May Artist of the Month – Meet Maria Babb

May Artist of the Month 

Meet Maria Babb

 

Maria Babb was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she first began to love the vibrant colors that are celebrated throughout her culture. She was always drawn to art but did not think it would become such a big part pf her life. Babb was president of her high school art club, but had no formal training as a child or young adult. She briefly thought about majoring in Commercial Art in college but practicality took over. She married right after college, and started a family as well as a successful career in banking. Needless to say, she did not have a lot of time to pursue art, but even then she used the time after her children were in bed for therapeutic crafting; “It was such a relief of tension and I have always been a night owl.

 

Babb had a very fulfilling career in commercial banking and then running business development for her bank. In 2012, she began having some memory issues and was finally diagnosed with a rare neurological disease (called CADASIL) for which there is no treatment or cure. When she was no longer able to work in banking, she turned to art to regain a voice; “Art allowed me to express myself in a different way. I immersed myself in it.” She first started taking watercolor classes with Sarah Alexander and Nan Rumpf, “an absolutely wonderful teacher.” She painted in watercolor for three to four years but was drawn to acrylic painting for its ability to provide the vibrant colors that were so important to her and reflective of her Puerto Rican heritage.

In 2016, Babb began studying with Leslie Graff of the Danforth Museum. “I learned a great deal from her.” She quickly became very proficient in her own eclectic style of painting: “I do a little bit of everything: landscapes, still life, flowers and figures. I tend to enjoy detailed realistic paintings the most, but I have tried some abstract painting.” In some of her recent works she mixes realism with abstraction very successfully. “I get so absorbed in the process. I often think Mozart must have felt this way as he composed.” Her compositions are absolutely stunning and she has won multiple awards for her distinctive and unique paintings.

 

Babb is an active and exhibiting member of the WSA, Arts Worcester, the Danforth Museum and the Attleboro Art Museum. She has a studio in her home and enjoys painting there-“It is my outlet.” Her growing family is another great love for this artist, who has two sons and now has two grandchildren. One of her most recent paintings captures one of her sons proposing to his fiancé. At the wedding of her other son, she presented the couple with a painting that was a collage of their favorite places and moments. She has also painted her granddaughter in a work that is cherished. Aside from passing her works onto family, Babb sells a great deal of her paintings on Facebook and at exhibits. She recently sold a sunflower painting at the Awakenings Show at the Webster Bank in Wellesley to benefit the Relief Fund for Ukraine. “The buyer purchased the piece for double the cost when she realized the cause.”

WSA Honorary Lifetime Memberships Awarded to Joan Griswold and Suzanne Lingeman

The WSA board of directors recently voted to award Joan Griswold and Suzanne Lingeman with Honorary Lifetime Memberships. Joan and Sue were nominated in recognition of their  contributions that have helped to make the WSA what it is today, as well as their commitment to creating fine art. 

About Joan Griswold…

Joan studied art at the University of Wooster in Ohio.  Before moving to Wellesley, she taught art in the Philadelphia area, then managed a gallery in Chatham NJ, where she continued to study art, concentrating exclusively in watercolor. Joan and her husband Peter spent 8 years living in Latin America, where she managed an art gallery, taught painting classes, and at the same time, entered and won awards in many National and regional shows.

Upon her return to the Boston area, Joan exhibited with the Copley Society, New England Watercolor Society (where she is a Signature Member), Concord Art Association and galleries in Maine and on the Cape. Joan studied with Nicholas Reale, Tom Hill, Ruth Wynn and George Shedd, among others.

She joined the Wellesley Society of Artists in 1980, and continued to exhibit her award-winning watercolors.  From the moment she joined the WSA, she also  devoted her time to serving on the board, taking on any job that needed filling, from hospitality to new jury, to President. She was our treasurer for many years, keeping the WSA on the straight and narrow.  She gave selflessly of her time and always fought for what was in the best interests of our organization.  Joan and Peter now spend most of their time in Maine now, but her years of devotion to the WSA are immensely appreciated. Although Joan is no longer an active member of the WSA, her legacy remains. 

About Suzanne Lingeman…

Sue has been a member of the WSA since 1977, and continues to exhibit her work with the WSA. Over the years, she has won numerous awards.  She also has been on the board for many of those years, doing various jobs, and always has been the one working behind the scenes, ready to jump in to help with a show or act as an advisor. Sue’s spirit of generosity has been central to the WSA’s endurance and continued growth. 

Sue studied at the Museum of fine Arts.  She also studied with Irmgard Arvan, of Nantucket, George Dergalis, and Maris Platais, among others.  She has exhibited with the WSA, Concord Art Association, Copley Society of Artists, and the Artists Association of Nantucket, where she is an Artist Life Member, having been active there for over 50 years.

Sue works in a variety of mediums, experimenting with techniques and subject matter.  Sue says, “I enjoy experimenting with color and form to create a particular mood.  By using complimentary color, light against dark and warm against cool, I try to create contrast and excitement.  My subjects, medium and techniques vary widely as I find stimulation in exploring new directions”.

Mark Richards Notes from an Artist in Residence

Notes from an Artist in Residence, February 28 through March 12, 2022 at the Truro Center for the Arts at Edgewood Farm from Mark Richards. 

From a young age Mark J. Richards learned to paint from a plein air realist and impressionistic tradition. Being a Truro Artist in Residence allowed uninterrupted time to create and practice these skills.

Each day Richards was able to explore draw and paint. This is a brief record of his time in Truro.

The blue of the Atlantic Ocean is a breath of fresh air and was his first sojourn after arriving. Richards was able to create the first beach scenes in oil in preparation for the large canvas he had brought with him.

Balston Beach was where in 1991 the Atlantic Ocean breached the Cape. That breach through the dune barrier made Provincetown a temporary island. This has happened previously in geologic history and the Pamet River and The Little Pamet are remnants of this history.

The light was beautiful the wind fierce. Ukraine had been invaded a few days previously. The Pitch Pine creatures attracted Mark’s attention immediately.  A blue and gold statement. Color as a political statement.

The Pamets offer long meandering walks over giant dunes covered  with flag worn defiant physiognomies of Pitch Pine and Scrub-Oak. Forests that defy the winds. Twisted Birch and Alder crowd the marshes before giving way to cat tails and marsh grasses. The occasional crackled bark of Plum trees limbs are broken from the direct assault of winter storms.

Nothing man made lasts. Only change persists.

In sketches and drawings the stroke of his pen addresses some of these ideas: jagged, sharp, graphic and dark enduring strokes. Like the scarf of the dunes etched constantly by surf.

Thanks to Goya for personal guidance in drawing and expressing emotions.

Thanks to Marsden Hartley for writing Cleophas and His Own, A North Atlantic Tragedy.

Art News From Michelle Lavallée

WSA member Michelle Lavallée’s paintings have been included two recent European exhibitions.
Michelle’s painting, “Coastal Light and Mist, Plum Island”, oil on canvas, 23×19
inches, is exhibited in the Museum of the Chancellery Vatican Palace, in Rome, March 5-11, 2022. In addition her paintings “Sunset Uphill” and “Autumn Sunset” are displayed in their publication.
Michelle was also showed at the Pinter Art Gallery in Budapest, Hungary,  where her painting “Sunset
Uphill” canvas oil 30×24 inches was exhibited  November 20-29, 2021.

December Artist of the Month – Meet Bobbie Suratt

December Artist of the Month

Meet Bobbie Suratt

For Bobbie Suratt, art has always been a big part of her life. She majored in art at Ohio Wesleyan University and at that time focused on ceramics. She bought a kiln and a wheel and sold her works in local shows. When she and her husband had their children, Suratt realized that working in clay was not practical so she began quilting. She quilted for 30 years while raising her children in Weston, Connecticut. She also painted on and off during this time.

In the next phase of Suratt’s life, she lived abroad with her family. In the 1990’s, they lived in London where she studied portrait painting. Tokyo was next and after Tokyo, they moved to Manhattan for a year. “We lived right around the corner from the Art Students League of New York. I had decided a couple years before that I wanted to focus solely on painting. The classes at the Art Students League met, for the most part, every day. They were in portrait and figure, and some plein air landscape in Central Park in the summer. It was heaven!”

“Then we received a phone call letting us know that we would soon be grandparents of twins.”  They took the opportunity to move to the Boston area to be near their son and his growing family. Settling in Wellesley, Suratt created a lovely art studio on the third floor of their home. Living here, she was able to care for and enjoy both her parents (in Weston) and her grandchildren (in Wayland). The joy of family is evident in her paintings, many of which are of her loved ones. Shown here are exquisite paintings of her grandchildren.

 

Suratt keeps busy continuously learning. When she first moved to the Boston area, she studied at the MFA and then in Cambridge with Brett Gamache. She later found inspiration in many wonderful teachers, including Eli Cedrone and Jeanne Rosier Smith. She has done workshops with Eli Cedrone in Bermuda and Fiesole, Italy just outside of Florence and with Jeanne Rosier Smith working with pastels on the Amalfi Coast and in Little Compton, Rhode Island. She has also studied with John MacDonald on Cape Cod and Kathy Anderson in CT.

Recently Suratt has taken advantage of “classes all over the world,” one of the many silver linings of the pandemic. One interesting one was a self-portrait class with Zoey Frank of Colorado, and a floral class with Paul Foxton in the U.K. She is currently studying portrait and figure with Dominique Medici, who is teaching from Seattle.

Suratt is a valued member of the WSA where she has served on the Board and as past President for five years. She is also a member of the Needham Art Association and the Dedham Art Association. The profits from the sale of her paintings go to the support her favorite charities. One close to her heart is PEO International which focuses on providing educational opportunities for female students worldwide.

Suratt ends our interview with, “I love the act of painting but I’m also always striving to do better. I keep looking forward to my next painting and I think, ‘Maybe this one will be my masterpiece.”

November Artist of the Month – Meet Jennifer Park

November Artist of the Month

Meet Jennifer Park

 

Artist, Jennifer Park, grew up in Gyeonju, South Korea during a period of economic decline for the country. From a very early age she loved to draw and paint and became well-known in her town for her artistic ability. She won many competitions and was encouraged by all who knew her to pursue an education in art. Park remarks, “I prepared for art school in high school but in South Korea you don’t send your portfolio to schools but rather have live competitions for admission.” She was accepted and completed art school at Keimyung University.

After graduation, in a worsening economy, Park was unable to find a job so she attended architecture school on scholarship. She was able to get only a part-time job in architecture and had many expenses which led her to start teaching students and painting for trade: both selling portraits and doing book illustrations. “The pay for illustrations was very low at the time and I finally had to get a ‘real job’ in a Korean bank. It was a very good learning experience.”

Park met her husband who is also an architect, married six months later and moved to the United States. “We share a love of museums and travel but after moving to America I became very isolated because my English was so bad that I couldn’t even order a coffee. Once again, life was very difficult. It took me six years to get a green card and 5 more years to get citizenship.” During that time, Park attended school in Brookline to study English and Art. “I took so many classes in art and drawing and, after getting my green card, I taught private art lessons to adults.”

The artist also got a license in Cosmetology and became a hair stylist but found that this did not satisfy her need to create. She and her husband have a daughter, now seven, and two years ago, she was forced to leave the workplace due to the COVID pandemic. This was the perfect opportunity to begin painting again and her goal is to be a full-time artist. She is now taking courses at Mass Bay Community College in Early Childhood Education with the hope of teaching art to children. She already enjoys drawing and painting with her daughter.

“I am focusing on oil painting and watercolor and I spend a lot of time drawing from sculptures at the MFA.” While she loves the Impressionists and the post-Impressionist work of Gaughin, she prefers to paint realistically. She would like to introduce us to her favortie Korean artists, hyper-realist painters Young-Sun Kim (https://www.facebook.com/100vun) and Jung-Hwan An (https://www.facebook.com/artduryan).

Park’s subject matter is evolving with her life experience. “I have always liked landscape, where nature and man-made buildings meet. Now my mind is changing a bit. I am very interested now in the faces of working-class people of different cultures, the passing of life that can be seen, and I am getting ready to start portrait work again.”

 

 

September Artist of the Month – Meet Joanna Dole

September Artist of the Month 

Meet Joanna Dole

Joanna Dole grew up on a lake in Holliston with plenty of woodsy areas to make for a child artist’s paradise. “I drew and painted from a very early age. I was always drawing something… I won many first prizes at my church’s annual art shows. My mother also brought art and culture to the family. She brought us to the MFA to appreciate the impressionist painters she loved, to the ballet and musical performances…she made us handmade paper dolls and did portraits of us.  Dole attended Emmanuel College and started as a biology major. When she encountered an expansive array of art classes, she decided to switch her major, to her father’s chagrin and attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Art and Education. During college, she spent a semester studying Italian and fine art in Rome, Italy. “It was wonderful: we traveled in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, and France as well as the entirety of Greece.  I developed a love of cooking while there as well as a love of Italy. I have traveled back there many times.”

After graduating, Dole took on the challenging work of a high school art teacher in the Boston City schools of Charlestown and Dorchester. While teaching, she took classes at Mass College of Art and Design where she received a Master’s Degree in both Art and Education. Teachers and mentors that have been important to her work are watercolorist of Maine, Paul George, Winslow Homer, Newton’s Wendy Artin, Anne Blair Brown of Nashville, and Roberto Zangarelli of Rome, Italy. She also emulates the works of Sargent and Homer

While still teaching, Dole moved to Wellesley and raised her three children. While mostly as a stay-at-home mom when they were young, she always continued creating art and joined the WSA. She took on projects painting furniture and walls, murals, frames, wall surfaces, and Trompe-l’oeil in her Decorative Painting business. She decorated the former Wellesley Inn restaurant with murals, worked in private homes and businesses, and contributed to decorator showhouses. These projects led her into the Interior Design business for the past twenty years. She developed her own business called Art and Design Solutions featured on Houzz.

Dole also has a love of portraiture, especially children, and has done commission work. She has won multiple awards, especially for portraiture, and has sold many paintings. Her first love is watercolor but she also uses water-soluble oils. With either medium, she is “not afraid of color and paint(s) vibrantly.” Up to this point, Dole’s work is mainly representational painting but “I am trying out looser and more abstract images now. In my portraits, I’ve always used a less-than-precise interpretation, allowing the paint to guide me.”

Dole ponders, “As I’m getting closer to retirement, I’m painting more for my own enjoyment. It gives me so much pleasure…it’s like a meditation.” She bought a house on a lake in Natick and enjoys the natural surroundings which are reminiscent of her childhood. She converted a screened porch into her studio and enjoys abundant wildlife; “I’ve seen a blue heron, bald eagle and in the winter there are otters.”She has been a long-time member of the WSA, North River Arts in Marshfield, and the Newton Watercolor Society. She had joined the Florida Keys Watercolor Society and served on the board there for 5 years, and the WSA.