EXHIBIT I

Martha Fieber, Paul Klein, Janice Rangel and Kathie Wheeler
Artist Reception: Saturday, May 24th, 4-6:30 pm

Artist Demonstration: Sunday May 25th from 11-1pm by Paul Klein

Exhibit runs May 23th - July 7th

Kathie Wheeler counts herself fortunate to be an artist. Her paintings reflect the scenes and people in her daily life on her farmstead in Southwestern WI. Kathie’s “en plein air” paintings are filled with both challenges and great pleasure. she feel her job is to record the beauty and the visceral experience of her surroundings. No day is ever the same. Kathie strives to translate the beauty of her surroundings onto canvas.

Fiber artist Martha Fieber uses layer upon layer of hand-stitching, subtle color, and plenty of intricate details to create her complex compositions, which she titles “Landscapes in Thread.” To her, these landscapes express a connection to the outside world, and encourage the viewer to contemplate the ongoing interconnectedness of all things. Working with single strands of silk, rayon, and hand-dyed cotton threads as well as four types of stitches, Fieber seeks to achieve a depth and perspective to her work, which echoes her feeling that there are several layers to everything we see in the world.

"Cosmo Fields" - 6"x 14" - Hand Embroidery

"Firewood Poetry” - Mixed Media - 32”x14”x14”

Furniture builder Paul Klein gathers his inspiration that is rooted in nature when designing his sculptural lamps made from wood, stone, copper, and his own handmade papers. Land and water of our shared Earth have always been his place of wonder and discovery. With each piece Paul creates, he wants to share this and pass on this joy, be it century-old buildings, nearby forests, or his own backyard. Working out of the small village of Amherst Junction, Wisconsin, Klein refers to nature’s many treasures as “local exotics” and enjoys combining many elements together to create his pieces, including stone, copper, and his own handmade papers with wood to create his works of art. “I enjoy the spontaneity of finding objects in nature and being able to incorporate them into an intricate piece of art,” Klein says.

“Fading Boundaries” - 21”x26” - Oil Stick

Janice Rangel’s interpretation of landscapes and seascapes have become known as “nature with an edge,” reflecting a balance between realism and the abstract. Utilizing her background in design, her paintings reflect the inherent connection between subject matter, color and movement. Janice is drawn to the appearance of light in nature and always gives it special recognition in her artwork. Unlike most artists that use paint brushes, Janice’s usage of a razorblade, a rag and at times her fingers allow her the freedom to manipulate oil stick and pastels in unexpected ways. Janice allows spontaneity to drive the process from the initial creative inspiration through the full expression of the piece.

EXHIBIT II

Nathan Bennett, and Pamela Murphy
Artist Reception: Thursday, July 10th, 4-6:30 pm

Exhibit runs July 11th - August 11th

Door County artist Pamela Murphy’s work has long been focused on the artist’s collection of old photographs, whose figures she chooses as the basis for her paintings. “The people whose lives are recorded in those pictures are strangers to us—yet at the same time, there’s a familiarity,” she says. “They remind us of ourselves, our families, and our issues—on levels that are both personal and cultural.” Murphy presents her figures on rich and textured surface, with many layers of paint to reveal the history of the canvas and isolate the form of each figure. “The viewer can then bring their own specific history to the painting, so a single image can mean different things to different people,” she says. “The goal is for the viewer to find a little of themselves in the work.”

"Wild Blue Yonder" - 32"x41" - Oil on Canvas

Nathan Bennett has an early memory of being enamored with the sunset. His father told him one day, he’d be talented enough to paint something so beautiful — and today, he paints with patina, his medium of choice. Bennett works with materials straight from the earth, combining iron, copper nitrate, silver, cobalt, and more with wire, which infuses chemicals onto bronze, merging the compounds with the metal. His work captures his inner workings, with hidden meanings and stories behind each of his pieces. Whether it’s a depiction of a forest, a solitary tree, or an animal, Bennett paints to convey a message — one of hope.

EXHIBIT III

Dawn Candy, Frankie Johnson, Richard Patt, and Dannica Wakjer
Artist Reception: Thursday, August 14th, 4-6:30 pm

Artist Demonstration on Friday August 15th, 11-1pm by Frankie Johnson

Exhibit runs August 14th - September 12th

Painter Richard Patt’s childhood on a farm and the rural setting around him filled him with a “residue of images that have remained with me to this day,” he says. Working exclusively in acrylics, he paints diverse representations of barns, fields, and rolling landscapes with bright hues and gritty textures. Inspired by Richard Diebenkorn’s representational style, the color and brushwork of Vincent Van Gogh, and the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 20th century,

Patt’s polychromatic landscapes are at once abstract and representational, vibrating with color, energy, and often geometric patterning.

Acrylic painter and watercolor artist Dannica Walker is drawn to two distinct topics when it comes to her work: marine(boating) scenes and florals. “There’s so much that draws people to water, lakes, and oceans,” Walker says. “With the boating or yacht racing pieces, I try to capture the fierceness and the frenzy that goes into those races, or the teamwork and camaraderie. With my work that’s more sunrises, sunsets, and storms, I try to evoke a feeling of calm, or the sense of being awestruck.

Ceramic artist Dawn Candy of Little Sister Pottery is inspired by rhythm, pattern, and landscape- both wild and cultivated. Often referencing the natural theatre of wind whipped grasses, lacy leaf patterns or melting ice and snow, she tries to depict depth and movement while also creating moments of stillness and opportunities for reverie. Dawn inspired not only by the natural world, but also how we interpret it through folklore, mythology, and superstition. She love that making pottery allows her to work in series, allowing to fully develop her ideas while giving freedom to work on a variety of designs. As her pots are used throughout daily living I hope that they convey a sense of elegance, but also the wonder and playfulness I feel in making them.

Oil painter Frankie Johnson has been painting since she was 10 years old, when her grandmother gifted her a summer of private painting classes. She’s been painting ever since. Johnson’s long association with the Palette & Chisel Academy of Fine Art in Chicago has greatly influenced her work, which primarily focuses on still life, landscapes, and figures. In addition to creating her own work, Johnson now owns her own fine art school in her home of Lake Zurich, Illinois, and strives to create a learning and painting environment similar to what her mentor made for her. “My own passion to paint has continued to grow in ways I never knew it would.”

TOWNLINE ART FAIR

Saturday, October 11th & Sunday, October 11th - Saturday 10-5, Sunday 10-4

A juried art fair exhibiting the work of more than 60 professional artists from across the Midwest exhibit during the two-day show held rain or shine. Glass, pottery, metal sculpture, paintings, photography, fiber art, and woodworking will be under tents for the 3,000 people that annually attend the show.