The Artists
Kate Buggeln
Drawn to landscapes, Kate captures the urban and natural mash-up that make her hometown of Piermont, New York a remarkable place. Industry and wilderness have long intersected in the tidal valley created by Sparkill Creek, creating camera ready moments of chaos, grace, beauty and grit – sometimes captured in one frame. Photography came to Kate following a long career in retail and fashion.
Serban Chelariu
I use the basic visual language elements of shape, tone, texture, color and form, trying to express compositionally different qualities. It is important for me to establish an interrelationship with my work, since most of the time, the brush, touching the canvas, will lead me to solutions that hardly would have crossed my mind.
Jan Davis
I love the colors and shapes of flowers. To me, they represent hope and optimism. In my paintings, flowers can be seen in vases and gardens with a variety of backgrounds. Some of the flowers are wind-blown, others are surrounded by darkness. Works of Emil Nolde, Charles Burchfield and Vincent Van Gogh inspire me.
Sebastian Ferreira
Sebastian is known for his murals and street-art style on large canvases. His brilliant and refreshing style captures the texture and culture of a vibrant world of art, all too often missing in galleries. Born in Venezuela, he is inspired by pop art, graffiti, lettering styles and abstraction that brings a contemporary flavor to PFG.
Elaine Greene
"By deconstructing and then reorganizing reclaimed cardboard and paper, I create mixed media collage and assemblage. I build each piece thinking of shape, color and pattern and how they all interact with one another creating movement and energy. The complexity of the process is what I enjoy the most."
Harry Martin
Harry is a two-time Emmy award winning TV journalist who began his career as a news photographer. His works have a wonderful organic quality that tell captivating stories. The reflection and refraction of the water distort reality above the surface and enhances reality below it. Harry's work has appeared in national magazines. He has also been featured at Neiman Marcus in "The Art of Fashion."
Mario Merchan
"While I draw much of the inspiration for my work from memories of my childhood in Ecuador, I am equally inspired by raw human emotion and the experiences of every day life. I believe all things have character, whether moving or stationary, and I seek to bring that out through my art.”
Mitch Rosen
Mitch's inspiration for his art comes from the streets of New York City. "My objective is to capture a precise moment in time that creates an emotional tie with the viewer". As a retired NYNJ Port Authority police officer, Mitch brings decades of real world experience to his art. He is one of the select artists featured in New York's 911 museum.
Stephen Morton
Born in White Plains, NY, Stephen Morton studied photography and Cinema at The Ohio State University. A photographer by trade and a lifelong artist, his body of fine art photography is the merging of his passions. His inspiration comes from all of the optics of arts and nature. Using varied human bodies as canvases, bodypainting allows Stephen the freedom and spontaneity to achieve photographic captures that possess moods of transcendence and emergence.
Donna Rusiniak
Born and raised in Northern New Jersey, Donna earned her BA in Art Studio with a minor in Art History. She is a retired high school art teacher for special needs students. Taking painting lessons from famed Key West artist, Rick Worth, her works have been featured in galleries in New York, New Jersey and Florida. She works in many mediums but her true passion is acrylic painting.
Michael Scowden
I am inspired by the traditional realists of the 19th and early 20th centuries. My subjects may vary but the common thread is they convey a vague poetry to me. Captured visually, that poetry can imbue the work with something transcendent, affecting the viewer personally. Painting is a journey; an exploration in search of the subtle emotion that exists in everyday objects, scenes, and people — interpreting images in a way that speaks to all of us.
Sally Schaedler
"For many of us, painting is not a choice, it is an obsession and my obsession with painting has never stopped. My work reflects the challenges and different experiences in my life. Life is like a puzzle; we explore the way shapes intersect and sometimes hide the obvious behind a mask."
Tony Seker
As a young refugee of the Lebanese civil war, sequestered in a hotel room with my brothers, I searched for answers amidst the despair. I found hope yearning within me by painting plastic model airplanes using bright non-representational colors. Through my art, I began to express my anti-war sentiment and call for global unity.
Suzanne Sunshine
“My paintings utilize an edge as a starting point - of light, sound, and touch - in our daily lives. Moving within and around the edge, my brushstrokes explore the delicate relationship of color and line within the confines of the canvas. Informed by a passion for intelligent risk-taking in both my painting process and daily life, my work conveys deep emotion bounded by awareness.”
Rachele Unter
"I throw myself into the wild dance of art, searching for a deeper sense, and trying to see into the nature of things both physical and imaginary. I gaze at the object which is the subject of a work, but I also look beyond the object and contemplate what it means in my life and how best to communicate and share that meaning.”
Ron Wohlgemuth
My artworks are digital hybrids. Running originally with images created conventionally, through drawing, painting, or photography, I then plug-in the digital techniques that bring them to new places all over the visual map. There is a strong connection between traditional styles and current methods of art production.