GFAA MEMBERS
Alfred Phillips
Website: alfredphillips.com
Medium: Acrylic
Educated at Louisville, Kentucky’s Art Center School, with a full scholarship four- year studio degree, Phillips had a long, successful career in commercial art that included stints at ad agencies, then at his own graphics design firm. In 2003 he closed the firm and took up acrylic painting full time when he relocated to Fort Lauderdale, earning multiple awards, and making sales on national and international levels. In 2013 he moved to Gainesville, FL, and became active in the arts community. Phillips helped establish the Gainesville Fine Arts Association gallery and served on the Board for over five years. He also served as volunteer Gallery Director and steered its direction for several years until a paid employee could be afforded by the association. His work can be viewed on his website: www.alfredphillips.com.
Skip Snow
Instagram: @walkingcamefirst
Medium: Sculpture, assemblage, painting, digital, land art.
Skip Snow worked for the National Park Service for 38 years, the last 25 at Everglades National Park. There, he has among other things, evaluated the effects of water management on park wildlife, worked to reintroduce native pineland birds, and spent considerable time trying to figure out what might be done about invasive non-native animals, especially, the Burmese python. Since retiring in 2013, Skip has been pursuing a keen interest in the intersection of art and science. His art work is varied including assemblage, painting, sculpture, digital, and land art. He is an avid walker.
Kristin Powers
Website: www.KristinPowers.com
Medium: Painting, drawing, photography, sculpture
Kristin is a Florida native who has lived in Gainesville, Orlando, Dallas, and Seattle. She is a classically trained painter, earning her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in painting at University of Florida in 2005. She creates emotive forms through color and light that enmesh human psychology and the wildness of nature.
Maria Leite
Medium: Painting, drawing, photography, collage
Maria Leite earned a Fine Arts bachelor’s degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in 1996. She worked as a set designer until 2005, when she moved to the USA. Between 2005 and 2017, Maria completed a Master’s degree in Special Education, a Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and a Doctor degree in Curriculum and Diversity Studies. Maria currently works as assistant director for institutional assessment at the University of Florida. In this position, Maria connects her assessment, diversity and artistic skills by being involved in assessment and diversity task forces, and initiatives that intersect with art-based approaches for mindfulness. Maria has presented at national and international conferences. Her research interests include curriculum and assessment, social justice in education, art-based approaches for mindfulness, and decolonizing art education.
Cyndi Cesare
Medium: Acrylic paint, inks
Cyndi Cesare is an established local artist creating modern abstract art. In 2010, upon retiring from her real estate career, she began to nurture her love of modern contemporary artwork and she hasn't looked back. Working primarily with acrylic paint on canvas, her body of work is comprised of bold lines, intuitive shapes and the exploration of texture.
Linda Henderson
Medium: Textiles, collage
I am a retired art teacher who enjoys working with all types of textile and collage materials. I believe that all children should get the chance to experience the arts in our community. To help make that happen, I coordinate the artists for the Friends of Elementary Arts auction.
Michelle Marcotte
Website: https://www.michellemarcotte.com
Facebook: click here.
Medium: Oils, canvas - also fiction, non-fiction writing
I paint the most important things in life – people, food, our homes and the land that sustains us. I paint family and life through the foods we prepare and enjoy, through scenes of home and the flowers we arrange to brighten our spirits. I paint memory and emotions, with color intended to evoke and uplift. I do not see my food paintings as 'still life'. I see them as dinner - about the importance of preparing and eating a meal with family and friends. I often place my food in a symbolic agricultural context – a reminder of being thankful.
Marilyn Mesh
Instagram: @minnafunkyart
Medium: Oil, acrylic, mixed media
The entire purpose of my art is to have FUN and smile while painting. And I hope you smile or laugh when you view it. I believe that even if I cannot draw well, I can have fun with art, and play with color, texture and design. If one person (young or old) looks at my pieces and then decides to start ‘doing art’, I have succeeded. I am working to expand my artistic expression with multiple mediums. I try to stay calm and not attached to the outcome. I hope the art keeps flowing and singing to me.
Linda Blondheim
Website: www.lindablondheim.com
Medium: Oils, acrylic, graphite, casein
Linda Blondheim lives in Gainesville, Florida and works in acrylics and oils. She has a museum history in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia and is gallery represented in Florida. Linda's work is often described as painterly or representational painting. She enjoys plein air painting fall through spring during the mild Florida climate months, and enjoys traveling for artist residencies occasionally. Linda’s paintings are done en plein air and in studio. Her paintings are found in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, China, Germany, England, Poland, Italy, Finland, South Africa, France, and Japan. Linda studied with Joe Testa-Secca at the University of Tampa receiving her BFA in 1976, and studied at the University of South Florida as a graduate student. She has been painting for 40 years. She is founding member of Plein Air Florida, member of Alabama Plein Air Artists, and Fresh Air. Linda specializes in trees, florals, birds, and the rural, agricultural landscape.
Anne Lawson
Medium: Oil, watercolor, conte crayon
I grew up in an area near Philadelphia called Concordville. At 6 years old I started drawing and painting watercolors. At 9 I began using oils. My subjects mainly revealed my ongoing love of horses. Our farm was close to Brandywine home of the Wyeth family. An opportunity to study with Carolyn Wyeth ( Andrew's sister ) when I was 14 presented itself. Her influence gave me a strong technical skill and use of color which has stayed with me today. I went on to study art at Pennsylvania State University in 1963. Recently I use oil and some watercolor paints. I paint a variety of subjects and show my work at the local eatery Sweetberries and the medical office building SIMED. This work is a 16"x20" oil of a Mediterranean seascape for Dr. Edwin Johary
Craig Walters
Website: http://craigwaltersphotography.com
Facebook: click here.
Medium: Photography
Craig Walters is a self-taught photographer whose focus is the depiction of rural and urban scenes in monochrome images. The majority of his photography is taken in northern Florida, featuring scenes of forests, wetlands, the ocean and the streets. Mr.Walters continues to study the art and technique of photography and is pursuing his interest in documenting events and stories as well as the spectacular landscapes of Florida. Mr. Walters has been heavily influenced by the monochrome work of Clyde Butcher and other prominent landscape photographers. He aspires to continually refine his craft and to create informative and dramatic images. Mr. Walters work was recently exhibited in the “Art of Inquiry” exhibit at the prestigious Harn Museum on the University of Florida campus. His work has received numerous awards in international competitions and has been published in “Photographize”, “Living the Photo Artistic Life”, “Fine Eye” and several other publications. His work has been exhibited in domestic and international galleries.
Kate Murray
Medium: Ceramics
Kate has lived, taught and made pots in Iowa, Vermont, S. Carolina and for 25+ years here in Gainesville. Her work is inspired by historical pottery of Mediterranean and Asian cultures and informed by life experiences. "Pottery is expressive of being human".
Melanie Pate
Medium: Colored pencil, acrylics
I’m an artist-in-progress whose inspirations apparently come in fits and bursts. In other words, I haven’t felt the call to create paintings during the pandemic. However, I often collect ideas for the future and am now acquiring some new materials to work with in the months ahead.
Patti Barker
Website: www.pattibarker.com
Instagram: @Pattibarkerfelt
Medium: Fiber
A Graduate of Western Washington University with a BA in Studio Art, Patti has been a full-time felt maker since 2008. She has won multiple awards for wearable art design and enjoys teaching the magic of felt making.
Mary Bast
Facebook: click here.
Medium: Acrylics, mixed media
Until 2015 I painted representational art in oils. Since then, I've been experimenting with acrylic and mixed media abstracts. As a psychologist I’m intrigued by artists’ personalities and lives as much as how their vision is expressed. I'm especially responsive to the biographies and works of women painters, poets, and writers, as well as other disenfranchised creatives, especially those who’ve broken through traditional boundaries. I’m also a poet, writer, and editor of a literary review.
Valerie D'Ortona
Website: www.isabelsworld.com
Medium: Watercolor, acrylics
A life-long doodler, I took a continuing education course in painting (around 2003) at the suggestion of my adult son “to stay out of trouble.” A classmate brought in a photocopy of some stick cow images, saying she thought I might like to paint them. That’s how I started painting cows and created Isabel’s World TM. I have accepted that I do not have the skills to draw/paint realistically. Sometimes a word or saying will trigger an image for me that I will then paint. I have marketed my images on mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, refrigerator magnets, puzzles, and coasters. “May the MOO be with YOU!”™ and “May the MEOW be with THOU!”™
Joyce Dewsbury
Medium: Surface Design
I have been an artist working mainly with surface design and using these techniques with fabric. I have been involved in this type of art for about fifty years now. My work consists of art quilts in the form of wall hangings, painted silk scarves, wearables, art cards, fabric brooches, and mug rugs. I paint on fabric, piece fabric, and print on fabric. It is often nature which forms my imagery. For years I have done leaves or flowers or imaginary landscapes. It has been a delightful and wonderful journey.
Jane Medved
Website: www.janemedved.com
Medium: Paint, bark, natural found objects
I work from a 900-square-foot art studio and gallery in the Duckpond neighborhood of downtown Gainesville. My artwork is inspired by our natural landscape and weekly visits to local springs over the past 16 years. In the 1970s I co-owned a clay studio, storefront and community school near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and served as a consultant to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In addition to local venues, my artwork has been shown at The Metropolitan Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana.
Dave Morris
Website: https://www.exvitaveritas.com
Facebook: Click here.
Instagram: @thistledewstudios
Medium: Stained glass, mosaics, printing, painting, collage
Ultimately, if my work starts a conversation, makes you take a deep breath, sparks a warm memory, or just touches your heart, then I believe that I have accomplished my goal of assisting you in your own celebration of all things random. I hope to make you think, I hope to make you smile, and I hope to ease your navigation of this unpredictable life.
Peter Senesac
Website: www.jewleryartstudio.com
Facebook: click here.
Instagram: @ArtforPeteSake
Medium: Oils, watercolor, acrylics, dry media, collage & silver, bronze.
Painting, for me, is a chance to express alternate views and observations of my reality. My work is not about a particular place but it is usually about the landscape. I create a mood, to encourage the viewer to daydream, to remember, to invent a story. The idea is to communicate a sensation of a place. Composition, contrast, light and shadow, color and texture, are what I'm exploring. Expressive marks and exciting processes are the means. Working on location and from life sketches allows me to study composition, values and color to make paintings that become more than a picture of an actual subject. Expressing mood and atmosphere are the end goal.
Keana Poindexter (they/she)
Website: https://www.keanakreates.com/
Instagram: @keanakreates
Medium: Acrylic, ink
Keana is a queer and non-binary artist who loves true crime and the great outdoors. They use art as a medium for examining social justice issues.