GENIE RYBICKI-JUDKINS

"Painting nurtures, stimulates, and restores my being. It broadens who I am. Paint-time is serious play time, a space in 'never-never land' where color and form, lights and darks, invite a game of hide-and-seek. The color and form of flowers seems an especially natural haunt for the pastels. My husband's garden and the surrounding fields provide inspiration for more paintings than our short Vermont summer has time to accommodate. Now that May is here, the fun and the rush is on."

DAVID JUAIRE

 "I have been interested in photography for over 30 years and I am never bored to take some time, go for a short ride, mainly in Franklin County, and to search for a shot, whether it may be a landscape scene, a quiet country setting, or just the people enjoying the great outdoors playing all the sports, working the farmland, or just relaxing. Our wildlife alone can fill out needs to live and share our environment. Photographing what we see each and every day with our new digital equipment can make being an artist so enjoyable. There is always a market for that special photograph and I will keep searching for it the rest of my life."

HENRY T. REILLY

Hank was born and grew up in the Boston area. He worked for many years in the real estate business before settling in Montgomery, VT with his late wife, Lona. He has fallen in love with the rural beauty of Montgomery and its people. Hank has been painting since the late 1970's and has studied briefly at the Art Student League in Marblehead, MA. He is essentially self-taught, working in oil primarily on Masonite where he sketches from life or photographs. While most all artists use their hands to work the paintbrush, Hank uses his hands and fingers to manipulate the paint before he even picks up his brush. Hank has amassed over 1,000 paintings at his home studio.

TOBY FULWILER

"I began my small business Fairfield Farm Bowls in 2008, offering hardwood bowls for sale at AIR. At first, I made mostly functional  bowls turned from Vermont woods and enjoyed it that folks actually purchased my work. In the years since, I have expanded my offerings to include wooden kitchen implements made from leftover hardwood scraps including cheese knives, butter spreaders, pastry scrapers, and toaster tongs, the latest versions of which now include magnets to allow for easy fastening to metal toasters. Looking back, it is clear that all my wooden products are meant to be more functional than decorative --to be used rather than viewed-- which is why I call myself a 'craftsman' rather than an 'artist,' and why I am honored to sell my work in an 'art' gallery."

JEANNE BACKHAUS

"In my seascapes and landscapes, the color and line try to cooperate. Like two dancers in the ballet, they move together to form an image or they move separately across the stage of the painting. Over the past few months, I have been experimenting with paintings where line and color do not move together. I have been using the images of plants and vines to show the lines and colors doing totally opposite things in the same space. They are both moving but in different directions. They are aware of each other's existence, but they are 'doing their own thing.' In paintings depicting pinecones, the lines and colors are doing the same thing, creating a shape, but in different spaces within the painting. I have also added a new element: solid black. In these paintings, color, line, and black shape all vie for your attention."

MARCH FEATURED VISITING ARTIST: SUSAN BULL RILEY

SUSAN BULL RILEY

"For what it's worth, all my formal training is in music; I'm a concert flutist, a singer, and a very enthusiastic, but inexpert pianist. None of my academic training is in art (OK, just one drawing class my freshman year at Dartmouth College) although I have painted all my life.

 So why did I wind up being a painter? Perhaps it took longer for me to recognize that as much as I love music, I don't have to do it all day, whereas I cannot live happily without drawing and painting. Those are not empty words-- they are absolutely true even though I have the best husband any woman could ever dial up, and our two daughters made motherhood a lucky and precious part of my life.

I love to study how thinkgs look. And I have always painted birds and flowers and landscapes and people; my earliest memories are of examining the tiniest details of spring wildflowers, and of slapping blue crayon squiggles into coloring books, ecstatic to be 'painting' a sky. (What a concept, I thought! Color and line on paper that can evoke the real thing? Wow! Hooked forever.)

 For the reception, I will bring current works-in-progress, which are mostly botanical drawings and watercolor since I am preparing to teach classes in March and April. I enjoy seeing how other artists work, and would enjoy sharing these botanicals-in-process. They reflect how all of my work is fueled by the intense concentration and pleasure afforded by careful observation. "

The Vermont Arts Council has this to say:

"Riley's artwork has also earned her high honors in the natural history world. She has been selected four times to participate in 'Focus on Nature,' a biennial exhibit at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY, that features natural history illustrations from around the world. Riley was also one of ten artists to illustrate the 2008 Breeding Birds of New York Atlas, and has contributed two pieces to a Guild of Natural Science Illustrators exhibit entitled, 'The Sweet-voiced Bird has Flown: Portraits of Common Birds in Decline.' She frequently contributes art to organizations that aim to conserve land, raise awareness of environmental issues, or restore a species."



PAT MURPHY

"I have been exploring the intimate setting of the rooms that surround me. I am interested in the little dramas (both real or imagined) that the scenes evoke. I have been reading a lot of contemporary poetry, which I have found very inspiring for talking about our lives. I try to create paintings that we feel but not necessarily see."

And of course, Pat plays guitar and sings at many an AIR Open House. Thanks, Pat!

GENIE JUDKINS

"The process of painting nurtures, stimulates, and restores my being. It broadens who I am. Paint time is serious play time, a space 'never-never land' where color and form, lights and darks, invite a game of hide-and-seek. Always new, painting compels an inward exploration to be outwardly expressed. From that first time tangerine orange Crayola crayon, the more sticks of color I have to paint with, the better, the happier, the more challenged I am."