EXHIBIT I

Martha Fieber, Liz Maltman, Colette Odya Smith and Renee Schwaller
Artist Reception: Saturday, May 25th, 4-6:30 pm

Artist Demonstration: Sunday May 26th from 11-1pm by Colette Odya Smith

Exhibit runs May 24th - July 8th

“Melding-Tapestry Series” - 16”x20” - Pastel/Watercolor

Colette Odya Smith, known for working in pastels for nearly 30 years, Colete Odya Smith paints contemporary landscapes that often blur the distinctions between realism and abstraction. The driving force behind her work is her interest in finding and amplifying the beauty and mystery that exists quietly all around us, both obvious and hidden.

Fiber artist Martha Fieber uses layer upon layer of hand-stitching, subtle color, and plenty of intricate details to create her complex compositions, which she titles “Landscapes in Thread.” To her, these landscapes express a connection to the outside world, and encourage the viewer to contemplate the ongoing interconnectedness of all things. Working with single strands of silk, rayon, and hand-dyed cotton threads as well as four types of stitches, Fieber seeks to achieve a depth and perspective to her work, which echoes her feeling that there are several layers to everything we see in the world.

"Country Club Road" - 11"x 11" - Hand Embroidery

Egg Harbor artist, Renee Schwaller will feature her sculptural series called “WE”, which celebrates our differences and our oneness. "We" people are about unity, working together, respecting one another and loving each. They have no specific gender, religion or race. They are adorned with images from nature and their third eye represents spirituality and intuition.

Liz Maltman’s bright and innovative use of color, technique and pattern express both her enthusiasm for the outdoors and her background in fabric and design are often seen in her landscapes and portraits. Liz has the knack for putting the odd and out-of-place front and center in her paintings which are the defining element for the longtime Door County artist’s colorful landscapes.

EXHIBIT II

Jane Foley Ferraro, Pamela Murphy and Nicholas Stelter
Artist Reception: Thursday, July 11th, 4-6:30 pm

Exhibit runs July 11th - August 8th

Door County artist Pamela Murphy’s work has long been focused on the artist’s collection of old photographs, whose figures she chooses as the basis for her paintings. “The people whose lives are recorded in those pictures are strangers to us—yet at the same time, there’s a familiarity,” she says. “They remind us of ourselves, our families, and our issues—on levels that are both personal and cultural.” Murphy presents her figures on rich and textured surface, with many layers of paint to reveal the history of the canvas and isolate the form of each figure. “The viewer can then bring their own specific history to the painting, so a single image can mean different things to different people,” she says. “The goal is for the viewer to find a little of themselves in the work.”

Art has always been a part of glass artist Nicolas Stelter’s life—and his passion was nurtured working alongside his grandfather in his woodworking shop and watching his ceramic artist mother. A long-time working relationship with a nationally-recognized glass artist further shaped his art and vision, with explorations into stone and concrete casting. Stelter’s unique glass pieces are sculpted within the kiln before being cold-worked and polished to create the soothing shapes and organic lines that are a common theme of his work. His studies in the purity of shape and simplicity in form combine to create surprisingly complex pieces—ones that mimic the unpredictability of nature.

“Skipping Like a Stone - 36”x36” - Acrylic

Jane Foley Ferraro describes her painting style as intuitive expressionism. Her passion for painting is finding emotion and mood in abstracted landscapes or seascapes through the sensitive use of color and texture. Focusing on an everchanging horizon line has become an intuitive departure point in her work which hovers between realism and abstraction.

EXHIBIT III

Lori Beringer, Terri Beck Engel, Steve Langenecker, and Steffen Plistermann
Artist Reception: Thursday, August 8th, 4-6:30 pm

Artist Demonstration on Friday August 9th, 11-1pm by Steve Langenecker

Exhibit runs August 8th - September 13th

Growing up in the small village in Wisconsin, oil painter Lori Beringer remembers her days of drawing small portraits on the pads of her father’s blank memo pads. The colors, lines, and shapes of the world captured her desire to create — and decades later, Beringer is an artist known for her bold brushwork and honest approach to her work. Her bold and vibrant plein air landscapes, still-lifes, and portraits are influenced by Impressionists John Singer Sargent and Joaquin Sorolla, and they express the excitement and energy that can only be captured by an intimate exchange with one’s surroundings.

Beginning at the age of 9, and for the better part of the last 40 years, Steve Langenecker has painted from experience. He is attracted to a certain quality of light and color, patterns, and movement. "The elements of the landscapes I love to paint are what I call nature's "special effects": misty mornings, sparkling lakes, transluscent leaves, storm clouds, fiery sunsets to name a few.

After more than 25 years as a painter and sculptor, glass artist Steffen Plistermann now blows and sculpts glass in Santa Fe, NM.. “Between heat, gravity, and centrifugal force, glass takes on a life of its own and as the artist, I end up collaborating with the material, rather than trying to dictate an outcome.

“Where the Waters Meet” - 36”x36” - Oil/Cold Wax

Mixed media artist Terri Beck-Engel says creating art takes her into a space that feels “a bit like a kid discovering a new world hidden right within the neighborhood.” That sense of wonder, curiosity, and playfulness is rendered in her pieces — with natural landscape, shapes and forms, and imaginary places her most frequent source of inspiration. Beck-Engel’s mixed medium paintings reflect a process of adding and removing layers to create a history within the painting; her abstract works provide glimpses into the human inner landscape. Regardless of medium, her goal is to create work that’s hopeful, authentic, and expressive.

TOWNLINE ART FAIR

Saturday, October 12th & Sunday, October 13th - Saturday 10-5, Sunday 10-4

A juried art fair exhibiting the work of more than 75 professional artists from across the Midwest exhibit during the two-day show held rain or shine. Glass, pottery, metal sculpture, paintings, photography, fiber art, and woodworking will be under tents for the 5,000 people that annually attend the show.