Past Featured Artists

Mary Beth Gaiarin

Mary Beth Gaiarin is an oil painter, and while she specializes in still life, she happily paints whatever subject captures her attention on an artistic level. When creating a composition, Mary Beth maintains a tight intimate focus on the subject. Her paintings can be contemplative and quiet or playful and spontaneous. She tries to paint with simple, meaningful strokes and use texture and the weight of the paint to create movement and expression. She explores the juxtaposition among objects in traditionally arranged still lifes, but is also drawn to the structure that comes from single subjects such as strawberries in a humble cardboard box. She is a restless artist— always pushing to be bolder and more confident with knife work, lots of paint, and an ever more impressionistic approach. Mary Beth is a juried member of the Torpedo Factory Artist Association and works out of Studio 322, in the Torpedo Factory, located in Alexandria, Virginia, a former factory that now houses 300 artists and their studios. She also spends part of the year in Italy managing her family vineyard in Piemonte, where she and her husband make four types of wines, all indigenous to the region of Piemonte. View Mary Beth’s work on her website,www.gaiarin.com.  

Carrie Jacobson

Carrie Jacobson paints in oils with a palette knife - thick, bold, heavy-impasto paintings that tell the story through color, surface and texture rather than line.

Nearly 10 years ago, she left a 25-year career in journalism to earn her family’s living by making and selling paintings. It was a bold move - suggested by her husband! - as she had only been painting for about five years. But her paintings had been, and continue to be, well-received, and purchased by people all over the US and abroad.

She sells in outdoor art shows, in galleries across the country, on line and in her studio, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She also teaches workshops and takes plein-air painting trips. Many of these are “sponsored,” meaning that people buy her paintings in advance, then, when she gets home, make their selection based on the order in which they signed up.

You can see her work at jacobson-arts.com, and on her blog, The Accidental Artist, carriejacobson.blogspot.com, and on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram.

Barbara Lively Mastaglio

Barbara is an award-winning international artist. She lives part of each year in Isle of Wight, Virginia and the other part of the year on Valentia Island, Co Kerry, Ireland, where she and her husband, Tom, have a traditional stone cottage, high on a hillside, facing the North Atlantic Ocean & Skellig Michael to the west and Dingle Peninsula to the north.

Barbara finds nature is usually her inspiration with an ever changing combination of color, sounds and light to help create expressive artwork that has feeling and emotion. She paints in oils and acrylics, using a variety of brushes and palette knives.

Each year, Barbara hosts a Valentia Island Artist’s Retreat style workshop. If you are interested in taking classes or in attending an Art workshop on the Ring of Kerry, Ireland in 2019, please visit www.valentiaart.com or email barbara@valentiaart.com Ireland phone 011 087 134 9195 or USA 001 757 718 8876

Carol Hayes Schiff

My art is varied as my life! After living in Florida for 40 years, we packed up and moved from the beaches to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

My art goes from impressionism to abstract expressionism. I loved to combine brushwork with palette knife work. Other times, I am all about the knife, with big juicy chunks of oil paint, orange skies and purple seas.

Somedays, I find a teeny tiny brush in my hands, and almost wonder where it came from. The next day I may be smearing paint with a painters trowel. Occasionally, I feel I should conform and commit to a specific style or even subject matter, to let my clients know what they can expect from me........but then I say "no" this is my life and I will do as I want. Pure joy!