On view through june 30
Life Still : Celebrating the Ephemeral is an exhibition of new works by Amy Vander Els and Marsha Zavez. This collection of still life and landscape paintings celebrates the arrival of spring, life renewed, life in full bloom. Life Still is a meditation on this anticipated and ephemeral season of awakening, hope and joy. These works by Amy and Marsha illustrate and honor the moments that they notice. That they know will pass. That they choose to keep alive.
For Amy Vander Els, encaustic painting allowed her to abstract forms in a way that was both measured and unexpected. It is planned and controlled, until it isn’t. It then becomes a tale of layers, reactions to what came before, choices about what will remain, what will be concealed, what will be revealed.
Vander Els studied Studio Art and Art Education in college, earning both a B.A. and an M.Ed in k-12 Art Education from the University of New Hampshire. Her teaching career brought her overseas to teach art at international schools in Italy, Hungary and the Cayman Islands. Amy returned to New England in 2014, and now designs jewelry, creates artwork and teaches encaustic workshops out of her mill studio on Water Street in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Her award-winning artwork has been featured in solo, invitational, and juried exhibitions and is represented in private collections in the US and abroad. Her jewelry can be found in boutiques, galleries and gift shops throughout New England. Amy is treasurer of the Amesbury Cultural Council, and is a juried member of the New Hampshire Art Association and the Newburyport Art Association.
Marsha Zavez cannot remember a time when she wasn’t drawing or painting. Art is woven into her sense of self, and it is in the act of creating that she finds herself most at peace. There’s something about taking a blank canvas and transforming it into an image that brings her joy. Early on, inspired by the works of Richard Diebenkorn, Zavez painted still life’s with food, eventually adding landscapes, animals and florals. Most recently, Marsha rekindled her love of collage and has been adding bits of wallpaper, sheet music, pages from old art and poetry books, and found objects to her work. Working in oils for years, Zavez transitioned to mainly acrylic work, embracing the fast-drying quality of the medium. Marsha finds that acrylic complements her temperament as she is able to continuously add, change, take away, glue and layer, layer, layer!
Zavez earned her BFA and M. Ed at UNH and has taught visual art and drama at North Hampton School on the NH seacoast since 1999. Her work is shown at Valerie’s Gallery in Newburyport, MA and at juried shows, businesses, venues and in private collections throughout New England. Marsha is a member of the Newburyport Art Association and the National Art Educators Association.
