Summer is in full bloom and so is your creativity! In this class we’ll be painting a beautiful wildflower meadow on sanded pastel paper. Explore translucent wet under painting techniques, learn to build lush layers and discover expressive mark making using a minimal pastel palette. This class is for novices and experts alike – the goal is to create and enjoy learning the possibilities of this versatile medium.
We are excited to welcome Anne to fuller art house this summer. Join us for a enjoyable Saturaday afternoon at the gallery! We look forward to sharing our favorite classes with our community and introducing you to new styles of art.
Anne Kindl graduated from the College of Design at Iowa State University with a BFA in Graphic Design. After a 25-year career in corporate and nonprofit art and graphic design, she left to pursue her love of fine art.
Raja Aossey, ATR-BC, is a Board Certified Art Therapist who currently works with children and families at Michigan Medicine’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. Raja graduated from Lourdes University in 2011 and went on to pursue graduate training at Mount Mary University to become an Art Therapist.
“I believe that creating art is a healing and life-enriching practice. My work as a mixed media artist is inspired by the intersection of community and connection. My own personal artwork is rooted in collage and mixed media techniques. I am inspired by flora and fauna and the way everything in nature connects. I love the looseness and flexibility of watercolor, and have recently found a love for the meditative process of ceramics. I believe that art is limitless and powerful. “
Kate- As in any journey, I am continually excited to start a painting because I never know exactly where the painting will take me––it is the delight of surprises discovered along the way. It is somewhat like heading out on a trip without an exact itinerary, knowing that some of life’s best moments are the unplanned ones. Unintended shapes taking form in the paint are often the spark, which begin each new painting: striped patterns become planted fields, and curved forms develop into gardens of flowers, or simple birds. I strive to create compositions, which exist with a degree of independence from the real world. The need to explore, discover and investigate possibilities while continuously searching for new solutions is the driving force in my art.
My work is constantly evolving in the spirit of exploration and spontaneity. As an artist and a musician, I think subconsciously in terms of sound quality with each painting. The visual and auditory senses are intertwined into a single experience as I perceive sound as color and form, and vise versa. Visual repetition and pattern become rhythm, while color is perceived as melody and harmony. Discovering how to express the processes of nature and the passage of time through the patterns and irregularities found in the surface texture is my current preoccupation. I begin each painting in acrylic and mask shapes before adding successive layers of oil paint mixed with a cold wax medium. This process of layering, inscribing, and scraping
back paint to reveal hidden layers builds texture, depth and a history beneath the surface—this is what I find fascinating. Constantly altering my initial inspiration, I prefer to leave glimpses of early layers, as a reminder of my original thought where it becomes a history of the painting.
Drawing on her experience as a former illustrator, Christyuses an array of media (acrylic, collage and drawing media) along with a finely honed visual vocabulary to connect with viewers on multiple levels. Over the last several years her work has transitioned into abstraction, as she pushes the process of playing with line and shape over fields of color. Compositions both large and small invite the viewer to approach,’ investigate, and discover the surprisingly sophisticated mark-making that is visible only from an intimate distance.
“Color is the springboard for my work. As a method of communicating with viewers color can be a powerful (or subtle) tool.”
Christy received her BFA in Illustration from Kendall College of Art and Design (Grand Rapids) in 1992. Shortly after, she relocated to San Francisco and found work in the “Multimedia Gulch” at a small software company as a digital illustrator. In 1996, she moved to Long Beach to pursue her master’s degree at California State University. The experience broadened her perceptions of what it means to be an illustrator and fine artist. Under the guidance of an exceptional mentor, Christy fine-tuned her skills and began to embrace the idea of becoming a “painter”.
Welcome to Fresh Air. Showcasing 6 different perspectives on the world outdoors. This exhibit will be running till the end of May.
Dylan Strzynski is a Michigan artist whose mixed media work combines drawing, painting and influence from his background in printmaking. He is inspired by the woody marine landscape of the north where he grew up and the area surrounding his home in rural western Washtenaw County. Focusing on landscape and vernacular architecture, his work addresses concerns about the environment and poverty by telling stories characterized by mystery and subtle humor.
Hope Olson is a painter and mixed-media artist based in Holland, Michigan. Her art celebrates home, community, and slow, old-fashioned living. The compositions and colors of Hope’s abstracted still life and landscape paintings are inspired by her long-held affection for interior decorating, historic architecture, old country villages, and early 20th century art. Hope particularly borrows from the sensibilities of the Fauvist art movement, which emphasizes strong marks and colors that magnify mood and compel curiosity. She earned a B.S. in Interior Design from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourb
onnais, Illinois, and also focused her college coursework in studio art and marketing.
Rachael Van Dyke is a mid-career artist. She is an avid traveler with an upcoming residency with Cill Rialaig Arts Center in Ireland. She has participated recently in residencies in the historic town of Tusa, Sicily with Officina Stamperia del Notaio and on the remote island of Isle Royale in Lake Superior with the United States National Park Service. Van Dyke’s residencies have also included Studio Ginestrelle, Assisi, Italy, Le Jardin Botanique, in Marnay sur Seine, France, TICA with the Art Institute of Chicago, and Les Tasis located in the Ardeche Valley of Southern France. She is also a Fulbright Memorial Fund teacher recipient to Japan. Van Dyke has had solo art exhibitions with the Forest Hills Fine Art Center, the Power Center of Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, MI and the University of Michigan Hospital Gifts for Art program. She earned her MAE at the Kendall College of Art and Design and has worked 14 years as an art and design educator for all grade levels including adjunct instructor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. Rachael Van Dyke has participated in numerous public presentations and adult workshops including talks on art and creativity, art and the spiritual, and on how space and place influence a body of work. Van Dyke also engages in social activism through artmaking. The Future People, the design team of Van Dyke and her husband Cameron, currently is exhibiting work on tour with the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
Anne kindl’s pastels have been featured in three Breeders’ Cup commemorative editions andKeeneland and Kentucky Homes & Gardens publications. She has installations in public and private art collections including Buffalo Trace Distillery, The Kentucky Theatre, St. Joseph Hospital and University of Kentucky Medical Center. She has had her work featured in films for Indie and Lifetime Movies. She was awarded the 2016 Best in Kentucky artist by the Lexington Art League. Anne’s recent work has been selected to be in the Pastel Journal’s 20th Pastel 100 and the 33rd International Pastel Societies Juried Exhibition.
Virginia Kretz has been a member of the Athena Society for over 40 Years. She is most known for her soft guache landscapes and lavish use of greens and blues. As a premier Toledo based artist, Virginia has won countless awards and high praise among landscape art collectors, traditional art lovers and beyond. Kretz’s work continues to be a staple at Fuller Art house and the traveling Athena shows throughout the area.
Cody R. Winter was raised within the small farming community of Riga, Michigan; a place where life progressed at a slower pace and the bucolic, Midwestern scenery was never too far away. Growing up, he was considerably fascinated by the arts, which was the foremost influence on choosing his major upon entering Lourdes University. After graduating in 2015, he would begin his career within the art world; always striving to be surrounded by his craft he would continue to create while being employed at the River Centre Gallery. His premier inspiration continues to be the work of the old masters, in particular: Martin Johnson Heade’s sublimity, George Inness’ intrigue, Frederic Edwin Church’s verisimilitude, and Claude Monet’s sense of color being his greatest influences.
