Gallery 4: Artists

Artists

	Klia Ververidis Xanthopoulos Painter & Surface Design
Award winning artist Klia Ververidis Xanthopoulos received her fine arts training at Boston University while earning a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Archaeology. She then went on to law school and the practice of law for several years. Three years ago she left the practice to concentrate full-time on her art. Her artwork has appeared in art magazines, catalogs, galleries, at the Greek Institute in Cambridge and are currently part of private and public collections in the USA and abroad. Klia also works with interior designers worldwide. She has sold over 700 paintings since her return to the art world. Klia is also the author of several published legal textbooks and was named Arts & Culture Editor at Large for Classic Country Life magazine in early 2007. Currently Klia is the artist in residence at Gallery 4 in Northwood NH and is working on several major commissions.

more work by Klia -->

	Beverly Belanger Painter
Beverly is a life long resident of New Hampshire. She works in pencil, watercolor and mixed media but considers acrylic to be her true love. She enjoys painting what speaks to her striving to capture moments in time. She works with both brushes and knives and limits her palette to eight colors. Beverly is also a registered nurse. At this time she balances her family, her art and her nursing and finds all three to be immensely rewarding.

more work by Beverly -->

Kate Rodliff Bettencourt
Painter

Kate Rodliff Bettencourt received her Bachelors of Fine Art from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She went on to obtain her Masters Degree and her teaching Certificate from the same Institution. Kate has been shown in several galleries in Boston and the New England Area. Her unique perspectives, colors and use of patterns sets her work apart and takes what is otherwise traditional subject matter and makes it contemporary and her own.

Samantha Brown
Painter & Muralist

Classically trained artist Samantha Brown paints in a contemporary some would say whimsical style. She attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City and has worked in various creative arts fields from advertising to historical restorations. Most recently she has turned her artistic talents to painting murals on walls and other surfaces such as ceilings, doors and furniture. Her work can be found in Houston, Atlanta, Seattle and New England in both private collections and in public spaces.

	Greg Doane Finely Turned Wooden Bowls
Greg is a master craftsmen working exclusively with native New Hampshire woods that he personally collects. His finely turned wooden bowls are both beautiful art objects and durable functional bowls that are meant to be used.

more work by Greg -->

Judy Doughty
Painter

Judy earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at U.N.H. in Durham. Her medium of choice was oil, but she now works in watercolor and pastel, enjoying the immediacy of the medium. Her work has appeared in juried shows all over the U.S. and is a juried member of the N.H. Art Assoc. as well as Durham Art Assoc., Newburyport Art Assoc., Seacoast Art Assoc. and a national and state member of the Womens’ Caucus on Art. Most recently, Judy won the Gammon Award for her pastel called "Refraction" at the 2005 Currier exhibit in Manchester, N.H and "Fall on Big Four" a pastel of a quiet spot in Nottingham was chosen for the 2005 Families First calendar. Along with a B.F.A. she has a minor in Art ED. and teaches both pastel and watercolor to small groups at her Nottingham studio.

Judy was widowed at age 38 and had to put her art career on hold in order to provide for her two young sons. While working as a part time police officer, she was severely injured fighting a pit bull dog. After many surgeries to her back and shoulder and lots of hardware, she was left with chronic pain and constant back spasms, which have restricted her active lifestyle dramatically. Her art has become her anchor and her sanity.

"I paint the world of nature that I love so; the wildlife that share this Earth with us and in so doing-I paint out of my pain and into that beauty I so humbly try to portray. My mission is to raise an awareness of the beauty of the fragile world around us in hopes that people will respect and preserve this Earth for ALL LIFE." Judy Doughty

	Hugh Gibbons Sculptor
Hugh Gibbons took up sculpting forty years ago as a means to channel his creative energy. He has produced hundreds of works in stone, marble, limestone, alabaster, soapstone, wood and fabricated and cast metal. While his work is mainly subtractive, he has also completed a number of additive works including a 20 foot wooden cross for a monastery in Florida. Before his retirement in 2006, Hugh was a law professor at Franklin Pierce Law Center. He now makes his home on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
more work by Hugh -->

Ethel Hills
Watercolor

Ethel Hills grew up amidst the orchard fields and hills of rural New Hampshire. While completing her B.A. at UNH, she fell in love with the marshes and beaches of the seacoast region and eventually settled in Hampton. While working in traditional clerical jobs, she explored her creativity through needlework, photography and rug hooking. Interest in developing her own rug designs brought her to a drawing class and the beginning of a love of drawing and painting. To improve her skills, she actively pursued her study of art including art courses at the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Institute of Art. Ethel is currently pursuing a full-time career in art. She has exhibited in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine. She is affiliated with the Artists' Guild, the New Hampshire Art Association, the Women's Caucus for Art, the Seacoast Artists Association and the Newburyport Artists Association.

Tania Amazeen Jones
Painter

Award winning artist, Tania Amazeen-Jones works primarily in pen and ink, graphite, pastels and paintings on canvas, linen and board. Her work is in many private collections across the United States and she has been shown in several galleries. Her published work includes illustrations for children's books and several prints. You can also see her work in the Portsmouth Advent Christian Church. Her work in that church includes an octagonal ceiling piece and a wall mural. One of Tania's inspirations is New Castle, New Hampshire. New Castle was Tania's childhood home and the name Amazeen has been in New Castle since it was settled in the early 1600's. Her work "New Castle, NH, Life and Legends" was used for New Castle's tri-centennial celebration and for the post card used by the United States Post Office to commemorate the re-grand opening of the famous old Wentworth Hotel in New Castle. She is known for her ability to fulfill unique challenges and to provide a special imaginative touch.

Amanda Lotter
Photographer, Surface Design

Amanda enjoys photographing everyday objects and capturing images of things that are part of our everyday existence but rarely get a second glance such as an oil slick or a fishbone. Her vision includes taking "ugly" things and making them pretty by placing the focus on the texture, color and composition rather than the object itself. Amanda has spent most of her life living in urban areas but has recently decided to make the switch to the "country life" and has moved from Boston to Vermont!

Carey Marden
Photographer

Carey Marden is a graduate of Boston University with a degree in Journalism with a concentration Photo Journalism from the prestigious BU College of Communications. She has worked for several newspapers, as a freelance photographer and as a fine art photographer. Additionally, Carey is a graphic designer and design consultant and she is also the co-founder of the greeting card company Zucchini Fish.

Her latest creations include digital mixed media that she creates using her original photographs. Her perspectives and ability to capture the simple beauty of her subject matter are truly unique and impeccable.

Mose Tolliver
Southern Visionary Outsider Artist

Mose was born sometime between 1915 and 1920 (no one is sure) to Alabama sharecroppers. He was one of twelve children and he himself is the father of eleven. He supported his family with odd jobs until the late 1960's when a crate of marble fell and crushed his legs while he was working at a furniture factory. He was left crippled, depressed and turned to drinking. Partly inspired by a folk art show he was taken to by the owner of the furniture factory, he decided to start painting to pass the time. His days of hanging paintings on the tree in his yard and selling them for a few dollars or trading for a bag of rice or for candy with the neighborhood children ended in 1982 when his work was featured in a landmark exhibition of Black American Folk Art at Washington's Corcoran Gallery at the Smithsonian. Suddenly he was recognized as one of the most significant folk painters in America and collectors from far and wide began seeking out his work. Mose painted until his 90's and continued to enjoy visitors especially other artists right up until his passing in 2006. You may recognize his name and work from the Antiques Roadshow where his work occasionally turns up.

John Henry Toney
Southern Visionary Outsider Artist

John Henry Toney is a true original. Born in 1928 in rural Russell County Alabama, he spent about six years in elementary school before leaving to live a life of farming, hard work and deprivation. He still lives in the county. He is a deeply religious man, and is locally known as "Mustache Jesus." He had no thought of being an artist until he was 66 years old.

In 1995, John Henry plowed up a turnip "with a face on it." He decided he needed to draw a picture of the turnip, and this led to more and more fanciful artworks, derived from a quite remarkable imagination. He began by drawing on cardboard boxes, and moved to poster board, using paint pens and pencil. John Henry took a few of his pieces around to the Mayor's Office. The Mayor, who happened to appreciate original thinking and creativity, showed them to various friends and acquaintances. Only a few years after starting his artistic career, John Henry is widely collected regionally, and has been featured in Folk Art shows in Alabama (Celebrating the Vision) and Kentucky (Festival of the Arts).

One can not help noticing that John Henry's inspiration includes the Bible, but also those "big women" with torpedo breasts, to whom he pays homage in many of his paintings.

You will often see several numbers on his paintings, e.g., 73 and 2003. The first is his age when he completed the piece, the second is the expiration date of his drivers license at that time. The last is his old telephone number.

	Annie Wachniki Printmaker
Annie received a BA from Bates College in May of 2006. Her major was Art and Visual Culture. She completed a senior thesis in printmaking. Her work was on display at the Bates College Museum of art for eight weeks. Annie works in etching, linocut, drawing and multi-media installations and draws on references from both her environment and works of literature. Annie spent her junior year abroad in Florence, Italy where she studied printmaking at Il Bisonte, School of Graphic Arts under Swietlan Kraczyna. Following her year in Florence, she was invited to attend an etching workshop for international artists at the Studio for Color Etching in Barga, Italy. She spent the summer learning about multi-plate color etching, and exhibited her work in the Studio’s New Etchings Exhibition. That work is now in the permanent collection of the Commune de Barga, and is on display in the city’s government offices. Her Red Shoe Series consists of multi-block linocuts. Each print is intentionally offset, resulting in unique, one-of-a-kind works. The series currently consists of 10 characters shown from the waist down. Each character has a distinct personality, and the prints can either be displayed by themselves, or in a group combination.

more work by Annie -->

Bruce White
a.k.a. The Horsheshoe Guy

Bruce White has been a welder fabricator for over 25 years. In the summer of 93 while living in Colorado a farrier friend of Bruce's left a pile of 4 months worth of horseshoes in front of Bruces barn as revenge for being "stood up." Bruce had to keep moving the pile around until his wife suggested he might try "doing something with them!" Bruce began by making simple hooks but soon to expand to other useful objects such as chairs, benches, wine racks, lamps, frames and decorative objects. Bruce pays meticulous attention to both the aesthetic beauty and also the functionality of his creations thus creating art objects that are enduring and useful. Bruce was recently featured on NH Chronicle.

Michael Wilfert
Photographer, Sculptor

Photographer Michael Wilfert has been a professional photographer for fifteen years. His compositions include larger than life objects juxtaposed against real landscapes thus creating a surreal atmosphere. Michael's portfolio includes a wide range of subects ranging from natural landscapes and architecture to portraiture, digitally manipulated abstracts and everything in between. Michael also works with mixed media to create three-dimensional objects and likes to combine recycled material with different mediums to create new and unusual mediums.

Kenneth Witham
Photographer

Kenneth is a resident of Northwood, NH. He is a graduate of the Eastern School of Photography. He enjoys taking traditional landscape photographs and has recently started experimenting with digital media. He has served as a pictorial photographer for the United States Army in Austria. Ken has also been a Class A Exhibitor for the Boston Camera Club and has in the past served as president for the Milford, MA Camera Club, Wakefield, MA Camera Club and the Duxbury, MA Camera Club. He is a member of the NH Society of Photo Artists and the Seacoast Camera Club of Portsmouth.

Charles Whitcher
Folk Art Indoor & Outdoor Furniture

Charles has been building rustic furniture for eight years using a variety of raw materials that he has collected over the years including antique barn boards, old knobs pulls and spindles. He incorporates many building styles and techniques to create his own unique look. For their beauty and daily usefulness, Charles' creations are "the" definition of functional folk.