Carolyn Heffelfinger/Delaware, OH - Having lived in the country for 40 years Carolyn’s recent move to an historic area in the city of Delaware has added an exciting perspective to her work and subject matter with views of rooftops, instead of woods and fields out of her studio window. Carolyn Heffelfinger is a professional oil painter living with her husband and their golden retriever Izzy. She attended Kent State University where she studied fine art and focused, primarily on painting and drawing. Working for seven years as an illustrators assistant, she learned discipline and a bit about the business of art. She has had the honor of receiving recognition and awards for her detailed light-filled landscapes. Her paintings have been inspired by her many travels and treks into the wilderness with her backpack, paints and countless photos while pursuing and capturing the light and beauty of our natural world.

Mary Ann Sedivy/Newbury, OH - The landscape and the beauty of nature are intriguing and rich sources of inspiration for my paintings. It is a joy to live in Northeast Ohio, specifically in the snowbelt region. The surrounding landscape is rich in natural beauty, with it’s gentle, rolling hills and abundant farmland. Due to the variety of colors, textures, shapes, light and sounds through each season, the natural world always provides incentive for creativity. This awareness is stimulated by a deep connection I feel with the outdoors. Painting is a means of preserving and highlighting what we are rapidly losing in a rapidly changing world. For me, expressing the landscape isn’t confined to one means. Sometimes a plein air painting, other times a studio painting with abstract elements. Always with expressive brushwork and strong elements of color exploration. Exploring surface texture, drawing on the paint surface, interfacing collage media with paint and keeping the brushwork energetic are at play as I create. Consideration of textures, lines, shapes, color experimentation and developing figure ground relationships guide me while I investigate the bridge between the natural world and the painted surface.