Caren-Marie Michel

Caren-Marie Michel's work explores the urban, industrial, and pastoral images of Maine and documents the ever-changing landscape in paint.  Michel is a devoted plein air painter and a studio artist; she received her B.F.A. in painting from Portland School of Art (now Maine College of Art) and has exhibited in juried and group shows in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, and the Salmagundi Club in New York City.  In Maine, Michel's work has been exhibited at: the Jameson Gallery(representation), Bates College Museum of Art, Turner Center for the Arts, Atrium Gallery at USM-LA, Chocolate Church, Maine Art Gallery, Rivertree Center for the Arts, Bowdoin College, and the College of the Atlantic.  In 2008, Michel was commissioned to paint three large landscape paintings for the new Mercy Hospital Fore River buildings main lobby in Portland, Maine.  Michel is represented by North Light Gallery in Millinocket and Carver Hill Gallery in Rockland, Maine.    I enthusiastically support the work of the Farm and participated in two prior Plein Air Auctions to benefit Wolfe's Neck Farm.

Mary Byrom

Mary Byrom lives in the southern seacoast region of Maine within close reach of two favorite painting locations, the Atlantic seacoast and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She is an artist with varied interests and proficiency in several media. An accomplished designer, illustrator, and painter she has an academic background in fine art. She works mostly from life, using the Alla Prima method of oil painting with a focus on plein air landscape painting.   True to the practice of plein air she is outdoors year-round painting on location. It is from this collection of field sketches that large studio paintings are developed. The artists of the Hudson River School and the American Western Plein Air tradition have been influential in the development of her work.  

"When I'm outdoors now, I am consciously slowing down. I am looking and thinking about what I see and how I see it. I love the experience of being out in nature, watching the pace of the light crossing the landscape and the clouds moving across the sky."  I live in a beautiful area along the seacoast of Maine near the largest un-developed region of coastal plains and forest between Acadia National Park and the New Jersey Pine Barrens. I've been wandering and painting in this region for several years and still have not seen all of its treasures."    Painting in plein air is wonderful and difficult; it takes me to beautiful places and is a distinctly demanding process. Climate and weather are challenging and I'm always learning and growing as an artist."  

Mary Byrom is an internationally exhibited artist who has received awards for paintings, sculpture and packaging design, commissions for children's illustrations, and has participated in solo and groups shows in the United States and Europe. She is acclaimed for her studio and plein air work in oils and watercolorsShe is a member of Oil Painters of America and the American Society of Marine Artists. She resides and maintains a studio in North Berwick, Maine.    

"I would love to paint to support Wolfe Neck Farm and their mission.  It is most important to preserve these beautiful natural and agricultural lands in Maine. It has been my focus to paint these very locations in Maine to help raise awareness of their value and importance in our lives. I paint all over Maine and see so much of this valuable land disappearing to development."

Mary Russell

The gift the artistic process gives to the community is that of expanding awareness of our world and the passion for protecting it.  That strikes me as the larger mission of Wolfe Neck Farms and I would like to participate with the Farm in nurturing that awareness and passion.  Having painted on and off for over 30 years, for the last 8 years I have been seriously developing my painting practice and exploring the sources of meaning that sustain it.  A big fan of Wolfe Neck Farms since 1992 and a painter dedicated to plein air painting, I hope I have the opportunity to merge those interests in support of the Farm.
 
Rebecca Yates Shorb

Rebecca Yates Shorb is a plein air artist living and working in Pennsylvania and Maine. As an educator, she spent 29 years sharing art with youth throughout the public school systems. In 1998 she returned to her passion for plein air painting after she and her husband purchased a home in Maine. She currently conducts an outdoor group with fellow painter Carol Smith, where artists are encouraged to express and challenge themselves artistically. Passionate about the arts, she supports and encourages other artists through collecting, mentoring, and creating.

Hosting numerous shows throughout the East Coast has provider her many opportunities to meet artists and art enthusiasts and provides her with a broad audience. Rebecca also volunteers her time serving on the board of the Maine Art Gallery, and Chairing the Scholarship Committee at Hanover Arts Guild. 

In 2009 she was the recipient of four awards- the most recent which was the prized Rottler Award at the York (PA) Art Association. She is the recent recipient of the Rottler Award and The Susquehanna River International Competition. Passionate about art, she collects, mentors and conducts a plein air painting group in Maine.

Kevin Mizner

Kevin Mizner has been painting Maine people and places for over thirty years.  He taught himself to draw and paint while growing up in North Yarmouth, Maine.  Kevin's paintings are in private collections around the country, and corporations including L.L.Bean Inc., and TD BankNorth.    Kevin's primary influences range from N. C. and Andrew Wyeth, to Thomas Eakins, with a little Norman Rockwell thrown in, but he's trying to carve his own niche in the Maine art world.  As he states, "I want to show the Maine that we locals know, along with the things that make this such a beautiful place to paint."    Kevin's uncanny ability to capture the light on, mostly Maine, subjects at any time of day is remarkable.  You will know a Mizner painting, whether a landscape, seascape or interesting architecture by his unmistakable use of layering and color that capture the fleeting moment of light, time and space.  Kevin's lifelong study of his native state of Maine evokes compositions involving various elements to create interest for the eye of the viewer.

Carol Santora

Carol Santora is best known for her expressionistic and soulful animal paintings.  From the exotic, faraway, wildest of jungle cats, to the soulful-eyed Maine bovines, horses and other farm animals, to her own beloved pet dogs and the cherished pets of her clients, Santora captures the spirit and unique personality of the animals she paints.     Internationally collected, Santora is a highly respected and award-winning artist who's traveled throughout New England and Wyoming studying animals in the wild and in protected environments. A Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America, Santora shares her artistic voice and vision, celebrating animals in an explosion of color.  She has taught from her studio and at various schools and museums, and is a requested judge and demonstrator for diverse groups and audiences including amateur and professional painters, and pet owners.    

Santora has garnered numerous awards including Third Place Other Media: Pastel at the Susan K Black Foundation Art Show, WY, 2010, First Place Other Media: Pastel at the Susan K Black Art Show 2009 & 2008, and the Headwater's Purchase Prize, Dubois, WY, 2009.  She received a Special Merit Award at the 19th Annual Maine Open Juried Art Show, Waterville, ME and Honorable Mention Pastel at the invitational Kennebunk River Club Art Show in 2009 in addition to over four dozen other 1st Place, Peoples Choice and 'Best in Show' awards.     Santora displays her art in her home gallery in Kennebunk and is represented by the Wright Gallery, Cape Porpoise, and Horse of a Different Color, Jackson, WY.  FMI please visit her website: www.carolsantora.com.    

"I am always excited about participating in the annual Plein Air Auction Event at Wolfe's Neck Farm.  My reasons for participating in this fourth event remain the same.  Wolfe's Neck Farm is a perfect setting for me to paint cows; they are one of my most favorite animals to observe and paint.  Working on an animal painting 'plein air' is always a challenge because the animals are always in motion!  By participating in this event, I can help support Wolfe's Neck Farm in their mission dedicated to 'sustainable agriculture' and environmental education."

Sally Loughridge

"Painting has been a powerful, persistent magnet since early childhood, while raising my children, and during my career as a clinical psychologist.  I now focus on art exclusively – painting, studying, exhibiting, and teaching.  I create landscapes and seascapes, the real and the imagined, in soft pastel, oil and watercolor.   I have been teaching soft pastel painting for over eight years, both in the studio and en plein air. I continue to grow through long contented hours working on my own and painting regularly with a small group of close and critical peers.   

I am very fortunate to live on the coast of Maine, with its glorious intersections of sea, sky and land.  I often paint scenes depicting natural transitions: the gradual change of New England's autumn colors, the lingering radiance of an early summer evening, or the sudden shift in light and shadow a rain squall brings.  Such change and contrast heightens my perception, energy and emotional response.    The process of making art is challenging, humbling and deeply satisfying.  Painting and sight have become reciprocally entwined, with each enhancing the other. The fuller my engagement in the action of creating, the more energized and connected I feel to the world.  In turn, I hope to engage the viewer by stirring memory, emotion and curiosity.   

I would like to participate in this art benefit because Wolfe's Neck Farm embraces values and initiatives that I also support.  As a visual artist, I am drawn to the beauty and drama of Maine's land and seascapes.  As a Maine resident, I applaud Wolfe's Neck commitment to sustainable agriculture and its recognition that working with children is essential to the appreciation, preservation and protection of open spaces.  Balancing education, recreation and environmental sensitivity makes common and powerful sense.     To see my resume, please visit www.sallyloughridge.com."

John Knight

John Knight was the Maine Arts Commission Visual Arts Fellow for 2007.  He has had recent solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Moss Galleries in Falmouth (2010) and Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland (2009).  His work is currently on display in the US embassy in Timor-Leste as part of the art for embassies program.  He is represented by Elizabeth Moss Galleries in Falmouth, Maine.    I am interested in supporting sustainable, local agriculture.  I also wish to deepen my connection to the landscape and my own surroundings.  Plein air painting has been a way for me to do this in Indiana, where I grew up, in New Mexico, where I lived after college, and here in Maine, my home for the past 12 years.

Laurie Proctor

Laurie Proctor is a professional artist working and residing in Maine.  She is a plein air painter who has won numerous awards for her brilliant work.  She is expressive in her painting and her work is full of emotion.  She shows her art locally and throughout New England.  She is a memeber of the  Waterville Art Society,  Up Country Artists,  Boothbay Regional ARt Foundation, Kennebec Valley Art Association and the Maine art Gallery.

Christy DeVeault

Christy DeVeault is a local artist who considers Wolfe's Neck one of her favorite places to hike year-round on a daily basis. Its also one of her favorite subjects to paint.

Christy has been painting for 25 years; if you were to ask what her favorite medium is she would be hard pressed to choose "just one".   She enjoys doing watercolor, oil, pastel, acrylics, printmaking, and collage.   As for content – she has a special affinity for representational landscapes and seascapes in a naturalism style.   Oversized watercolor abstraction is also one of her passions.

She has lived on the coast for most of her life and finds inspiration in the changing tides and the many moods of the 4-seasons that Maine has to offer.

Christy holds a Bachelor's Degree in Art from the University of Maine, attended Maine College of Art and continues her studies through various private lessons and workshops. She conducts workshops and lessons from her own studio in Freeport and presently teaches landscape oil painting at Artascope Studios in South Portland, Maine.  Christy is the President and Treasurer of the Art Guild of Freeport.