Debra Claffey’s paintings in oil, encaustic, and mixed media concentrate on abstracted plant and foliage forms as expressions of the human dilemma. Her experience in horticulture adds a scientific perspective to her aesthetic appreciation of the natural world. With the plant kingdom as muse, Claffey’s work employs direct observation of nature to comment on the critical relationship between humans and plants. Claffey’s paintings have been exhibited across New England and have won several awards, the most recent being a 2025 Recognition Award from Juror Toby Sisson at the Bristol Art Museum’s Rock, Paper, Scissors and the Juror’s Award from Joanne Mattera in Anything But Flat at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, in Truro, MA.. Juror Katherine French recognized her work with an Honorable Mention in Catamount Art’s Arts Connect exhibition in St. Johnsbury, Vt in 2022. Claffey received two Artist Entrepreneurial Grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011 and 2020. She won the Bank of New Hampshire Award in the 50th Annual Exhibition at the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, NH. She holds a BFA in painting from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and an Associate's Degree in Horticultural Technology from the University of New Hampshire. She has been Past-President of both the New Hampshire Women’s Caucus for Art and New England Wax. She exhibits with a four-artist collective named Elemental, which focuses on environmental issues. Claffey currently teaches online and in her Maine studio.

Esperanza Cortés is a New York City based multidisciplinary artist and educator, whose work spans sculpture, painting, works on paper, installation, and video. Cortés’ exhibitions include Smack Mellon, Bronx Museum, Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio, MoMA PS1, Albright-Knox Gallery, Ogden Contemporary Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art and Cleveland Art Museum. International exhibitions include Europe, Latin America and Asia. Cortés awards include: Guggenheim Fellowship, New York State Council on the Arts Project Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship, Vilcek Foundation Artist Research Fellowship, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant, Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship, Puffin foundation, New York State Biennial, Bronx Museum AIM Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts & Sustained Achievement in the Visual Arts Award. Cortés' residencies include: MacDowell, Yaddo, Ucross, Pine Meadows Ranch Center, Peter’s Valley School of Craft, Children’s Museum of Manhattan, McColl Center, Museum of Arts and Design, BRIC Workspace, Caldera Residency, Joan Mitchell Center, Sculpture Space, Fountainhead, & MoMA PS1 International Residency. Cortés' work is in private and public collections including the Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston and the American Embassy in Monterey, Mexico.

Richard Frumess has been manufacturing artist paint commercially since 1982 when he began making encaustic paint for Torch Artists Supplies in New York City. In 1988 he founded R&F Handmade Paints to ensure the continuance of encaustic paint after Torch closed. Two years later developed Pigment Sticks. Although retired from R&F, he remains a consultant on technical issues. His color workshops grew out of an investigation into the underlying principles of R&F’s color line that had been developed intuitively over the years by him and R&F’s staff. The workshops are intended to ground color theory in the material characteristics of individual colors.

Isabelle Gaborit is a contemporary visual artist based in the west of Ireland, where she works from her studio nestled between the sea and a lake. Her chosen medium is encaustic— a process as ancient as it is immediate—using molten, pigmented beeswax manipulated with a blowtorch. This tactile and sensuous method lies at the heart of her process-driven practice, allowing her to respond directly to the raw natural forces that shape the wild Atlantic landscape around her. Originally from La Rochelle, France, Isabelle studied sculpture, drawing, and painting at l’École des Beaux-Arts in Poitiers before completing a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts in Ireland in 2006. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including France, Northern Ireland, the USA, Germany, and China. With over two decades of teaching experience, Isabelle has led workshops and retreats across Ireland and internationally, including the International Encaustic Conference in Massachusetts, Mulranny Arts, Leitrim School of Art in Ireland, and kunstfreiraum in Switzerland. She is a core instructor with R&F Handmade Paints, contributes to the online program Painting with Fire, and serves on the board of the International Encaustic Artists (IEA). In 2024, she joined Mastrius Masters as a mentor, supporting emerging artists in developing their creative voice and professional presence.

Milisa Galazzi is a contemporary artist whose work explores the unseen forces that connect people, time, and place. Working with paper, thread, and wax, she creates intricate, light-responsive constructions that merge materiality with metaphor. Galazzi’s practice is grounded in ideas drawn from string theory, quantum field theory, and the natural processes of growth and transformation. Her art often evokes the language of weaving, shadow, and transparency to investigate themes of human connection, memory, and labor. Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and institutions across the United States and abroad, and is held in numerous private and public collections. Galazzi’s art invites viewers to pause, to look closely, and to reflect on the delicate balance between fragility and resilience that defines both material and human experience.

Leslie Giuliani is an American contemporary artist. Her work combines textiles, encaustic, oil painting and printmaking.  Born in Philadelphia, PA, Giuliani received her BFA from The University of Delaware, with further studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Her work is represented in collections of the Housatonic Museum of Art, the State of CT and many private collections. She was the recipient of an Artist Fellowship Grant from the state of CT for Craft and a residency Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center. Giuliani lives and works in Weston, CT.

Susan Lasch Krevitt received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she majored in Sculpture & Material Studies. Susan uses new & up-cycled textiles, rubber, cardboard, metal, leather & whatever it takes to build abstract, free standing & wall hung sculptural paintings. She is passionate about materials, always looking for possibilities to incorporate something new. Her organic, process driven work explores themes of structure, connection, transformation & memory. She finds inspiration in observations of the natural world, including growth/decay, earthly/underwater life forms & plants, especially cactus/succulents. Her work has been exhibited in galleries & museums internationally & throughout the United States since 1985. Susan has shown work at the Cape Cod Museum of Art & The Provincetown Art Association & Museum on Cape Cod. In California, she’s shown at The Chaffey Community Museum & The Riverside Art Museum. Work was included in a group show at The Painting Center in NYC. Susan was a featured artist in an article published in The Surface Design Journal and she has a piece in the catalog for Feel Free, an international show that traveled around the world for 3 years. Susan teaches workshops & works one on one with artists in her Thousand Oaks, California studio.

SusanLaschKrevitt.com

Megan MacDonald (she/her) is a multi disciplinarian visual artist with a focus on encaustic and Core Artist Instructor for R&F Handmade Paints. Megan is drawn to natural and organic forms, the energy of hand-drawn lines, and the alchemy that occurs with the convergence of natural elements. She gravitated to encaustics due to its beautiful depth and luminosity, as well as, the myriad of possibilities the medium offers. Although she continues to explore a variety of mediums in her art practice, her focus is primarily centred on encaustic. Through formal education, Megan studied fine art at Emily Carr University and resumed her studies through Emily Carr’s Continuing Education programs and was apart of the in-depth colour study program under Tom Hudson. Additionally, she has taken part in the Golden Acrylics training program and has been a guest instructor for a wide variety of groups and institutions. Megan has been instructing and mentoring for over 20 years, owned and operated an artisan gallery and studio space for over 10 years, served on the board of the Delta Arts Council, co founded a non profit group artists group and has curated and juried numerous art shows.  She has been an instructor and presenter for both the International Encaustic Artists conference and workshop leader at the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In September 2025, She will be a presenter and workshop leader at the inaugural Canadian Encaustic Conference in Owen Sound, Ontario Canada. An award-winning artist whose work has been in juried exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Her work can be found in numerous private collections around the globe. Megan continues to create and instruct out of her studio, The Crow’s Nest Art Studio is now located on Vancouver Island, in Maple Bay, just outside of Duncan, British Columbia, Canada.

In her almost five-decade career, Joanne Mattera has had 35 solo shows and participated in about 10 group shows annually, both national and international. Her most recent solo, From Dawn to Dusk, took place at Odetta Gallery in Manhattan in late 2019. Joanne’s curatorial projects include Textility in 2012 at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit; A Few Conversations About Color at DM Contemporary in Manhattan in 2015; and Depth Perception in 2017 at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, Massachusetts, which she curated with Cherie Mittenthal. Joanne’s work is in the New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey; Connecticut College Print Department; University Collections at the University of Albany; the U.S. State Department, Washington, D.C.; and numerous institutional and private collections. Joanne is founder and director emerita of the International Encaustic Conference and author of The Art of Encaustic Painting: Contemporary Expression in the Ancient Medium of Pigmented Wax.  Her memoir, Vita: Growing Up Italian, Coming Out, and Making a Life in Art, was published in 2019 by Well-Fed Artist Press in Manhattan.

Kelly McGrath has been a practicing artist since 2007 and Art educator since 2009. She utilizes wax, paper, plaster, wood, clay and found materials in her process driven work. She explores themes that are influenced by biologic process like growth and decay, mutation and evolution. She has been invited to present and teach at R&F Handmade Paints, Women's Studio Workshop, Castle Hill Center for the Arts, Peter’s Valley and Snow Farm. She earned her BFA in Sculpture from SUNY New Paltz in 2007 and her Master’s in Art Education from Hunter College in 2019. She is currently employed at SUNY New Paltz as the Instructional Support Technician for the Sculpture Department. 

Kelly Milukas is an instructor, speaker, and art & science residency collaborator, an award-winning artist whose practice began as a sculptor and has expanded to multi-media painting including pastel and encaustic painting. Milukas’ solo exhibitions have been hosted at the Ronald Reagan International Forum, Washington, DC, the Museum at Palm Beach Photographic Centre, FL, and the Regenerative Medicine Forum in Berkeley, CA. Her artwork is in national museums, international private and corporate collections, and been visible at international art fairs such as Red Dot Miami, and Boston International Art Fairs. Her story and artwork have been featured in IAPS Globe 2021, ArtScope, Newport Life Magazine, Palm Beach Times, and The Pastel Journal, and in several books: “100 New England Artists”; ”Best of American Pastel Vol. 2”; “Artists Homes and Studios”, “A Woman’s Shed”; “The History of Little Compton, First Light: Sakonnet, 1660-1820”; and The Cortland Review. She’s served as a curator and juror, and her ability to communicate ideas has established her as a respected and sought-after instructor and speaker in, arts and science forums, universities, and corporate leadership programs. She is a juried artist member of the Salmagundi Club, NYC, the Connecticut Pastel Society & the RI Watercolor Society, she’s the founding President Emerita of the South Coast Artists, RI & MA, and a past President of the Providence Art Club, the 3rd oldest art club in the United States founded in 1880.

Cherie Mittenthal, Director and Producer of the International Encaustic Conference. She’s been working predominately in wax or encaustic paint while integrating tar, marble dust, pigment sticks, dry materials, graphite, collage and miscellaneous mediums. She has her MFA from the State University of New York at Purchase and her BFA from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. She’s the Executive Artistic Director of Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill since 2002. She serves on the board of Campus Provincetown, Provincetown Cultural Council, OCARC - the Outer Cape Artist Residency Coalition and is partners with Highlands Center & the National Seashore for the only Wood-Fired Kiln on Cape Cod. She won the 2019 Artist Fellowship award from the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.

Wayne Montecalvo is a multi-disciplinary artist who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He currently lives and maintains his studio in Rosendale, New York. Montecalvo’s work has been featured in solo and two-person exhibitions at The Hall of Awa Japanese Handmade Paper, Yamakawa, Tokushima, Japan; Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery, SUNY Ulster, Stone Ridge, NY; and CHRCH Project Space, Cottekill, NY. From 1998-2013 Wayne worked in the Art Department at the State University of New York, New Paltz campus, and taught as an adjunct employee from 2010-2013. From 2014- and currently, works as a freelance artist from his own studio. From 2017-2022 Wayne also worked as a prop builder for PRG Technologies, New Windsor, NY. Additional teaching and related experience include R&F Handmade Paints, Kingston, NY. Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA. The Printmaking Center at the College of Santa Fe, NM. Bard College, Annandale on the Hudson, NY. Studio Joy, Kansas City, MO. Mount Everett Regional school, Scheffield, MA. The Draw, Kingston, NY, The Woodstock School of Art, and Studio E, San de Allende, Mexico.

Carol Pelletier (b.1969, Fort Kent, ME) is an artist currently living and working on the Northshore of Boston.  She is represented by the Cynthia Winings Gallery in Blue Hill, Maine, Morpeth Contemporary in Hopewell, NJ and the Gallery on Federal in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows nationally and internationally, including Speedwell Projects in Portland, Maine, the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art in NYC, Boecker Contemporary in Heidelberg Germany, Centre d'Art Contemporain Metz France, Saint-Mary's University in Nova Scotia, Julie Heller East, Provincetown, and Soren Christensen in New Orleans.  Her work has been in multiple catalog exhibitions and publications including New American Paintings, Southwest Art Magazine, Creative Quarterly, Artscope and Art New England.  She is a professor of art at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. She is currently a visiting artist at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, MA and has been a visiting artist at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem and Snow Farm in Williamsburg, MA. Her work has earned support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center and she is a Salzburg Global Fellow.  Carol Pelletier is the Chair of Fine Arts and Professor at Endicott College, in Beverly Massachusetts.  

Lisa Pressman is a painter and educator whose work explores memory, transformation, and the language of materials. With an MFA in Painting from Bard College, she has taught nationally and internationally for over two decades. Her workshops encourage experimentation, curiosity, and the development of a personal visual voice through layered, process-driven exploration. Lisa’s teaching is sponsored by R&F Handmade Paints, featuring the use of their Pigment Sticks and Drawing Oils. Represented by Susan Eley Fine Art (New York) and Addington Gallery (Chicago), she is known for creating an inspiring studio environment where discovery and meaning emerge through making.

Jodi Reeb received a BFA degree in Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, MCAD, where she instructed printmaking for over 9 years.  Jodi has been a full-time working artist creating paintings and sculpture and a teacher in Minneapolis for over 28 years. She has taught printmaking, acrylic and encaustic painting as well as book arts classes/workshops at colleges and art centers regionally and internationally. She has taught encaustic workshops at the Essence of Mulranny in Ireland,  Zijidelings in Netherlands, Kunstfreiraum in Basel, Switzerland, and San Miguel De Allende. Nationally, she has taught workshops at Arrowmont School of Craft, Penland School of Art, Tubac Center for the Arts, Wild Rice Retreat and Haystack School of Art. She has been an online video instructor with Painting with Fire for 4 years and has taught workshops at the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Massachusets for the past 7 years. She teaches monthly workshops in her NE Minneapolis studio and offers art study coaching to artists for professional development. She is a CORE teaching Artist for R&F Handmade Encaustic Paints, an Ambassador artist for Ampersand Art, Artist Educator for Silverbrush Ltd., and a GOLDEN Acrylic Paint Artist educator.

For more information, available artwork and workshops please contact Jodi at www.jodireeb.com

Artist, Explorer, Maker and Educator, Patricia Russotti is passionate about examinations of nature, the alchemical magic that occurs within natural phenomena and the creative process. Russotti’s current work is focused on entropy, negentropy, nature, and the small things she stumbles upon within the existing world. Russotti has been training and presenting on Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom since the first versions of the applications and employs these tools in the creation of her work. Her work has been consistently showcased through solo, group, and juried exhibitions. Her practice reflects a breadth and depth of experience and skill in image-making (including analog, digital, alternative, and historic processes), workflow, as well as digital output to a variety of substrates, such as fabric and washi. Currently, she is creating and offering workshops online and in person to provide emerging and established artists with acquiring digital tools to expand their art practice and to clarify their intent. She is the co-author of Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook, A Guide to Staying Ahead of the Workflow Curve © 2010, published by Elsevier Inc, Focal Press. Her evolving methodology is continually featured at national and international conferences. She has been a regular presenter at national and international imaging and education conferences since the 1980s. Patti holds M.S. and Ed.S. Degrees from Indiana University, and spent four decades as a Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology – most recently in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.

Tracy Spadafora is a professional artist and art teacher who received a BFA from Boston Univ. (89’) and MFA from SUNY New Paltz (95’). She has been a recipient of a Frances Kinnicutt Award, Blanche Coleman Award, St. Botolph Foundation Grant, and a couple of Somerville Arts Council artist grants.  Her work has been exhibited across the country and is in many private and public collections, including Harvard University, the Danforth Museum, and Bank of America. Her work has also been featured in many publications, including Artist’s Magazine, Art Scope Magazine, and the Boston Globe.

Dietlind Vander Schaaf holds an MFA from the University of San Francisco and an MA from the University of Southern Maine. Her work has been described as “the transformation of disparate objects into elegantly simple compositions of pattern and grace” (Artscope). Vander Schaaf has exhibited at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, The Fuller Craft Museum, and On Center Gallery, among others, and been featured in Maine Home + Design, Decor Maine, UPPERCASE, and Downeast magazines. Vander Schaaf is a Core Instructor for R&F Handmade Paints, an Ampersand Ambassador, and the former president of New England Wax. She has taught workshops throughout the country, including Haystack, Arrowmont, Castle Hill, Snow Farm, Penland, Maine College of Art, R&F, and internationally at Zijdelings in The Netherlands, Essence of Mulranny in Ireland, and Kunstfreiraum in Switzerland. The recipient of grants from the Maine Arts Commission and International Encaustic Artists, as well as a Tending Space Artist Fellowship from the Hemera Foundation, she is represented by Portland Art Gallery and Artemis Gallery. Vander Schaaf is a 500 hr Kripalu yoga instructor with specialty training in meditation, advanced asana, Ayurveda, vinyasa, and pranayama, as well as a Level 2 Archery Instructor through USA Archery.