MEETINGS 2024 - 2025
We meet on the third THURSDAY of the month, September through May.
Our February and March meetings are via Zoom. Non-members may attend Zoom meeting by sending us an email.
Our new location: Manchester Church of Christ, Fellowship Hall, 595 Tolland Turnpike, Manchester, CT.
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Please check the home page for notice of any cancellation.
Any member entering artwork (one piece) in the Art of the Month competition should register between 6:45 pm and 7 pm. For more information, click here.
September 19
Sarah Criscuolo
candle making
Our guest artist, Sara Criscuolo, has always had a love for making things. She started creating jewelry when she was 10 years old and learned the art of candle-making during COVID. With experience giving lectures and teaching classes, she enjoys sharing her artistic skills with students of all ages.
October 17
Pat Morris
animals in pastel
Pat is a wildlife artist, native of the state of CT and began her career in the 1970’s doing pet portraiture. She then moved to painting wildlife, in particular the wolves that she had come to know in her association with a wolf ambassador program here in CT. Pat is a past president of the Tobacco Valley Artists Association and a member of the Academic Artists Association, the Ashford Arts Council and a board member of Arts of Tolland. Her artwork can be seen at Colouratura Fine Art Gallery, Lola’s in Petit Etang, the Artist’s Studio & Gallery at Patriots Place and The Stratton Parsonage, Stratton, VT. She works primarily in pastel but also in oil and acrylic. Pat’s inspiration is drawn upon a lifetime of observation in the woods and natural areas of the world, where she has been fortunate enough to catch glimpses of the wildlife that find their way into her paintings.
November 21
Katie Stargardter
mandala
Katie comes from a family of artists. She’s crafty and has explored various mediums, but didn’t discover mandalas until COVID. First, she worked mandalas in her journal and then expanded to art paper. She also started with simple black and white shapes moving on to explore complex geometric patterns and color. Katie is self-taught, learning from experimentation and internet artists. She finds peace when she does this art as her mind and breath slow down when she draws. The small details of mandalas mimic the subtlety and intricacies around her. A finished mandala incorporates patterns and small details, expands from the center, and is more than the sum of its parts. We look forward to appreciating the beauty and patterns and finding a slice of the peace that Katie finds when she picks up her pen to draw.
December 21
Holiday Party
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Details TBD
January 16
TBD
February 20
via Zoom
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Rhonda Cullens
photographing birds
Rhonda serves as a New England Camera Club Council (NECCC) Vice President and has been awarded the Honor of Master Member of the Council. She is also a very active board member of the Flagpole Photographers Camera Club of Newtown, CT and serves as their Exhibit Chair. Rhonda and her husband, Chane, compete and exhibit regularly with their camera club in addition to holding their own solo exhibits. Their largest solo exhibit consisted of over 300 photos at their town’s Municipal Center featuring photos taken on their many travels around the world as well as a collection from their hometown. They also offer photography workshops helping others hone their skills. Rhonda is a frequent photography judge and featured speaker at many camera clubs and other organizations. Her work has received many awards, among them inclusion in the Connecticut Association of Photographers “Tops in Connecticut” and she was the recipient of a NECCC Best Landscape Pictorial Image Award.
March 20
via Zoom
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Peter McKenna
wood sculpture
Peter is preserving maritime traditions one project at a time. He has combined his love for teaching, woodworking, and seafaring to create the Nautical Arts Workshop in Deep River, CT. He earned a B.S. in Industrial Arts Education and an M.A. in Liberal Studies and currently teaches wood shop at the Greenwich Country Day School. Every project Peter offers is steeped in maritime history with origins that date back to whaling, shipping, and sailing heritage. He has spent much time visiting places like The Mystic Seaport and The New Bedford Whaling Museum and researching/reading books on nautical antiques to understand how these arts evolved and the stories and skills behind them. His classes in ship models include a Noank Sloop, a Connecticut River Shad Boat, and a New Haven Sharpie – all with long maritime histories. A variety of whimsical, folk art weathervanes and baskets originating from Nantucket are just some of the other objects interested students can craft. He is committed to teaching his students to produce everything from scratch. Peter also creates The Nantucket Baskets - also known as a “Lightship Basket”.
April 17
Sarah Baskin
watercolor
Sarah has been painting for many years and is attracted to the transparency of watercolor and how the white of the paper shines through the paint. She aspires to be a painter of light, focusing on how the sunlight plays across the side of a building or how it sparkles on the snow or in the water and on how shadows stretch across a landscape. Sarah has been juried into several major shows including the Harbor Plein Air Painting Event and Maine Audubon Society’s Brush with Nature. She exhibits in many New England galleries and museums. Her memberships include the American Impressionist Society, the National Watercolor Society, the New England Watercolor Society and many more. Sarah’s plein air painting “Tobacco Barns in Winter” received the FAV15 recognition in the March 2021BoldBrush competition.
May 16
Annual Member Meeting & critique
MAA members are invited to bring one piece of artwork to be critiqued by our guest artist, TBD.