MEETINGS 2024 - 2025
We meet on the third THURSDAY of the month, September through May.
Our January and February 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. For more information, click here.
May 16
Annual Member Meeting & critique with Jane Penfield
MAA members are invited to bring one piece of artwork to be critiqued by our guest artist Jane Penfield. Jane is a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America and of Connecticut Pastel Society. She is a past president of the Connecticut Pastel Society and of Arts Center East in Vernon, Connecticut. She continues to serve on the boards of both organizations. She is inspired by nature, as well as to the human influence on it, especially elements that evoke light, drama, and emotion. Her work is an impression of light and life as she has experienced it through walking, travel, and direct observation. She finds great joy in the creative process and in teaching. In addition to offering a weekly pastel class online, she frequently presents demos and workshops for art groups.
PAST MEETINGS 2024 - 2025
September 19
Sarah Criscuolo
candle making
Our guest artist, Sarah 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
Laure Kinlock
pastel
Our scheduled artist, Pat Morris, was unable to come to the meeting. Our own Laura Kinlock graciously filled in with a demonstration of a pastel landscape. She shared the finished piece at the next meeting. We also published an image in our e-newsletter, on our past events page and with this post.
November 21
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There was no demo artist, so the members had a lively art discussion instead.
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December 19
Potluck Holiday Party
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Members and their guests join us for good company, food and fun at our usual monthly meeting time and place. It was a good time to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
January 16
via Zoom​
Alan James
Watercolor
Alan James is a highly respected award winning watercolor artist, teacher and the East Coast America host of the TV show Colour In Your Life. He teaches watercolors at his studio in Deep River, Connecticut, Jerry's Artarama, The North East Connecticut Art Guild, and at the historic Lyme Art Association, the birth place of American Impressionism. His style is impressionistic and traditionalist with emphasis on purity of design and clear, transparent colors. The art of Alan James captures the very soul of his subjects with passion, boldness and elegance. His paintings are imbued with a mood, a mystery that engage and lure the viewer into the magic.His style is impressionistic and traditionalist with emphasis on purity of design and clear, transparent colors. In 2018, Alan released his first instructional video called "Letting it Flow" including five demonstrations, with emphasis on how to capture the essence of a scene, designed with beginners and intermediate students in mind.
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​
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.
