Karen often paints en plein air in an effort to capture the essence of the landscape in Northern California, where she lives. Karen moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Atlanta, Georgia in 1989. She states: “I feel very fortunate to live in California surrounded by the magnificent landscape with its endless variety. Painting allows me to closely examine nature and I now notice everyday things that otherwise would have passed me by. Time slows down when you paint or sketch. It’s magical.”
I am a native of Fresno, California and received my education in this community from grammar school through the University undergraduate and graduate levels. I have been a professional Interior Designer for many years, but I established myself as a studio artist, when I was introduced to painting as a pathway to healing after a family tragedy in 1986. I paint in the representational tradition of Alla Prima, which means “from life,” and I engage in a sensitive dance of brush and paint – color and light – to create beautiful works of art as still life; figurative, and landscape paintings. I enjoy the camaraderie of an art group as well as work shop study with master painters, and I am currently in a mentoring continuum of study with the acclaimed young artist Daniel J. Keys.
Kati D'Amore is relatively new to painting, although her father was a well-known painter in Germany. She now paints beautiful landscapes, seascapes and amazing portraits. Her oil paintings are "fresh", never overworked and filled vibrant color placed by free, painterly strokes.
Lee Munsell was born in 1945 in San Francisco. He studied art at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California. His art graces the walls of corporations and private residences throughout the United States. Lee has traveled extensively, most recently to Paris. When he travels he always takes photographs, and together with a few pencil sketches, he has inspiration for new work when he returns to his studio in Southern California.
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa with a passion for the outdoors. The Monterey Peninsula has been my home for 30 years. My artistic journey with painting started 13 years ago, inspired by my horses in the landscapes of ever-changing light in their pastures that surround my home in The Steinbeck Hills. Whatever I paint has to capture my attention, otherwise it's just another thing to do!
Lorrie Fink is a painter and designer who lives and works in Oakland, California. Born and raised in Washington, DC, Fink acquired her life-long curiosity about the arts and sciences while roaming the galleries of the Smithsonian Institution. Her father — a physical scientist who trained as a glassblower — encouraged her to ask questions and find her own answers. Fink frequently travels to locations where she records the landscape in photographs and study sketches. Working with oils, she interprets images of plant life she has observed, using the attitude and expressiveness of botanical forms to examine human perceptions.
Inspired by the spectacular scenery of the Monterey Peninsula I started painting en plein air, or outside on location. This became a passion and eventually fine art painting became my full time vocation. My interest in subject matter is not limited to just the landscape, I also paint still-life, architecture and figures.
Michele LaMontagne Hausman creates original landscape oil paintings both en plein air and in her California studio. Her love for painting first led her to watercolors but in the mid 1990s she found her true love in painting with oils. Constantly honing her craft, Hausman sees painting as a life long adventure of study and exploration. She has studied at the Scottsdale Artist School and with modern day master artists in the USA and in France. Hausman also teaches painting at her Soquel studio and through the Santa Cruz Art League.
Since 1969, Pacific Grove Art Center has been a community based nonprofit seeking to enhance art appreciation and encourage the creation of art. With the desire to have art available to everyone, PGAC has held low cost classes, free exhibits, and offered reduced rent for artist’s studios for over 40 years. Emerging to established artists are professionally shown in our historic galleries, and large group shows can provide the first step into the art world for many. Through generous donations, grants, and hundreds of volunteered hours, the Art Center continues its mission today.
Classes: http://www.pgartcenter.org/classes.html
Paola Berthoin was born in London, England, and came to Carmel Valley in 1965 with her mother and three sisters. She is a graduate of Carmel High School and California College of the Arts where she specialized in printmaking, handmade paper and animal drawing. Paola’s deep commitment to living in the Carmel Valley over the past fifty years and tending the land she lives on for the past twenty-nine years has infused her visionary ways of interpreting the land through painting, writing, and advocacy for all watersheds of the Earth.