It’s been a while since I introduced the first set of Emerging Artists… I have more for you! Check out their work, and keep tabs on them in the future!
Eliza Calkin
Good Harbor by Eliza Calkins 36×90″ – SOLD
Eliza has some nice light going on doesn’t she? This is a happy painting that really makes you want to grab a book and a comfy chair and head to the beach!
Read a bit about Eliza, from her website:
Eliza Calkins (Liza) takes inspiration from her local surroundings on the North Shore, where she grew up. After living in Boston for four years while studying painting at the BU College of Fine Arts, she has returned home to paint. She works in her studio in Gloucester, painting abstractly and representationally, depending on the mood.
Eliza has studied under artists such as Richard Raiselis, Hugh O’Donnell, Harold Reddicliffe, Jill Grimes, and North Shore artist Caleb Stone. She has completed many commissions and her paintings are held in private collections internationally and in the United States.
She has also taught art to all ages ranging from preschool to adult. Recently, Eliza worked at Rockport Elementary School as an assistant art teacher, earning her a second degree from BU: Master’s in Studio Art Teaching.
Shari Goddard Shambaugh
Waiting for Dusk by Shari Goddard – 8×8″ – Oil
Nice cloud reflections in the water! The very subtle colors are nice. Shari really shows distance with this piece!
Read a bit about Shari, from her website (I love when artists give us a little story of their life and not just accomplishments, great work!):
PAINTING THE 45th PARALLEL
Living in Maine has done more for my work as an artist than any other step taken in my life. It is a landscape littered with jaw-dropping beauty, and filled with a clear light that seems to fill things up from the inside. It is also filled with artists drawn here: writers, musicians, poets, woodworkers, fiber artists, film makers, and traditional painters to name a few. Rather than trying to block others from entering this creative world, Maine artists tend to be generous and approachable. It is artistic heaven, especially for someone who has inched her way into this world over decades. Decades of working without an art school background, but with a need to create that drives the work I do as I grow in my craft. Each place I have lived, from several national parks to Paris, and Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, has inspired the direction of my art.
My grandmother painted in a Grandma Moses style, but gave it up under the demands of a busy life. She “made do” with inexpensive paints and toothpicks wrapped with cotton, creating exquisite scenes that still amaze me. I stared at her work over my youngest years, trying to deconstruct how she achieved each effect. It eventually led me to try to do the same. And, although our styles are completely different, I like to think she would approve of the work.
I mostly paint the world in which I live, doing the things that I love. While I sometimes sketch on site, and occasionally paint outside, most of my work is done from photos I have taken while hiking or exploring my world. I try to recapture the beauty of light or composition or feeling that drew my attention to a particular scene. Besides the varied landscapes and activities of Maine, I spend part of each summer at a family cabin in Northern Michigan. These two locations provide a rich and changing source of material for my work.
I hope you enjoy your visit to this site. If you have questions, comments, or would like to purchase a piece, I would love to hear from you. I hope this body of work captures a little of the joy that I have found in this place and work.
Susan Elizabeth Jones
Five Till Noon by Susan E. Jones 20×16″ Oil
Susan paints interiors (one of the many subjects she paints), and they’re wonderful. Everyone loves an interior painting!
Read a bit about Susan, from her website (but… there is more, and it’s wonderful!) Also: read the story of how Susan became an artist – so perfect, told with good humor, it made me smile the entire way through, as well as Blog, etc…):
Artist Statement
Susan’s style of painting has been described as impressionistic, loose, and charming, capturing subjects near her home in middle Tennessee in simple settings, very fluid and intuitive, and full of color! Although she has experimented with several mediums over the years,she now concentrates mostly in oils. Transparent Oils are her latest passion. And Alla Prima (painting in one session) is her style preference.
“Born into a family of artists and being a child of the divine Creator, it is impossible to deny the spirit of artistic and creative stirrings within me. We are all artists. It’s our nature. We just choose different mediums. Mine is paint. Transparent oils, mostly. And I will forever be a student, inspired with unending natural beauty and limitless talent of other artists that surround me in rural middle Tennessee.
Keeping things simple and letting the details work out by themselves is my life’s philosophy, and this shows in my work… simple subjects, uncluttered backgrounds, and lack of details are the recurring characteristics of my paintings. Life is full of many blessings, big and small. Embrace them. Count them…a game-winning touchdown, the yawn of a puppy, the smell of bacon frying and freshly brewed coffee, Elvis’ Trilogy playing on the radio, the charms of a secondhand bookstore, a new white canvas and a paintbrush between your fingers. May you live your whole life fully engaged, fully appreciating all the beauty and blessings around you, creating happiness, fulfilling your dreams, and building a legacy of love.”
Susan resides in a century-old Craftsman cottage in middle Tennessee where she can be found capturing free moments sipping sweet tea on the front porch with numerous well-loved and misbehaved, rescued fur babies and being inspired by every day objects and the beautiful seasons around her home.
All images used with permission from the artists…
Catch you back here tomorrow!
