Friends of the RMFA
The Friends of the RMFA is made up of a unique group of people who all have one thing in common: a love of art and community. The talents of our friends cover a wide range of artistic media; including sculpture, oil, acrylic, watercolors, pastel, drawing, photography, and other works on paper. Friends have the chance to exhibit their works together, collaborate, and have fellowship with other artists and art lovers. The Friends of the RMFA is an all-inclusive group open to artists of all ages, disciplines, and levels of proficiency.
Benefits
- Artists are included in a directory on the museum's website.
- Artists may participate in the annual Friends Exhibition in the Bernier Room.
- Friends may also have outside exhibition opportunities, independent from the RMFA.
Requirements
- Artists must provide personal statement/bio, contact information, and 1 headshot or image that best represents their work.
- High quality standards of presentation are expected. All works should be finished, framed, dry, and ready-to-hang.
- We take every precaution to ensure that works are not damaged. The Friends of the RMFA/museum is not be responsible for loss or damage to artworks, including frames and mountings, no matter how they are caused, and all works are submitted to the gallery are subject to this condition.
- All sales must be handled privately between the artist and purchaser. The museum does not take a commission.
- The museum reserves the right to photograph any work for educational, catalog, website, or publicity purposes.
- Artists must be able to drop-off and pick-up their artwork in order to be included in group shows.
Sign-Up
- $35 per year. The contribution amount is assessed annually.
- It's easy to sign up online but a physical form is available here.
Friends Coordinator
Peter Abate is an artist, curator, and member of the Art Advisory team for the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. He also serves at the lead coordinator for the Friends of the RMFA group. Peter has curated hundreds of art exhibits and receptions around the state of New Hampshire and Maine. His own work has been exhibited in a variety of venues throughout the region. Peter is passionate about creating platforms for artists to get their work into the public. He has made it his personal mission to welcome artists to the Friends program and to create as many exhibition opportunities as possible.
Marketing Assets
- Friends of the RMFA logos are available for download below.
- Please link to the Friends website: www.rochestermfa.org/friends
- The Friends of the RMFA exhibitions/activities should be marketed independently from the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in order to differentiate from official exhibitions held in the Carnegie Gallery, Bernier Room, and the Art Gallery at RPAC.
| Friends Logo (Black Text) |
| Friends Logo (White Text) |
Official description of the Friends of the RMFA:
- The Friends of the RMFA is made up of a unique group of people who all have one thing in common: a love of art and community. The talents of our friends cover a wide range of artistic media; including sculpture, oil, acrylic, watercolors, pastel, drawing, photography, and other works on paper. Friends have the chance to exhibit their works together, collaborate, and have fellowship with other artists and art lovers. The Friends of the RMFA is an all-inclusive group open to artists of all ages, disciplines, and levels of proficiency. Visit www.rochestermfa.org/friends for more information or to join the Friends.
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Peter Abate
oldstuffme@gmail.com Peter Abate is originally from Massachusetts and now resides in West Newfield, Maine. Peter creates art in various mediums including watercolor, assemblage, collage and photography. He is a past member of the advisory board at Willowbrook Museum in Newfield, Maine where he coordinated the summer art exhibits from 2006 to 2010. Peter coordinated monthly art exhibits for over 10 years at the Gafney Library in Sanbornville, New Hampshire, he created the popular annual "Art at the Gafney" fundraiser and continues to help organize the event which is in its 11th successful year. Peter also has coordinated shows each year since 2004 throughout New England for the "The Art Group" networking with artists from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. In 2012 through 2015 he was involved in the founding, organization and management of the Garvin Gallery Five art gallery in Sanbornville New Hampshire. He has had the great pleasure of being invited to guest judge for Marblehead Festival of the Arts events in Massachusetts, and is involved with judging coordination for the MWVAA yearly summer event "Art in the Park" in New Hampshire. Peter has been actively involved with the art community in and around Wakefield N.H. for over 19 years. He is a juried member of Mt. Washington Valley Arts Association in North Conway, N.H. and is currently a member of the Curatorial Committee of the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in N.H. |
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Scotty Arsenault
www.ferretface.bigcartel.com Scotty is a cartoon animator and illustrator living in Dover, NH. His favorite mediums are pen & ink, watercolors and gouache. |
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Bob Bond
www.bobbond.com Bob Bond has been photographing the life around him since he first picked up a camera at the age of 14. Primarily known for his commercial portrait photography and graphic design, Bob’s passion is about getting out of the studio and recording what’s going on the streets of the world. These images, taken over the past 30 years, are from Athens Greece, New York City, Las Vegas and various New England towns and cities. Two of his very well received, themed solo shows, “GrabShots” and “SnapShots” have been shown in several galleries around New England as well as the Massachusetts State House. The Lincoln County News in a review, of the “points of View” exhibition at the Maine Art Gallery, described Bob’s work as tending to an “Invigorating grittiness”. |
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Steve Brown
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/6-steve-brown I am a self taught photographer who started competing in Camera Clubs in the early 80's. After retirement in 2011, I invested in new camera equipment and started a new venture as a landscape photographer. As my first project, I set out to photograph every covered bridge in the state of New Hampshire. I fell in love with covered bridges so I joined the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. I have been able to support the efforts of the society and expand my knowledge of covered bridges. I also enjoy photographing light houses, old barns, churches and almost anything else I happen to find along the way. Among others, my photography has been displayed at the Glickman Library at the University of Southern Maine, the Azure Gallery in Wolfeboro NH, the Gaffney Library in Sanbornville NH, Franklin Gallery Rochester NH, Wakefield Inn in Wakefield NH, antd the Lynn Museum in Lynn, Massachusetts. |
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James Chase
www.neverfading.com James Chase is the Director of Community Education and Visual Arts Faculty at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, as well as a board member for Rochester Museum of Fine Arts. He’s a national and international exhibiting artist, merging painting, printmaking and photography with social engagement practices. Since 2009, he has been featured in over 50 art exhibitions. Recent exhibitions include Picked Six Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio 2015 and Memory Palace 2016at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. Recent solo exhibitions include Echoes at the RMFA and Kill The Lights at South Plains College in Levelland, TX. "The work of artist James Chase explores ideas of collection, repetition, and memory. Discarded wooden slats and blocks are collected and repurposed to form the structural and visual elements of Chase’s work. Trained in printmaking, Chase creates traditional prints but has also developed an approach to printmaking in which older prints are cut up and reassembled to form a new composite image against the background of the found objects. For Chase, the collection of found objects is a means of mentally mapping out time and place. The layering, stacking, and painting of materials references the accumulation of memories (and the objects that represent them) and the ways in which memories can be altered, replaced, or forgotten over time. The use of bright colors and abstract geometric forms on found objects results in an image that is familiar but unrecognizable – a reflection of our ability as human beings to relate and remember as well as our inability to ever fully relive a memory or experience reality from another’s perspective." |
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Ken Eason
www.kennetheason.com Ken works primarily with oil and encaustic media and has been creating since 1992. Since his first solo show at the York Street Gallery, Kennebunk, he has been in numerous group and solo shows from Boston, MA to Bar Harbor, ME. In 2005, Ken won first prize in painting in the Sculptural Pursuit, “Start the New Year with Peace” Art/Literary Competition and received a several page color photo spread of his work. Ken participated in the annual International Encaustic Conference from 2009 – 2012 and has taken several encaustic and professional workshops, but is mostly self taught. In 2017, he started teaching Encaustic painting techniques. Active in the local arts, Ken is a juried member of the Art Guild of the Kennebunks and New England Wax. He was president of the Sanford Art Association from 2002 – 2006. Ken’s work has been collected by the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, Rochester, NH; Rand Direct, Edison, NJ; and is held in many private collections worldwide. Ken works and lives in Acton, Maine. |
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JP Goodwin
www.house-portraits.com JP Goodwin grew up on the seacoast of Massachusetts. She has been painting since the 1950’s and holds degrees in Fine Arts and Residential Design, attended Garland College and The Univ. of Georgia. She has studied with Harold Pride, Ross Smith, Kay Paterson Parker, Nan White, Caleb Stone to name a few and has been a principle in five coop galleries in Marblehead and NH over the past 30 years. She has enjoyed membership in the Marblehead, Swampscott and Lynn Arts Associations, is past President of the Mt. Washington Valley Arts where she served on the Board of Directors for 14 years. Now exhibiting with ArtWorks Gallery in Chocorua Village, NH she hold a position on their Board. JP is a plein air painter reveling in the light nature brings to the scene. For the past 12 years she has facilitated the Friday Painters, a free plein air group associated with the MWVArts which paints thoughout the Mt. Washington Valley and beyond. She also paints with Norman Royle’s group in the Wakefield area of NH and is beginning a winter plein air group in Jackson NH. Her focus is on the changing landscape of NH often as it comes up against man made intrusions. The play of mountain light intrigues and keeps her going back for more. |
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Gary LaPierre
glap11@verizon.net Gary LaPierre simply considers himself as a compulsive wanderer – with a camera. He was given a point and shoot “Canon Sure Shot” Camera as a gift in the early 1980’s and immediately became passionate about collecting photographic images that happened to catch his eye. He has always enjoyed walking through old, industrial cities to witness the transformative effects of weather and time on buildings and objects. Gary also loves capturing images of fading light, depicted in many of his landscape photographs. Throughout the years, he has wandered through the United States, Canada, and Europe capturing images of natural and man-made beauty. He recently completed a 14 month tour of venues throughout New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts with an exhibit entitled: “Timeworn – The Art of Architecture in Decline.” |
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Teresa McWilliams Farina
www.teresafarina.com Artist Statement: From the time I became aware of the world as a child, I loved color. I began experimenting with surfaces and pigments at about 4 years old. Since then, I have worked in a variety of media and become a painter of life. I am fascinated with people, animals, water, trees, everything around me. My passion has been to capture the vitality of what I feel and see in my surroundings and convey the same to the viewer. Light draws me to subjects. It sets the mood, it defines form, color and values. Although I have pursued other interests in science and medicine, painting has always been an important part of my life. As in life, I think of painting as a personal journey that I take in trying to create an image that engages the imagination and delight of the viewer. Biography: Born in Flint, Michigan, US; Current Residence: East Wakefield, NH, US Early years: In the beginning, Teresa was a self-taught painter. Starting at the age of six, her first oil painting was completed on a canvas window shade while her father was fly fishing on the Ausable River in Michigan. She loved painting portraits of children using pastels; she illustrated her own stories and painted theater sets in grade school. At holidays, she painted murals on large picture windows of her family home in Saginaw, MI. During her high school years, she was awarded scholarships to study art at Interlochen National Music Camp for two summers in Traverse City, Michigan. Advanced Education: After completion of undergrad school in pre-med (B.S. degree) at University of Detroit, she studied at various art schools in Michigan. She has an Associate’s degree in Fine Arts (Studio Painting) and M.B.A (Business Management). She has studied drawing, watercolor, pastel and oil painting with numerous instructors from The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, as well as instructors from other PA art schools. She completed an independent study program the summer of 2011 with international artist, James DuPree and in 2019 studied with nationally known plein air oil painters, Mark Boedges from VT and Dennis Perrin from Portsmouth NH. She continues to explore and develop new techniques with various pigments and surfaces. Past Careers: Teresa worked in the hospital, non-profit environment for the first few years following college, first as a Medical Technologist in hospitals in Michigan, a Laboratory Manager and Vice President of Professional Services at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh NY. For the last 15 years, she worked for Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Schering-Plough and Merck in quality assurance and as a project management leader for multiple international teams to bring drug development from small scale laboratory manufacturing to FDA approved large scale global manufacturing sites. Current Activities: She is currently a member of the Wakefield plein air group. Teresa co-chairs an annual fundraiser for Art at the Gafney Library. She belong to Governor Wentworth Art Association and the Seacoast Art Association in Exeter, NH. She has been a member of the Squam Lakes Artisans’ Cooperative Gallery in Center Harbor, NH since May 2018. |
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Bob Farrell
www.bob5farrellsarts.weebly.com My name is Bob Farrell and I’m an artist. I’m 54 years old and have lived in Berwick, Maine for 17 years. When I was young, I started doing lettering and graphics. I designed a few new fonts and I created a lot of designs. When I got older, I started painting with oils. I did abstract and surreal paintings. Dali was a big influence. While I was going to Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY, I was the Art Assistant for Klaus Ebling, art teacher. We did murals for an Irish festival and we went to Milwaukee to compete in a snow sculpting competition. After a year and a half at JCC, I transferred to the School of Visual Arts in NYC for graphic design. While in New York City, I painted abstracts and explored surrealism. I also learned how to mix urethanes. I bought a 35mm camera and took black and white photos. I went to Coney Island a lot and all over NYC, even to the World Trade Center. I learned how to develop film and I printed my own photos. I also started to work with double exposures. I use a wide variety of techniques creating art. Snowballs dipped in paint. Pouring paint on a fan to create 2-5 pieces at a time. Tar, tar paper, found objects and using various objects to move paint on canvases. While in NYC, I began using found objects for creating art. Encountering and recycling found objects sparks a motivation within me to create unique objects of art. I’m a past member of the Berwick Art Association, MODspoke, Wrong Brain, and Blackbird Studio & Gallery. I’ve shown at Gallery at 100 Market St., Artstream, Berwick Library, Gafney Library, Rochester Library, DOO, Buoy, 2nd Landing, East Tower Gallery, and Gallery 280. I also have a studio at the Rollinsford Mills and at the Art Center in Dover, NH. |
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Peggy Farrell
rufusdog@verizon.net An early retirement prompted me to start a new career as an aspiring artist. While taking art lessons, I met Bob Sinclair, an accomplished photographer, who re-animated my interest in photograph. With Bob I quickly learned that it was a lot easier to carry a camera and a tripod than an easel, chair, paints and canvas. He introduced me to the world of thirds and composition, how to “create” a scene as opposed to just taking a photograph. The main body of my work is sea/landscape photography. No matter the weather, I can be seen outside trying to catch that perfect sunrise or storm cloud. Since my favorite scenes depict the ocean or coastal landscapes, living in Marblehead has only intensified my passion for outdoor photography. I was the executive producer and editor of several original programs that I developed for Marblehead Cable TV Station. # Once again I am evolving, I find that artists are always looking for a new horizon. I have now gone into digital art photography and gone back to painting. I’m a past member of GLACS, a board member and Secretary of the Swampscott Arts Association, member of the Marblehead Festival of Arts and committee chair, photographer member of the Marblehead Arts Association past member of the Greater Lynn Photograhers Assoc. and Salem Art Association. My work has been exhibited in many New Hampshire, Maine and Mass. Galleries. Though I have won many awards the one I prize most was when I won an OSW from the curator of the Peabody Essex Museum. My work can be found at the Little Harbor Art Studios, Marblehead Ma. |
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Michele Johnsen
www.michelejohnsen.com I’ve considered myself a landscape painter for more than a decade, but my Master’s work has prompted me to inquire into precisely where my work fits into the landscape tradition and why I choose this particular motif as my primary focus. The description of intimate spaces and sublime vistas are my response to the way the landscape reflects the light and creates patterns on the forms of natural surfaces. Through the use of graduated hues, abstracted mark-making and highly saturated color I am able to articulate a range of emotional responses that speak to aesthetic rationales, and to psychological and spiritual concerns, allowing access into the magic of those special places. While producing my work, I find myself feeling nostalgic for childhood memories that revolved around sweet spots in the environment. In order to have a greater engagement with these ideas, I invited friends and neighbors to take me to the places that resonate most deeply with them. Along with the pure attachment to aesthetic qualities, my new work reflects an engagement with events that cause a disruption through the hand of man and nature. I have addressed issues concerning “saving place” through an involvement with installation that incorporates constructed sculptural forms, creating an environment that invites viewer interaction. Ultimately, this passion to articulate the landscape appears to be a long and never ending journey that brings attention to both beauty and responsibility. |
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Rebecca Klementovich
www.klementovich.com Rebecca Klementovich has been showing in galleries and charities in NYC, Brooklyn, Queens, and New England for eighteen years. Her education includes a BA at Fashion Inst. Of Technology, NYC, Copper Union NYC, and Art Student League NYC. She also teaches abstract painting and fashion illustration at the Jackson Art and Gallery. She is a curator at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, in New Hampshire. Her abstract landscapes are known for developing, “a new language and a fresh color palette” of the Mount Washington Valley. She is co-founder of the Femme Fatales of the North, which supports women and the arts. |
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Anita Muise
www.AnitaNH.com Anita Muise is a self-taught collage/mixed media artist and former librarian who embraced mid-life crisis, dropped out of the corporate world, and moved to rural New Hampshire to become creatively self-employed. Anita also designs jewelry, fabric, and digital art prints. Anita’s Beads on Route 153 in Wakefield, New Hampshire is home to Anita's art gallery which is open during shop hours or by appointment. My focus is on color and pattern and how they can be combined to elevate mood and energy. I have adopted the square format almost exclusively and designs develop intuitively from the center. The act of making art is a form of meditation and it is my intention that the viewer be energetically shifted into a higher dimension while viewing the work. |
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Shawn Pelech
www.shawnpelech.com Shawn Pelech is a painter who works in Portsmouth NH. She taught art in the public schools, and has a degree in Art Education, UNH and a Masters in Creative Arts, Lesley University. She continues to learn and grow through numerous workshops throughout the country. Shawn was awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2006. She received 1st place in the Key West Historical Society Plein Air Paint Out 2018, and chosen for the Families First Calendar 2019. She has had various shows throughout NH and Maine. She shows at the Levy Gallery in Portsmouth NH and the 830 Gallery in Key West, Florida. She is a member of the NH Art Association. she has been influenced by Lois Dodd and Elizabeth O'Reilly "Always looking for the right spot and searching for the light, I paint from observation and the perception of those observations. Painting is a life long endeavor that gets richer and better. It's abut the painter and her interaction with and reaction to the environment. I am a plein air oil painter, making responsive and observational work." |
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Norman T. Royale
nroyale@roadrunner.com A graduate of Vesper George School of Art in Boston, MA, I worked at Stern-Frank Advertising Agency in Boston. The next twenty five years, at Digital Equipment Corporation in Maynard, MA., where I was and Executive Graphic Designer. I had studied under the late Philip Parsons of Lexington, MA. painting mail landscapes in oil. For four years after moving to NH, I painted with Martha Lohaus’ Plein-air Art Group in Wolfboro, NH. For the next eighteen years I have been leader of the Plain-Air Art Group of Wakefield and Wolfboro. We paint every Wednesday indoors during the winter months, outdoors as soon as the weather permits. For three years I was the director of the Garvin Gallery, in Sanbornville, NH. I have been juried at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Ma, receiving 1st place in oils. I was a member of the Acton Arts League, Acton, MA, the New London Historical Society, NH, the board of the Ossipee Riverlands Artist League, and a member of the Governor Wentworth Arts Council. |
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Jill A. Vendituoli
www.jillavendituoli.com Jill is a self-taught needlepoint artist residing in West Newfield, Maine. She has spent the last three decades exploring this traditional fiber art form and challenging herself and the perception of this medium by stitching needlepoint tapestries in styles, physical forms and with non-traditional 21st century fibers. Because fiber art is a “flexible” medium, Jill has discovered within needlepoint, an historically female form of creativity, a multitude of opportunities to explore and restructure the boundaries of her craft. With her needle, extraordinary contemporary fibers and a visionary approach to stitching, she has created works that explore nature, abstract expressionism, and three dimensional structural forms. Her work been juried into national and international fiber art shows, has been included in various publications including New York Magazine, Nature Inspired Autumn & Fiberart Masters and is in both private and corporate collections throughout the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom. She has also taught needlepoint design at Winterthur Museum in Delaware and has operated a seasonal gallery, Sunnyfield Studio, at her 18th century home in West Newfield for the last decade. |
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Corina Willette
corinawillette@gmail.com Corina Willette is a figurative narrative painter. Willette’s work seeks to represent - through the subject - an emotional territory, a deeply visceral space where comfort of a familiar visual narrative and the discomfort of an unstable, unusual artistic technique entangle. Willette received her BFA from the New Hampshire Institute of Art in 2010. Studied abroad in Verona, Italy. Attended the Vermont Studio Center residency, the Intensive Program at New York Academy of Art and classes at The Arts Students League of NYC. Willette is pursuing her MFA in Drawing and Painting at the State University of New York in New Paltz. |
