Pamela Browne came to Maine from her home town of Baltimore, Maryland in 1993. After years as a social worker, Pamela is now able to concentrate on her passion, art. Working  in several different mediums including encaustic, cold wax, oil and acrylic, she paints mostly abstractly with a touch of impressionism. She shares, “My art is inspired from a spiritual place that centers in nature. When I paint, I am swept away from the here and now and go to a world that has no boundaries. I paint mostly in an abstract/impressionistic style that allows me to change mediums and styles as I see fit. I can go from throwing hot molten wax on wood (encaustic) to painting whimsical characters in acrylic. I love it all. Many say my art is calming and happy and that makes me feel like I have accomplished my goal as an artist.”

 

Lonie Ellis, from Topsham, works in multiple mediums including ceramics, encaustic painting and fiber arts. Lonie believes believe all things can inspire, teach and ignite the creative spark inside each of us. “As an artist, my hands, heart and head are happiest when creating. My art is not focused on any one medium but on the connection with the material. My hands enjoy the textures and feel of moving and carving into the clay or the manipulation of wax in the encaustic painting process, while my heart looks for color, balance, warmth and flow in the piece. The problem solving and the “what if” curiosity ignites my thinking and push me beyond where I started. Even working through creative mishaps leads to new creative discoveries. My belief is that there are no mistakes only discoveries to broaden learning. The art I create brings me joy and it is my hope that it will give joy to whoever and wherever it may be.”

 

Cheryl Young is a master of colored pencil, ink and watercolor pencil.  She grew up in rural Brunswick, Maine, helping her family raise different domestic animals and watching or interacting with wild creatures in the fields and woods of their extensive property. “Art tells a story. I combine my love of drawing, color, and nature to make art and the tale is usually about animals,” Young said. “Animals attract me because we humans have a strong empathetic connection to them. Drawing them is fascinating because animals’ fur, skin, and feathers have texture, patterns, and colors  much like fabrics.  I also spend part of the year sewing, creating costumes or designing one-of-a-kind clothing for customers. I also paint on glass, mostly painting animal scenes on candle jars, and started exploring this as an art form for wall art.”