Artist’s Biographies
Artist’s Biographies
Lee Brown
A retired engineer and a bird carver for thirty-five years, Lee has a self imposed need for precision; thus his carvings reflect extreme realism and high quality workmanship. He believes that each bird carving that he creates should be a work of art. Accordingly, his work exhibits pleasing poses, flowing lines, and delicate detail. The bird carving process includes research, design, carving, texturing, and painting, as well as fashioning brazed bronze assemblies for legs, support, and habitat.
Here is a woman who loves to paint! From huge paintings of horses and hounds to tiny portraits in miniature, Laura's outstanding ability is evident, and over the years has won her much acclaim. Besides painting, she loves to garden, and keeps busy with one project after another....at present, planning to make a violin from a kit. She's a happy and positive person, with a spiritual outlook, and a deep appreciation for all that the "art world" has connected her with.
Maureen is a Cape Ann oil painter working in a traditional representational style. Her paintings are meant to trigger a familiar feeling of place giving the viewer a connection to her work. Although her subject matter includes still life and seascapes, she draws her inspiration from the natural beauty of New England and considers herself primarily a landscape painter. She says of her work, “I try to paint the essence of what I see and it is this challenge that excites me every time I pick up a brush.”
Michael Milczarek
Michael was first introduced to drawing and painting as a student studying with Vincent Tringale, Chair at the Boston State College Art Department. He left painting until 2000 when he had the opportunity for personal study with Robert Farris, Jr. With Bob Farris he has studied a traditional approach to representational painting which employs a full color spectrum, rich paint application and glazing. He has also taken courses and workshops at Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA and at The Copley Society. Michael says of his work, “I enjoy bringing a range of colors and lighting to my pieces. The use of different color pallets and multiple lighting angles and tones provide limitless approaches to both landscape and still life paintings.”
Karyl Hayes
Karyl, a Saltbox Gallery member for 22 years, is a member of the Copley Society and the North Shore Art Association. She is a plein air painter who uses watercolor to explore the play of light on the landscape. Growing up on the Maine coast cultivated a love of the inter-relatedness of the sea, sky and land, a focus which has influenced the direction for much of her painting. Karyl teaches watercolor on the Isles of Shoals and exhibits widely on the North Shore. Her painting "Blueberries and Beyond" was selected for inclusion in the Best of Watercolor III (publ.1999 by Rockport Publishers).
Pauline Dee
Pauline began painting with the Peabody Continuing Education Program in 1979.
Primarily an oil painter, she also paints in watercolor. Her greatest enjoyment is painting “en plein air”. She is a member of many North Shore art organizations and has earned many awards. Pauline has exhibited around New England, Beacon Hill in Boston, the Officer’s Club in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Newburyport and Maine. She has been teaching since l989. Her paintings are in collections throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. She was selected for inclusion in “Who’s Who in America” and “Who’s Who in American Women”. She is member of the Saltbox Gallery and a past president.
Barbara Donnelly
Barbara is a strong, traditional, representational painter in watercolor and oil, with a gift for dynamic composition, light and color. From her harbor side studio, she paints here and abroad. Among many awards, she won an international two-month artist-in-residency in France, and was honored by the French Embassy with a solo show in Washington, D.C. “A New England native, I have a natural love of the seacoast. Wherever I am, water, boats, nearby villages and the local people have a spirit that engages me. To saturate my paintings with the color, light and life that embrace their true “essence” is my desire.”
Candy Way
Brilliant light and color seem to dance upon the canvases of Candy Way, orchestrated by f natural talent and ability that have been tempered by her experience and years of study. Fine art has been a part of her life from an early age when she was often a model for her artist mother, Ernee L. Way, and later as her mother’s most promising student to emerge as a highly regarded professional in her own right. Candy says, “I feel a spiritual connection with nature that inspires me to capture the raw beauty that is inherent in the world around us.” Sensitive to the interaction of changing light and shadow, her paintings are characterized by energetic brushwork infused with vibrant color. Having a keen eye for the impressionist style and being extraordinarily adept with a high-key palette, her interpretation results in images that are stunningly iridescent and a delight to the senses.
Ernee Way
Nature is in a constant state of evolution. Every moment is one of movement and becoming. This intensifies my fascination for painting landscapes, often doing the same site with differing perspectives in its change of season, movement , light and color. Impresssionism was born out of this astute observation of movement. The short broken strokes with their myriad of colors and light emphasizes Monet’s direct observation of the constant movement in nature. Although movement is a vital ingredient of my technique, my primary focus is always light. Light is THE vehicle by which all images are conveyed or created. How wonderful it is to be an art observer and interpreter of the beauty nature has to offer.
Linda Siwak is most known for dramatic soft pastel landscapes featuring salt marshes and boats, gardens and forests, and the people and towns of the magnificent North Shore. In a representational style, she reveals the depth of the landscape using blended strokes of rich color and strong perspective to create her signature "Scenes of Life."
Priscilla Brown
Priscilla’s watercolors show an atmospheric use of light and color and her strong composition and design is evident
in her work. Represented in private collections she has been featured in individaul and group shows in the New England area. She is past president of the Danvers Art Association and a member of the Island Artists in Maine.
She has been privileged to be associated with the Saltbox Gallery since its inception.
Gary H. McGrath
An amateur woodworker since he was a boy, Gary has practiced all forms of the craft from chip carving to kitchen tables. Now recently retired from engineering, his focus is on functional wooden art. Small boxes, bowls, and various lathe-turned objects are common ways Gary love s to bring out the hidden beauty in timbers from around the world. When not kicking up a cloud of dust, Gary can be heard playing whistle or drums in a bagpipe band, or just relaxing with his wife Carol in Topsfield.
Merry Beninato
Merry paints figures, landscapes and still-life arrangements with carefully formulated dyes on silk fabric in a multi-step process. Beninato perfected her own technique and her silk paintings are warm, richly colored scenes of fanciful figures and familiar surroundings. As a mostly self-taught artist and teacher, Beninato is compelled to explore new media and learning opportunities to satisfy her desires of expression. Private painting studies, formal classes, workshops and a lot of hard work have led Merry to regional prominence in silk painting. She established the learning-and-enrichment school, “Arts for Everyone” almost 20 years ago, and continues to teach her cadre of students in No. Andover, MA.
Karen R.H. Nastuk
A watercolorist specializing in house portraits and commissioned paintings, Karen’s landscapes are bright and lively with definitive strokes of clean color. She uses hue and perspective to emphasize her subjects, such as boats, buildings or outstanding landscape features. Karen holds a B.A. in Fine Arts and continued post-graduate studies in New York City at the School of Visual Arts and at Parsons. Her creativity extends to all media and she particularly enjoys teaching art in after-school programs, at senior and learning centers, and at her home in Danvers.
Nancy Begin
A founding member of Saltbox Gallery, Nancy is a dedicated and much respected artist from Topsfield. Her classic and treasured artwork is collected throughout New England. Her love and great knowledge of migratory birds and wildlife are beautifully conveyed in her watercolor paintings and limited-edition, hand-colored etchings.
* Lifetime member
Annie Krupsky
With a bachelor's from BU, Annie spent many years in administration and purchasing at local high-tech firms. Wanting to make a change when she married and moved to the north shore, she started a business as an artist’s agent, selling works to corporations throughout New England. During this time she honed her personal tastes in the fine arts. Seeking part-time work with mother’s hours when she had her son, Annie again changed careers and worked as a bookkeeper, but on a whim, she tried her hand at jewelry design and has been at it ever since. Initially, Annie was self-taught and focused on simply strung necklaces, bracelets and earrings of pearls and semi-precious stones. Then, she expanded her skills by teaching herself hand-knotting for her pearls; next, she advanced to hand wire-wrapped settings. Her interests soon broadened and resulted in the study of traditional silversmith techniques as well as the use of PMC (precious metal clay). Most recently, Annie has developed molds of some of her most favorite designs so they can be reproduced on a limited scale in sterling silver to her standards. In the nine years she’s been creating jewelry, Annie has developed a loyal following who appreciate her traditional styling - with a little twist!
Dale Partiss Greene
Having lived and painted most of her life in New England, Dale Partiss Greene studied art while at college in CT. Since settling in Ipswich, MA she has been inspired most in recent years by studying oil painting with Caleb Stone and more recently with Albert Handell, Richard McKinley and Donald Jurney, and has won many awards in the Cape Ann area. She believes that painting en plein air presents the most challenging and rewarding opportunities to really see, feel and connect with the changing moods of nature. Capturing a special moment in time is both her intention and pleasure.