WSA News

June Artist of the Month

Meet Michele Clamp

Michele Clamp grew up in Essex, east of London, by the coast. In high school she developed a love of art and “was pretty good at it.” She was also quite a good student in science which she feels also requires a lot of creativity. Clamp opted for science and attended Oxford where she earned a PhD in Physics with a specialty in Crystallography, determining the structure of proteins, which allowed her to move into Biology. She was invited to work on the Human Genome Project at Cambridge.  

 

 

“It was a fantastic time to be doing research on the human genome,” says Clamp. She and her husband, also an Oxford scientist, moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts shortly thereafter. Clamp continued her work with the human genome at Harvard/MIT as they realized that comparing the human genome with that of other mammals could lead to identifying regions associated with diseases.  After being a part of these monumental discoveries, she became tired of being a University Academic so she moved on to consulting. For the last five years of her career in science she worked as the Director of Informatics at Harvard where she supported the research of others.

 

In 2012 Clamp started taking evening classes in Watercolor Painting at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. “I loved the immediacy and freshness of (watercolor), it appealed to me.” In 2017, She and her husband left Harvard for good and moved to Marlboro where she built a studio and started painting full time. “It was a bit scary. I had never sold paintings so I just put up a website and hoped someone would buy them.” Her sales have been growing every year. “it’s a huge pleasure to have your paintings touch someone else.”
She took classes twice a week and did workshops with Charles Reid for watercolor artists. She joined the WSA and the Newton Watercolor Society. She was introduced to Randy Isaacson at Post Road Art and they were in need of a watercolor teacher on short notice. Clamp immediately loved teaching and continues to teach two days a week. During the pandemic she began teaching over Zoom and realized that she could demo a lot more. By recording the Zoom session she could also reach more interested artists.

The majority of Clamp’s work remains watercolor although she has been doing some oil painting as well. As for subjects, the artist is drawn to familiar places and animals. She intrigued especially by birds, “they have such interesting shapes and they’re aesthetically pleasing.” She has won several awards for her dynamic bird paintings as well as for her idyllic landscapes and street scenes.“I think it’s important to paint things where we live. I paint places that are important for me…sometimes an image can be in my head for years before I actually paint it.” It’s really the individual’s reaction to the scene that is important to Clamp.

 

 

April Artist of the Month 

Meet Jodi Traub

Jodi Traub recalls a few early art memories. When her uncle lived with her family for a while he painted and allowed her to watch if she “was quiet,” and she was up to the task of sitting and watching for hours. At a very young age, her teacher called her parents to say that she was very talented at drawing. When her family moved from the North Shore of Massachusetts to Southern Florida, her mother found her an art teacher to ease the disappointment of an early teenage relocation. Art has always been a refuge for Traub who came back to the Boston area to attend Brandeis University where she received a BA in Fine Arts and Education.

There were few jobs to be found in the early eighties when she graduated but she pounded the pavement with portfolio in hand and got her first job at a publishing house. The company paid for her to go to New England School of Art and Design and she became a graphic designer. She worked there for four years and then moved to Chicago and worked for a medical publisher. Upon returning to Massachusetts, she worked for Simon and Schuster -Silver Burdett and Ginn (a children’s division in Needham) where she did book design for ten years. She and her husband were beginning their family and Traub, never one to sit still, started working freelance. While her children were young, she designed an educational game called Stargo, “Bingo with the constellations,” which was signed to go to market on the day her third daughter was born. The game was sold in Learningsmith and museums, including the Museum of Natural History in NY, until 9/11 and other unfortunate events happened.

A good friend of the artist asked Traub to help her with her invitation business and eventually decided to give her the business. Traub’s talent and warm personality led to her being constantly asked to expand her horizons. From the invitation business, she has now developed a very busy (until COVID) event planning business JD Invites/Joyous Occasions). She will also be involved in planning the wedding of her own daughter in September 2022. Painting will always be her first love, a place where she finds peace and inspiration. The pandemic has allowed me more opportunities to paint and has been the “silver
lining” during these troubling times. I am grateful for the art teachers, artist friends  and associations that have always inspired me to do my best work.

When she wasn’t working or being a mom, Traub took classes with artist Susan Kelley after attending a Plein Air workshop. Dramatic colors found in nature serve as the inspiration for her rich pastels and oil paintings. She has always set aside at least one morning a week to paint. Kelley remains a very important mentor and, during the pandemic, Traub had Susan hold class in her garage providing space heaters until Thanksgiving. She has also studied with David Curtis and has recently done classes on Zoom with Eli Cedrone and currently with Vincent Crotty.

She has had her work represented in L’attitude Gallery on Newbury Street (now in the South End of Boston) and at The Green Heron Gallery in Ogunquit, Maine until it closed due to COVID. She had her work accepted into a corporate installation at Milton Hospital. She has won numerous awards and done many one person and group exhibitions, including juried shows. She is a member of the WSA, where she reviews new members’ entries and works on exhibitions. She was a featured artist on “Art Beat,” a local show for Cable TV. For Traub the silver lining of the pandemic was that she has had more time to paint: “It’s my peace, my time for me. I don’t think of anything else when I’m painting…It’s the thing I look forward to most each day.” Her work has been described as peaceful and she hopes that her paintings bring a sense of serenity to the viewer.

March Artist of the Month 

Meet Naomi Wilsey

Naomi Wilsey grew up in Colorado in a Japanese American family. Her love of art began quite young. “When I was five, I was home a lot with my grandmother in Denver and I would watch a sumi-e or Japanese brush painting show. I was influenced a great deal by my grandparents who lived in Hawaii, my grandfather was a Japanese brush painter, photographer, and Bonsai expert and my grandmother taught Japanese and Japanese flower arrangement.” In high school, Wilsey was president of the Art Club: “though it can be quite solitary, I always loved being able to share art with others” and she has done so all of her life. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Education from the University of Colorado and was certified as a public school art teacher. Wilsey and her husband moved to the East Coast after college and she began teaching art. While she gained knowledge of most media in art education, Wilsey primarily paints in watercolor and sumi-e (Japanese brush painting), and paints traditional landscapes, still life and florals.

As Wilsey and her husband started their own family in Sharon, Massachusetts, she realized that she wanted to spend more time at home so she started her own graphic design business and began teaching private art lessons. After moving to Needham, she was offered a position as Advertising and Promotions Manager at Prentice Hall Educational Publishing. She earned a Master’s Degree in Communications Management at Simmons University and was recruited for Communications and  Marketing at IBM where she worked until retirement. Until the COVID pandemic she and her husband enjoyed traveling, but fortunately has continued painting and teaching.

Although retired, Wilsey does a great deal of volunteer work and is currently serving as President of the Dedham Art Association (DAA). She is a past co-president of the Needham Art Association and an exhibiting member of the Wellesley Society of Artists. She loves to enrich her community and still enjoys sharing her art with others. She does all of the workshops offered at DAA and is in a weekly painting group, now meeting through texting.  Wilsey is on the Board of Needham Open Studios, where she enjoys having an open house, doing demos and preparing hands-on projects for her attendees.  She has exhibited with the Rhode Island and the New England Watercolor Society and has exhibited at Gallery Twist in Lexington.

Wilsey is very grateful for her home in Needham where she was able to build a large studio to paint and teach. In this Victorian oasis, she and her husband also enjoy their Japanese Tea Room which is used for meditation and tea ceremonies. Another great love for Wilsey is plein air painting because “it combines my love of nature and art.” While she has “made the best of it” during the pandemic, she longs for the days where she can go outside and paint with groups of artists

January Artist of the Month

Meet Dina Gardner

When one looks at Dina Gardner’s accomplishments in the art world, it is hard to believe that she began this journey only five years ago. However, she will tell you that when she sets a goal for herself, she has laser-like focus. “I am extremely goal oriented and when I do something, I’m all in. I know when most people think about doing new things, they get into analysis mode, they make pro and con lists.  Most people kick the tires and start with a toe in the water, but I jump right in, feet first.” Gardner freely admits that she runs before she walks and that this is who she has always been. 

She grew up in Southern California, did her undergraduate work in Journalism in San Diego and started her first recruiting firm by age 25. She ponders, “In hindsight, I loved getting my businesses up and running, creating the vision and putting the policies and procedures in place. I loved training and teaching the business to new recruiters. And after that, I got bored pretty quickly.  It was always the ‘blank canvas stage’ in business that excited me the most. I find so many synergies with creating a business and creating a painting.  What I love about pastels is that I get immediate results and I have opportunities to create from a blank canvas every single day.

Gardner met her husband while backpacking in Italy and he convinced her to move to Boston. They had two children and while she raised them and worked at building her recruiting firms, she didn’t let life become routine. “My husband and I met traveling and we continue to share that love of adventure.  When our kids were growing up, we committed to making travel a significant part of our lives and their lives, to expose them to other cultures and to get off the beaten path.  We typically took a month off every year and explored some very unique places. My paintings often reflect places we’ve traveled.”

Gardner has spent the last twenty years seeking to find her creative voice, trying her hand at pottery, glass blowing as well as some acrylic and oil painting.  She even started a rock and roll band and learned to play guitar (in that order!)  In 2015, when searching for another creative outlet, a friend convinced her to try pastels. She took a two-day workshop and sparks began to fly immediately. “I came home with a painting that, to this day, may still be one of my favorites.”

Her passion for pastels ignited, Gardner set up her easel and made a commitment to paint every day. “I was consistently waking up at night with ideas that I needed to commit to my canvas.  I very often found myself at my easel at 3:00 am.  That was when some of the best magic happened.  I loved that I could take a blank canvas and make it my own.” She officially retired from recruiting two years ago to focus on her art. 

Along with her zeal for painting came another passion, the Pay It Forward Backpack Project. In 2015, touched by the homelessness she regularly observed in Boston, she founded this grassroots organization which provides winter essentials to the homeless. A percentage of each painting she sells helps purchase items for the project.

Since beginning her art journey, Gardner has set a yearly goal for herself. One year she became an artist-in-residence at the Art Association of Nantucket.  She is coming full circle this January by teaching ‘Luminous Pastels,’ a four week Zoom course she designed for the Association. Last year’s goal to become a Full Juried Member at the Copley Society of Art in Boston was accomplished and she maintains gallery representation at CoSo as well as Inner Space Fine Art in North Reading. Other memberships include the Pastel Society of America, Central Mass Pastel Society (Signature Status and a founding member), Wellesley Society of Artists and Pastel Painters Society of Cape Cod. This year, Gardner says, “I have tried something new which is to be as goal-less as possible. That doesn’t come naturally to me but I’m taking time to explore new subjects and learn new techniques.”

When asked to do a solo show in Maine, she had an “ah-ha moment.”  Gardner says “I had just had hand surgery and I knew I couldn’t paint enough paintings for a solo show.  But, I had over 50 paintings that weren’t ready to be tossed out but definitely weren’t ready for prime time. My ah-ha moment came when I realized I had the knowledge to properly critique and improve them. It was so exciting to be at that stage of my art journey where I could make these assessments and changes and that was very liberating for me.”

Gardner has a lot of wisdom to pass on to new painters: “Some of my best learning moments were from my worst paintings. I look to the paintings that don’t work quite right and learn from them.  They teach me to observe more closely, to sit back and figure out why something doesn’t work.  I also have a rule for workshops which I call the “No Masterpiece Rule.” This reminds me that workshops are for learning new techniques and not for making masterpieces.  I think a lot of artists feel pressure to perform in workshops. Once I used the ‘learning lens” philosophy, workshops became much more enjoyable. Another thing that works for me is having very low expectations when submitting work to shows. I know that judging art is very subjective and I don’t get hung up on whether I get in a show or not. I have a very laid-back attitude about it which is probably the California side of my personality coming out.” Gardner also offers these three pearls of wisdom: “The keys to success for me have been having a daily painting practice, observing my subject matter for hours on end and having fun in my studio.” 

Currently Gardner is working on pastels of nudes painted on sheet music prepared with gesso. She has been heavily influenced by music and often names her paintings from song lyrics or song titles. Music is part of her painting regimen as well and there is always a great set list playing while she paints.  “I have a little dance party in my studio every day.  I couldn’t ask for a better way to spend my time.”

Facebook: Dina Gardner Pastel Studio

Instagram: Carpe_Dina

Website: www.DinaGardner.com

December Artist of the Month

Meet Linda Zug

Linda Zug grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Wheaton College in Norton, MA where she majored in French. She didn’t take any art classes because she couldn’t afford the materials at that time. She went to college on scholarship and worked to make spending money. Her husband, also from Pennsylvania, was in graduate school at Harvard. After they got married, they moved to Wellesley where they lived for 35 years. Zug taught French and together they raised three children. There was no time for art.

When she was in her late forties, Zug saw an exhibition by Bill Ternes in Sherborn. She fell in love with the watercolors and decided to call the artist to inquire about lessons and he told her he was doing a workshop in the Bahamas. Off she went; “I bought one of those wonderful French easels and I couldn’t even set it up.” Zug went with Bill and a group of painters to do plein air painting in the Bahamas every January and to Martha’s Vineyard in June and September. “He was always inspiring. He encouraged me to take some classes in drawing and in other mediums, so I went to Wellesley College as a post-baccalaureate student. There I studied with James Rayen, Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz and Phyllis McGibbon.” Zug remains “so incredibly grateful to all of the people who took an interest in my art over the years. I realize how rich my life has become through art.”

Zug began painting in 1990 and in 1992 was juried into the WSA, where she is still an exhibiting member. She shared a studio with artist Mary Haig, “another great mentor,” at the Warren School in Wellesley. Margaret Fearnside and Fritz Kubitz were also very important to her development as an artist. As a member of the Wellesley Arts and Crafts Guild, she took classes and joined groups, including a portrait painting group with live models. She has been in juried shows through the Concord Art Association and has sold her work through the Sculpin Gallery in Marth’s Vineyard. “I don’t sell a lot though,” says Zug who feels that each of her pieces are a part of her, “I give a lot to family and friends.” For Zug, painting is very personal, “It brings me to a special place… a place where I don’t know where I’m going until I am finished.”

Zug’s current mentor is Michael Dowling of Medicine Wheel Productions in South Boston. In addition to taking classes at this studio, she traveled for 8 years to an annual painting retreat at a Benedictine monastery in Tuscany. In 2009, she had a show of her monastery paintings at the Medicine Wheel Gallery. This grouping was also shown at the Dover Library in 2010 where she was celebrated as Artist of the Month. She described this work as a “response to the Benedictine sisters’ aesthetics of hospitality and to their devotional work and ethic where the artist has created a space for self.”  Her work there “reflects the beauty of Italy with the theme of sky and a world where heaven and earth meld together.”

While she dreamed of having a studio in Cambridge, she and her husband moved to Sherborn after raising their family. She now has a studio above the garage and ample countryside views with magnificent light which she has grown to appreciate more and more, especially during the pandemic. She has been blessed with 7 grandchildren who she is happy to say “cut into my painting time. They love painting in my studio,” and she loves sharing her studio with them. She believes that the creative potential is there for everyone and that painting “is like your handwriting. It is different for everyone.” For Zug, “painting is a journey inward, it is a meditation, I lose track of time and fall into a wonderful space. Winston Churchill said, “Happy are the painters-for they shall not be lonely. Light and color, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.’”