| Linda Anderson: Commercial fishing and boat building were central to the lives of Linda Anderson and her husband while they lived along the coast of Long Island, NY. After moving to Emerald Isle in 1987, Linda's love of the coastal environment continued to inspire her paintings and she specialized in boat portraits. Although she also paints in acrylic and watercolor, pastels are her medium of choice. More of Linda's work can be seen at her home studio, as well as at Arts and Things in MHC, The Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro, J. Chalk Design in MHC and Coastal Art Works in Havelock, NC. |
Barbara LaValley: Having fallen in love with Emerald Isle more than 30 years ago, Barbara LaValley decided to retire there. When she began taking classes to renew her lifelong interest in painting, she discovered pastels which quickly became her favorite medium. She says, "the vivid pigments of pastels convey the excitement of nature, whether peaceful streams, jubilant waterfalls, brilliant sunsets or the energizing ocean waves." Living close to the water inspires many of her paintings. |
| Maggie Arndt: Maggie Arndt attended the School of Art and Design and the Pratt Institute in New York. Following a 25-year career as a visual store designer, she feels she finally is doing what she was meant to do. She enjoys painting en plein air, finishing her work back at her studio. She uses a limited palette, working in pastel, watercolor or arcylic, letting Nature be her guide. Maggie's continuing goal is "to give viewers a moment away from their busy lives, a moment to enjoy life's treasures. | Susan M. Mason: Susan Mason developed her love for the natural world in her hometown of Atlantic, NC. She holds a degree from ECU, and she taught secondary school for 26 years, including 21 years in Alaskan native villages. She has worked as a freelance illustrator in both Alaska and NC and has illustrated several Inupiaq language books and children's books. Susan enjoys pastels because they are "so immediate and the colors, so intense." She uses a layering technique when working with pastel pencils, blending with a stomp and using a kneaded eraser to lift highlights. |
| Susan Cheatham: With a degree in Landscape Architecture from the School of Design at NC State University, Susan Cheatham has been involved in designing more than 500 landscape projects in the Raleigh Triangle Park area. She has taught Environmental Education to children in fourth through eighth grades at Camp Don Lee, teaching them about NC's rivers, estuaries, and the special environments in Pamlico Sound. Susan and two partners recently opened The Station Gallery in Oriental. "My passion is color," says Susan, who has made three sailing trips as far south as the Bahamas and up into the Chesapeake Bay, painting along the way. | Eleanor McArver: Eleanor earned her BFA from UNC/Chapel Hill. She credits her professors there with giving her a basis in abstract and conceptual art. Later influences came from oil and pastel workshops with Lou Wilson, Kevin, Beck, Susan Sarback, Marcus McClanahan and Mike Rooney. Eleanor continually strives to improve her "use of color, value, drawing skills, design and composition," and "bundling creativity originality, humility, spontenity, push-on-ability and imagination in the process. It results in the joy of painting." |
| Linda Coffey: Linda Coffey began painting in 1978 but, as a Registered Nurse working full time, did not have enough time to devote to it. She and her husband moved to Morehead City in 1992, and Linda retired from nursing in 1997. She then resumed painting—first as a hobby and then as a passion; today, Linda is an award-winning artist. | Glenn Nixon: Glenn Nixon is a native of Buffalo, NY and is a graduate of N.C. State University. After retiring from a thirty year career as teacher and football coach, Glenn found time to take up painting, and he found his medium of choice. His love is painting portraits, especially those of children. Glenn has won numerous awards including gold medals in the North Carolina Senior Games at both the state and local levels. summerwinds113@hotmail.com |
| Elizabeth Conley: Elizabeth Conley is a teacher and art therapist from Maine who enjoys expressing her views of the changing seasons. Miniature as well as full scale paintings in watercolor, acrylic and pastel provide variety for her to expolore the natural world. She is inspired by the romantic landscapes of Elizabeth Mowry, the bold color harmonies of Doug Dawson, and the light-filled expressive work of Nita Engle. She resides in New Bern with her husband and current feline model/art critic. | Grace V. Owen: One joy since retirement from her career as a Marriage and Family Therapist has been the time to paint. Pastel is her favorite medium. She has won numerous awards from such shows as "Art from the Heart" and "Silver Arts," and she has shown solo several times. Her work can be seen at Mattie King Davis Gallery in Beaufort. For Grace, "Art offers a sense of light, life and beauty... It is with gratitude and enthusiasm that I attempt to create." |
| Norma E. Haden: Norma Haden grew up on a farm in South Central Virginia. She was graduated from Longwood College with a degree in Education. After teaching and raising a family in Virginia Beach, she and her husband retired and moved to Emerald Isle in 1998. Norma has received gold medals for pastel pet portraits in the NC Silver Arts and others on the local and state levels. Even though she paints in watercolor and acrylic, her mediums of choice are pastel and oil. | Cindy Ridlon: Cindly Ridlon only learned late in life that one could draw their own wings and color them brightly. In the late 1980s she took art lessons from her good friend, professional artist Joan Nixon of Lakeland, Florida. After relocating to New Bern she attended classes with local artists Ed Macomber, Frank Pelligrini, Sue Russell and Ruth Chagaris. Her favorite medium is pastel, followed closely by acrylic and watercolor. Cindy's commission work is mostly figural, particularly of children. Cindy Ridlon was educated in New England, and upon relocating to Florida, was introduced to the delights of creating artwork, beginning with drawing and the lucious medium of pastels. Since moving to New Bern, NC, in 1995, she took classes from both local and visiting artists. She has won awards in pastel, oil, and acrylic, and paints primarily figurative subjects depicting a setting and/or expression defining emotion. Cindy is currently available to contract for commission work in pastels or oils. |
| Ann Huml: Ann Huml is fairly new to pastel and has enjoyed learning how to create interesting color effects. She grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and was planning to major in Fine Art but switched instead to English. Marriage to her active-duty Marine husband and motherhood put art in the background until she and her husband retired to Emerald Isle. A watercolor workshop rekindled her interest in creating art, and she has been happily painting ever since. Ann Huml is a neophyte at pastels but found that working with them has helped her better understand color in other mediums. She has been happily painting in Emerald Isle, North Carolina since 1996. Her work can be seen at Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro, NC, or at her home studio on Live Oak Street in Emerald Isle. | Donna Slade: Donna's passion for art has taken her from a 30-year award-winning career in commercial art, advertising, design and illustration to recently becoming a full time painter. Donna has earned local and national recognition, winning many fine art awards in solo and group exhibitions. Donna's work has been published in The Best of American Pastel Artists & Artisans, Volume 1 and The Best of Colored Pencil. Donna's realistic pastel, colored pencil, and acrylic paintings are imagined, planned andexecuted in a representational, realistic style. The paintings are not a photographic moment in time but represent a unique artistic interpretation through observation. She says: "I seek to provide a place for the viewer to find curiosity and appreciation for the process of creation." dsladeart@gmail.com or www.donnasladeart.com |
| Anne Harrelson Ward: Anne Harrelson Ward was born and spent her formative years in picturesque Southport, NC. She currently resides on the shore of Emerald Isle, NC with her husband. A few years ago, on a whim, she enrolled in a pastel workshop and found the medium really spoke to her. Anne is grateful for her journey in art, the gift to express herself freely, wonderful instructors along the way and the community of pastel artists who have been extremely supportive and helpful. | Susan Suggs: Pastel painter Susan Suggs lives in rural Carteret County. She is a registered landscape architect and uses many of the same skills when designing landscapes with pastels. She capturesthe unique qualities of light in her paintings and has an eye for composition and color combinations. Many of Susan's paintings are rural agrarian scenes and other natural settings. She captures the ephemeral effects of color and and light on vegetation, on bird plumage and on water. Susan especially enjoys painting during the early morning or late afternoon when the sun's shadows are most interesting. |
| Lou Wilson: A self-taught painter, Lou Wilson doesn't have to go far to find a subject, whether a pet, a grandchild, the view of the pond from her deck, or the landscapes and seascapes that surround her. All of her environment inspires and challenges her artistic vision, which she describes as "just different." In 1994 she and her husband moved to Morehead City. On a whim, after spending 23 years in accounting using the left side of her brain, Lou and her husband opened a gallery, art supply store and frame shop called Arts & Things. An award winning artist, Lou paints in oil, acrylic, pastel and watercolor, as well as colored pencil graphite and charcoal. She also teaches weekly classes that allow students working in any medium to find their own artist voices. | Rose Valente: Rose Valente grew up in Akron/Canton, Ohio and now lives in the coastal town of Swansboro, NC. Upon retirement, she resumed painting and drawing. Among her mentors are Ann Ross, Freida Kyle, Becky Chandler, Marsha Mills, David Parker, Lou Wilson and Bob Burridge. Rose's love of animals and flowers is apparent in many of her drawings. She is also inspired by the sunrises and sunsets of this area. "I am Rose Valente....artist....living on the water, my imagination never goes hungry.....LOVE IS OK.....ART is better!! Strolling along the glittering water, nature constructs a window to the living sea....I absorb the wonder of God's creations...inspiring the love of art... celebrating the beauties of the earth, I paint and draw to share my life's passions." |