Artists
Lyn Asselta
Lyn Asselta’s pastel paintings have been shown in galleries and exhibits throughout the country. Her work depicts landscapes that typically evoke the rugged, untouched, yet serene beauty of places that are often familiar, but sometimes overlooked. Lyn can often be found painting en plein air, as well as teaching others to work with pastel in both classes and workshops.
Cathy Berse
Cathy Berse is a 25-year resident of Florida and a signature member of East Coast Plein Air. Cathy feels that painting En Plein Air is the only way to capture the true light and feel for this beautiful place we live in. Cathy attended the University of Wisconsin, University of Tennessee and Milwaukee Are Technical College. In years past she has worked as a graphic designer, teacher and muralist.
Christophe Cardot
A native of France, Christophe arrived in the United States in 2003 in order to pursue a full-time art career.
Primarily a self-taught artist, he studied with Barbara Baldwin, Larry Moore, Morgan Samuel Price and Barbara Perrotti in Florida. His artwork is often inspired from the French impressionists and pointillists. He works primarily with pastels, although he also enjoys oils, and he is constantly refining these with new techniques and art products.
From the first day of his honeymoon in Key West, he realized that he had found his spiritual home; Florida, with its heat, color and bright light. He truly enjoys painting Florida's landscapes in plein-air because he feels there is no better way to capture the hidden colors of the scenery, revealed by the changing light.
His works can be found in collections throughout the United States and Europe.
His commissions include three recently produced posters for Absente liquor and Pango Rhum publicity campaigns at the request of Michel Roux.
He also teaching oil and acrylic classes at the Artists Workshop in New Smyrna Beach, FL.
Jessie Cook
Jessie Cook started painting and drawing at an early age. She detoured into the publishing world, where she was a fiction editor and "rewrite doctor" for several New York publishing firms.
Her return to art included study with Sherry Camhy and Ric Del Rossi of The Art Students League of New York, John Philip Osborne of the Ridgewood Art Institute, and Mary Anna Goetz of the Woodstock School of Art. Following her 2005 move to Florida, she now pursues art full-time as a painter of still life and landscape in oil.
She has exhibited in solo and group shows and galleries in New York and more recently in Northeast Florida, as well as in juried plein air events.
Joan Davis
Born in Jacksonville and spending most of my life and career at the water’s edge, I did not have to look further to find creative inspiration and subjects when I took up the brush eight years ago. Just as aspiring authors are advised to “write what you know”, I paint what I perceive as the natural beauty and reality of Florida. I am pleased that my paintings from scenes of the St. Johns River, our Intercoastal Waterway, Black Creek in Middleburg, Cedar Key and Cross Creek have won new homes with others who also find peace in the beauty of Florida.
Charles Dickinson
Charles Dickinson has been a plein air artist for more than 30 years. He graduated from the Paier School of Art and studied at the Lyme Academy of Fine Art in Connecticut. It is his love of the outdoors and nature that moves him to explore painting canvases that capture the light and life in a scene. He strives to share that love with others.
Keith Doles
My first plein air painting experience was at the inaugural “A Brush With Nature” paint-out at the Jacksonville Arboretum. I was primarily a studio artist who loved painting buildings of the places I remembered as a child. Skyscrapers, vehicles, and people walking on the street fascinated me; they all were characters that created a geometric landscape. The plein air experience took me away from the street noise and opened me to whistling sea breezes on the beach, to birds chirping in the forest, and early morning sunlight glistening glowing through the trees. It challenges me to simplify my palette and focus on a few simple subjects. I now have an appreciation whenever I paint in the studio or outdoors with my artist friends.
Keith is a graphic artist who has produced commercial art for small business and corporations and designed websites for non-profit organizations. He has taught college-level graphic design courses and a series of acrylic painting workshops. He shows his work in galleries in Northeast Florida. One of Keith’s greatest honors was to have one of his earliest paintings chosen to be included in the permanent art collection of the University of North Florida Vice-President’s Office.
Jim Draper
Draper’s work is a direct extension of his life’s philosophy and values. His motivation is to open windows to another world. “Art takes us through the gamut of emotions, and it’s in these emotions where genius happens. Art is like a magic act. On takes nothing and makes something out of it. It’s my vehicle for taking people out of the mundane to another place.”
Draper maintains a studio in Jacksonville, Florida. His work has been the subject of countless gallery exhibitions, and today his work can be found in hundreds of corporate as well as private collections.
Elisabeth Ferber
Elisabeth began painting in 98’ using acrylics. In 6 mos she had switched to oils and began studying classical old master techniques under Johnnie Liliedahl. In 2001, Elisabeth started painting plein air landscapes. Since then, that has become her method of choice over studio work. Painting on location allows one to see the true colors and details much more clearly than any photo could do. Currently travels and participates in 7-10 plein-air paint-outs throughout Florida and other states.
Donna Chapman Grasso
Donna Chapman Grasso is a full time artist residing in Green Cove Springs, Florida. She left corporate life in 2000 to focus on fine art. Commission work dominates her studio time while plein aire painting is her favorite escape to refresh her eye and capture the world that surrounds us all.
Kai Akemi Grover
Kai Grover recieved her BA in Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. Her paintings and drawings are representational and strive to accurately render the subject while expressing their beauty. Kai is inspired by the natural world, in particular the rolling hills and rugged coastline of Northern California where she grew up. She currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida.
Beth Haizlip
My paintings are expressive, colorful and fun. I graduated in 1980 with an art degree from Florida Southern College, but continue to learn from other artists. I organize programs and workshops for the Art Guild of Orange Park and have critiques at my home once a month. Art is my passion and my life and I love sharing it! I have won several awards, been published in books and magazines, and belong to several galleries. My studio is at my home in Orange Park and I welcome visitors!
Marsha Hatcher
Marsha Hatcher is better known for her painting of people but have for the past two years turns part of her attention to landscapes. The majority of her landscapes are of the beautiful surroundings of the Jacksonville’s Arboretum and Gardens in where she had her first beginning with plein air painting.
Scott Hiestand
Scott, an Ormond Beach resident since 1999, was raised in St. Petersburg, Florida. He obtained a four-year art degree from Hussian School of Art, Philadelphia. After graduation from art school, Scott was employed by Hallmark Cards to create flower settings and wildlife greeting cards. He later worked for the St. Petersburg Times for fifteen years as a graphic artist, where a large part of his responsibility was to illustrate the outdoors pages. While at the Times, Scott created an illustrated column that ran once a week entitled, "The Nature of Florida". He wrote about and illustrated a different Florida species each week.
Linda Holmes
Linda grew up in & attended schools in Massachusetts. Her travel industry career offered the opportunity to visit other countries & study other cultures & art .
She volunteers at Flagler Hospital Cancer Education & Resource Center teaching informal art sessions to cancer survivors as a way to share the healing qualities of the creative spirit.
Linda’s colorful style of painting reflects her appreciation of impressionism , in studio & plein air painting. She has received many awards & honors & enjoys teaching & sharing the endless pleasures of painting.
Jamie Howard
Jaime Howard is a professor in the Visual Arts Department at FSCJ. She teaches painting and drawing at the college and conducts plein air sketching and painting workshops both in the United States and Europe.
Jaime is a member of Oil Painters of America, International Plein Air Painters, First Coast Plein Air Painters, and will be conducting a plein air workshop this June at the International School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture in Montecastello di Vibio, Italy.
Steve Johnson
Music was my first love until a local artist introduced me to plein air. From the time my brush went from palette to canvas, I was hopelessly, joyfully, and utterly captured by this method of expression. I now spend nearly every non working day discovering the hidden jewels of Florida's landscapes, with my new best friend, “Plein Air”.
Claire Kendrick
Claire Jane Kendrick is an artist whose paintings reflect Florida landscapes with bold, rich, beautiful colors, subtle textures with an Impressionist technique “This is a hot climate and colorful coast it’s a joy to live here. I love the expanse of the marshlands, the big cloudscapes, the scenery is dramatic and I try to express that in my paintings.” Collectors respond to the contemporary style and the expressive way in which she paints. The big open vistas and the marsh views that stretch for miles are amongst her favorite places to be. “When you’re out painting in these isolated places it feels like you have the world to yourself. The subtle shifts of light can in a moment calm or energize the environment.
www.cjk-studio.com
Paul Ladnier
Paul Ladnier, professor emeritus, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, taught courses in figure drawing and painting, abstract and plein air painting for more than thirty years. He received the MFA degree from Syracuse University and the BFA degree from Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. He has received numerous recognitions for the quality of his teaching and painting.
He has had many one-artist exhibitions, participated in numerous group shows, conducted figure painting/drawing and plein air painting workshops in Italy and in the southeast. He has had numerous portrait commissions and received top awards in plein air painting competitions.
Now retired, he continues to paint and conduct painting and drawing workshops, and exhibit his paintings. He is also director of Gallery L, an associate in Southlight Gallery, and has a studio at CoRK Art District, 2689 Rosselle Street, Jacksonville, Florida.
Steve Leibowitz
Studied plein aire at the University of North Florida with Paul Landier, studio and portraiture with Kyle Keith, and non-conventional techniques with Jim Draper. Studied methods of the old masters from Sonia de Franceschi in Italy. Painted landscapes with Louise Minks at the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. Exhibited and won awards in galleries in Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, and Jacksonville.
Dorreen Leonhirth
As a child I watched my Mother who was inspired by art. Everything she did was artistic. But, unfortunately, she was not encouraged to pursue her artistic talents. I was determined to not only pursue my art, but to live in art’s abundance. As an adolescent I started drawing on floors imagining a world of my own. From there I took off drawing and painting whenever I could get the materials to do so. My high school years is where I got my first real training, from an art teacher who believe that I had some talent and could pursue it in higher education. However, financially that was impossible as I came from a family of eight. After having three children of my own, I finally started revisiting my art passion. I started dabbling at the arts again, entering a few of my paintings and selling some at local art shows. I have raised my family and have retired in the last few years. A few years back, I consider myself an “art scholar” going back to school learning and trying different techniques. I paint for myself exclusively and although I sell little of my art, I hope to place a few select pieces in some of our local galleries.
My current passion is for the Florida landscape I paint cypress on the St Johns, water lilies on the gulf coast and the gulf beaches. I frequently photograph these subjects with thoughts of future paintings.
Richard Lundgren
Richard Lundgren is a nationally recognized pastel artist. His paintings have won national awards in 27 juried competitions from New York to Seattle and Chicago to New Orleans. These include the top award in the Degas Pastel Society Show in 2006 and 2004 and the Gold Award at the International Association of Pastel Societies show in Raleigh, NC in 2005 and again in 2008 at the Butler Institute of American Art. He was awarded signature membership in the Pastel Society of America in 2004. In 2007 he was awarded Master Circle status in the International Association of Pastel Societies. His work has appeared in The Pastel Journal (Feb 2010 and Oct 2005), American Artists, International Artist, and Pastel Artist International magazines. He is also one of five contributing artists in Maggie Price’s book Painting Sunlight & Shadow with Pastels, North Light Books, 2011. His work is represented by Avilies Gallery, St. August, Waterwheel Gallery, Fernandina Beach, and the House of Stereo, Jacksonville.
Pat Mahoney
Patrick Mahoney is an artist and art restorer/conservator residing in Orange Park, Florida. Educated at the University of North Florida, this artist has cultivated a love for rendering scenes of tranquillity. He has been creating beautifully hued and meticulously detailed landscapes and stilllifes in oil on canvas since 1965. Pat is now one of North Florida's most successful representational artists. Although he is firmly ~y':dicatedto the style of realism, Pat's work is consistently infused with subtle undercurrents of emotion.
Tim Malles
Landscapes, public art and astronomy themes are some of the targets of Tim’s work. A native Floridian (born Miami, 1954), his passion to paint the Florida landscape is inspired by the extreme changes in the environment experienced by our generation. Water themes and nocturnes are recurrent in his work. His plein air medium is oil on wood and his style is impressionistic, filled with light, color and movement. Malles thrives on the opportunity for spontaneity, creativity and exchange within the live public art venue.
Marilyn Masters
Marilyn Masters is a professional artist who paints is oil and watercolor. She has an AA in Fine Art, and studied in New Jersey her home state with fine artists. Since coming to Florida she has painted in Studio but is most interested in Plein Air. She is a member of the Daytona Art League. She is active with the Pallet and Brush Club and is a member of "Foxfire", FlWAA and participates in outdoor sponsored paint outs is Florida.
Gordon Meggison
Gordon Meggison is a fine Art painter located in Jacksonville Florida. Having spent 6 years in Japan, Gordon is influenced by oriental simplicity which informs his driftwood landscapes and watercolors. Gordon has exhibited throughout the United States, and Nantes, France in 1992 which featured his plein aire watercolors painted throughout Florida and France.
5 paintings can be seen in the Baptist Beaches Hospital lobby.
Gallery Representation: Jen Jones Art Consulting & Liberty Bank Lobby
Affiliations: Patrons of the Heart, Make A Wish Foundation
Larry Moore
An award filled 20 year illustration career has lead to a highly succesful painting career. I have been painting en plein air for the last 30 years. It is the most challenging and rewarding form of art I have experienced. My goal in painting, whether in studio or outdoors, is to achieve enough honesty in the work that the painting becomes a window to a new place for the viewer, a place of rest.
Jim Pearce
Barbara Perrotti
Barbara Perrotti is a professional artist and teacher residing in Florida. She was born in Ohio and moved to Connecticut where she attended formal drawing lessons at a very early age...
Once married her husband sent her to the Paier School of Art for five years …Perrotti furthered her Art studies with Robert Brackman at the Madison Art School in Ct.
She draws inspiration from the past through the many workshops she has taken with such notables as Greg Kreutz, Morgan Samuel Price, Lois Griffell and Burt Silverman.
Through these masters she feels firmly connected with the past and has been inspired by the works of Sargeant, Potthast, Twachtman, Monet and Henri.
A trip west in '06 provided a sense of new direction. At the encouragement of her husband she completed 17 paintings en route.
“I feel so privileged for this opportunity to paint at leisure and to study the different climates of color and the richness of subject matter right here in our United States”.
Ms. Perrotti is a realist by choice and has enjoyed a career in both Portraiture and Landscape. Her focus is in impressionism with the addition of line- an abstract element
that sets her apart from other painters. She specializes in oil and pastel. She has lived in many states-- “ traveling is a big part of my life – I love being on the go.
I think that is why I have adapted so well to Plein Air... it is everything that I need as an artist, it provides challenge, variety of subject matter and a study of atmospheric
conditions that cannot be obtained through a photograph. Too, it has provided me with the opportunity to further my study of people and how they live.
As an artist I am dedicated to recording all that I see to pass on for the sake of future generations “
Rick Petersen
I have always had an interest in drawing and painting, and I began painting in oils while still in high school. Though I pursued a career in the field of computers, I continued to draw and paint. When I was diagnosed with MS and retired on disability, I was able to devote most of my time to my art. Though I have not had the opportunity for a formal education in art, I have benefited from extensive reading and experimentation, membership in local artist groups, and occasional classes and workshops. I have also enjoyed the benefit of artist friends and acquaintances who have been generous with their help and instruction. A few years ago, I turned my attention from oils and watercolor to pastels. I was recently accepted as a juried member of the Pastel Society of America.
Randy Pitts
Randy Pitts has always had a fascination with art. In his youth, he often would spend hours with his childhood friends drawing cartoons, motorcycles, cars or just about anything else young boys found interesting. It was in college that Randy turned that early artistic interest into a serious pursuit, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Florida.
“During college, drawing was where I concentrated my efforts, and it wasn’t until 2001 that I picked up a paint brush. I can’t pinpoint an exact reason, maybe it was an attitude of ‘now or never’, but I found myself wanting to paint.” Randy says. Since then, Randy has become passionate about painting, especially Plein Air landscape painting. “Being outside and having all of my senses engaged with the environment while painting is a feeling like none other. I strive to communicate the connection I feel to others in my paintings.”
Randy lives in Jacksonville with his wife Debbie and daughter Rebecca. “ The Jacksonville and surrounding areas has a variety of natural settings that offer area artists a wealth of subjects from which to draw inspiration.” Randy says.
Debbie Pounders
Born in Nashville, TN. Natural artist-self- taught. I love to draw and started my career drawing commission portraits. In 2007 I moved to Jacksonville, FL and started to paint in acrylics. I like to paint large, impressionistic and bright. I have become a serious artist involved in the community. I feel that I have been given a precious gift knowing and learning from others. I don’t want to waste a minute without my art buddies.
Diantha York-Ripley
Art Has always been an important element in my life and about 25 years ago, it became a passion I needed to bring to the forefront. So I began a focused educational process ending with my degree from University of North Florida - a Bachelor of Fine Arts, painting, Magna Cum Laude. During this time period, I was still working with United Airlines as a Flight Attendant and was able to take advantage of international exposure to the arts.
My primary medium is acrylic painting and my subject matter is varied, including landscapes, seascapes, marshes, street scenes, floral, and still life. I also enjoy mixed media and abstraction. There is so much beauty all around us and it is important to me to project my awe of the surroundings. I hope to engage the viewer so that the positive energy of the creative process is passed on to them.
I very much enjoy living here in Jacksonville, FL where I am once again near the ocean. I grew up in California and missed the ocean while living in the mid states.
Gallery representation includes: Avondale Artworks, 3568 St. Johns Avenue, Jacksonville, FL; Elemental Gallery, The Landing, Jacksonville, FL; First Street Gallery, 216 First Street, Neptune Beach, FL; and Trends Home Décor, 3919 Hendricks Avenue, Jacksonville, FL.
Hercel Stallard
Using watercolors in a transparent manner I like to paint glowing scenes of Florida and eastern Mountains. My background has been is commercial art, self employed in my own studio. I have studied with some of the countries best watercolor instructors.
I have painted watercolors and taught watercolor for 30 years. I have a studio in Jacksonville, and in Virginia, where I conduct workshops and weekly classes
Allison Watson
Allison Watson is well known throughout the South for her landscape paintings of Florida and the South East. She began her professional career as a studio artist in her early twenties. As a native Floridian, the inspiration for her paintings comes from her love of the natural environment and her travels and explorations in the remote woodlands, lakes, spring, dunes and beaches of Florida. She paints from her own photography taken in Florida and international locations.
Ms Watson has had over thirty solo exhibitions including shows at major Universities, private galleries and Museums as well as many group shows. Some collectors include The First District Court of Appeals, Tallahassee, and the Jacksonville Office of the Mayor, Baptist Medical Center, Amazon Exhibitions, The U.S. Embassy in Panama, Bell South, The Jacksonville Libraries, Marriot Hotels, South Trust Bank, The Haskell and the Vickers collections as well as many others including over three hundred private, public and corporate collections nationally.
Watson has also worked as an animator, illustrator, textile artist, and art teacher and as a licensed interior designer. Ms Watson is on the teaching staff of the Cummer Museum of Art and the Cultural Center in Ponte Vedra Beach FL. She also teaches private classes and workshops. For information on classes or to view her work please refer to the web site or contact the artist at her studio.
Lynn Whipple
Lynn Whipple grew up in beautiful Winter Park, Florida and is a full time professional artist. While best known for her mixed media works, Lynn's deep love of nature and the joys of creating art outdoors has led her to most satisfying artistic journey to date: Plein Air painting. Lynn has been a member of McRae Art Studios for the past 17 years as well as a member of Central Florida Plein Air Painters and Plein Air Painters of Florida. Her work has been exhibited in gallery shows, museums and national juried exhibitions, and she has been featured in several books and magazines. Lynn is the recipient of two Florida Individual Artists Fellowship Grants. She can be found, most mornings, out of doors, happily immersed in the noble attempt of capturing natural beauty and light.
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