdales in Santa Monica, CA, Schiffer’s 100 Artists of the West Coast II, and the National Weather Center 2015 Biennale.

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