Kurt Brian Anderson was born in Dearborn, Michigan in 1957. The youngest of 4 boys, he was immersed in Motown music which greatly influenced his love of the arts. He discovered his love of nature during many backpacking trips in the US and Canada. 

He was accepted into the Physician Assistant Program at Western Michigan University in 1983 and has been working as a PA ever since then.

   He was married in 1984 in Grand Rapids, MI and raised 2 children with his wife, all the while fostering a keen interest in the Arts. 

In 1996, he set sail on a self guided journey to rediscover his creative talents in painting. Ingesting as much as he could through reading, he began enrolling in workshops in the Petoskey, MI area to further his studies. Major influences of his include contemporary master Richard Schmid, as well as Elizabeth Pollie and Marc Hanson.

   He enjoys direct painting from life which he feels not only reveals accurate values and colors, but truly captures the emotional response of the artist. The focused observation involved for the study forms a rich memory palace allowing a vivid recall of the experience including date, time of day, weather, scene details, and even passersby (including conversations with them!) 

Kurt has received training from Timothy Horn, Shelby Keefe, Elizabeth Pollie, Caesar Citraro, Alan Maciag, Bob Fagan, Catherine Carey, Margaret Tvedten, and Larry Blovits.

Over the past almost twenty years, Kevin Barton of Petoskey has become one of Northern Michigan’s most well-collected artists with paintings hanging in collections across the nation.  In addition to winning numerous awards and accolades, including the Manoogian Museum’s Gold Medal Award, Signature Member status with the American Impressionist Society, and Best of Show at the Crooked Tree Arts Center annual paint-out in 2014, Mr. Barton’s work has also been featured or chosen for many covers and posters for known events Mackinac Island’s Lilac Festival poster contest two consecutive years.

Barton is glad to reside in northern Michigan with its wealth of subject matter befitting his tastes and talents with painting.  From the Great Lakes with its boats to its diverse architecture, gardens, townscapes and sunsets, it provides endless opportunities for new compositions.  Driving a little inland, there is an array of fields and farms to make the many varied pastoral scenes he has so enjoyed painting.  His painting has also taken him to places like Sedona, California, Chicago, New York City (with a group show at the prestigious Amsterdam Whitney Gallery) and most recently to Key West and other Florida locales.

In Michigan he frequently travels and paints on Mackinac Island as well as to the Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsulas.  These new and different locations have increased the range in his body of work and his intuitive sense for capturing the subtle qualities of differing light.  

In 2016, as part of recognizing the 20th anniversary of his career as a full-time artist, the Crooked Tree Arts Center hosted a retrospective in the Ermy B. and Gordon B. Bonfield Gallery  entitled “Lost to the Wind.”  The show encompassed paintings spanning all twenty years and highlighed different areas and aspects of the artist’s progress with short stories accompanying many of the paintings relating either to the creation of the paintings or insights into the creative process at the time.

Linda's first job was making and selling potholders at the age of ten. A former high school English teacher, she took up weaving after the death of her husband at 30. Linda returned to college to obtain additional degrees in textiles and design. Weaving lead to doll making which lead to sculpture followed by assemblage work then finally painting. Her pieces evoke conceptual references to nature, botanical themes, the figurative form and early childhood memories and are full of icons discovered in childhood: moons, trees, hills, boats and endless blue skies.

Born and raised in Michigan, Beth has been a resident of west Michigan for 30 years. Being a professional painter for as many years, Beth works in oil, acrylic and mixed media. Knowing she wanted to be an artist from a very early age, Beth dreamed of going to college to study art. Being involved in her family’s business, Beth worked closely with her mother, owning and managing adult foster care homes and helping with the management of the family owned nursing home, located in her home town of Fenton, Michigan.

Beth finally got her BFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1987. She then married and moved to Holland, MI. There, Beth and her husband raised their son. Beth then joined the local art community and opened Beth Charles Art where she worked, taught classes and mentored other artists.

Beth continues to work from her studio in Holland where she shares space with 8 other artists and continues to teach classes and workshops while also mentoring other emerging artists.

Each painting is a journey.

My work is inspired by nature’s spirit and the joy of exploration and discovery. I am fascinated by the shape, rhythm, texture and vitality of natural forms. The natural world is constantly revealing new versions of itself through the passing of time and the changing of the seasons. I am interested in capturing these essences and giving visual life to my feelings, thoughts and ideas using my own symbolism and style.

I think about connectedness and reflect on a time when humanity held greater respect for the natural rhythms and cycles of the earth and moon.

Since childhood art has been a source of comfort, retreat, self expression and self exploration. Through my paintings and mixed media I am learning to see differently, to look beyond the surface.

On the eleventh day of July, nineteen­hundred and seventy­nine the sun darkened behind an ominous cloud bank as Justin David Gustafson burst forth from his mother’s womb, nearly killing her in the process. The fourth of five boys born to an impoverished, workaholoic father, and a strict catholic mother, who desperately wanted a daughter; Justin has never known a life free of crushing guilt. The adult that resulted from this works nearly constantly in a futile attempt to absolve himself of sins never committed. At best he absolves himself of his bills. In 2002 he graduated, with academic honors, from Kendall College of Art and Design where he studied under Jay Constantine, Margaret Vega, Diane Zeeuw, Boyd Quinn and Perin Mahler. There he learned to get over his fear of people and suspicion of compliments. Heavily influenced by Van Gogh, Justin feels fortunate to have gotten over his own depression around the time in his life when Vincent‘s life was falling apart. He hopes to survive long enough to see his own work gain favor among the peoples of Earth. James Whistler (his nocturnes), Edward Hopper (his buildings), Mary Cassat (her portraits), and Camille Pisarro (his landscapes) also played large roles in his early development as a painter, setting him on the course to where he is today. Now by day he’s a mild­mannered wood worker at Homestead Furniture, deep in the bowels of Kalamazoo’s venerated Park Trades Center. When quitting time rolls around however, he tears off his dusty shirt to reveal an even dirtier shirt and becomes the artist currently known as Justin David Gustafson. Fighting the forces of boredom and mental stagnation, armed only with brushes, palette knives and his wits (so mostly just brushes and palette knives). His only weakness in this endeavor is that he is plagued with a condition which renders him unconscious for around six to eight hours every night! He relates the heavy layering of his painting technique to the myriad layers of human cognition. Thoughts and feelings, overlapping and colliding, in a seemingly spontaneous fashion, which cohere into a distinct personality. Memories interacting with ambitions, prejudices and penchants hiding in the shadows or leaping to the fore. All of this occurs in the subconscious mind, from which the thoughts that we take credit for emerge, much like the indistinct smears of paint which harmonize to form recognizable imagery in Justin‘s paintings. Though generally a sober and rational intellect (except when he’s been drinking) his artwork is an attempt to reach or connect with his audience on a deeply emotional level. This may seem contradictory, however emotion is central to the human condition and it is thus only reasonable to embrace it. It is in fact madness to attempt to suppress or deny it. His madness is of an altogether different kind, a meticulous frenzy of thought and activity which weave in and out of coherence, yet coalesce into beautiful, sometimes haunting images.

My degree is in music education. The only art classes I’ve had have been a handful of workshops. My high school art teacher told me I couldn’t be in both band and art. But it isn’t only through training that one becomes and artist. It seems that artists have the ability to see “the extraordinary in the ordinary”: the way the sunlight hits a leaf, the way colors change. I’m always searching for what looks amazing, whether it’s in a landscape or a still life arrangement. If something doesn’t excite me, the painting will never excite either. I enjoy painting both plein air (in the open air) landscapes and still lives. In a class I took, Clyde Aspevig once said, “Always paint from life. The answers are right in front of you”. Bouncing around from still life to landscape keeps me on my toes.

THE STORY BEHIND MY ART, MY INSPIRATION: It seems that artists have the ability to see “the extraordinary in the ordinary”: the way the sunlight hits a leaf, the way colors change, etc. I’m always searching for what looks amazing, whether it’s in a landscape or a still life arrangement. If something doesn’t strike me as exciting, the painting will never turn out exciting, either. I enjoy painting both plein air (in the open air) landscapes and still lifes. Clyde Aspevig told our class, “Always paint from life. The answers are right in front of you”. Bouncing around from still lifes to landscapes keeps me on my toes.

WORK I’M MOST PROUD OF: I’ve always felt that my still lifes were my best work, but this is a very tough area to find buyers – or even a gallery to willing to show them. People prefer local scenes. Good thing I enjoy painting landscapes – even in winter.

YOU WON’T BELIEVE: My degree is in music education. The only art classes I’ve had have been a handful of workshops. I worked 30 years on the line at Ford Wixom Assembly Plant. I’ve been to Peru 3 times, hiking the Inca Trail, sleeping on sandbars, bathing in the Amazon and studying the shamans. These days I play my saxophone with the Charlevoix Sax Quartet, Northern Michigan College concert band and Pine River Jazz Band. Oh, and I’m an avid gardener.

My high school art teacher said I couldn’t be in both band and art. My junior high band director said, “It’s people like you who make this band sound BAD!” I guess they’d both be turning over in their graves if they could see me now. 

Carrie Hensel is a landscape painter and collector of wild experiences. Her impressionistic work is a joyful and vibrant celebration of the interconnectedness of the natural world she’s spent so much of her life observing with loving curiosity and wonder.

Carrie spends countless hours in the great outdoors, hunting for morels and other miraculous finds. During her expeditions, she takes photos along the way and brings those images back to the studio to paint. As the artist describes it - “With both foraging and painting, I feel called to search, root around, feel afraid that I’m lost in a deep thicket, and then by some innate intuition find a new way out and bring a treasure with me.”

Growing up on a small farm in Midland, Michigan, Carrie roamed the woods, orchards, and fields. Carrie earned a BFA (Painting & Drawing) from the University of Michigan. She also holds a BS in Chemistry from Albion College. Carrie has worked in the sciences & healthcare, owned a marketing company, and consulted across industries with a focus on translating complex information (data, biochemistry, medical care, etc.) so it is relatable and readily understandable, both verbally and visually.

Michigan artist, Alan Maciag is a 1974 graduate of Central Michigan University with a Masters Degree in Art Education.  He has retired after teaching art for the last thirty-two years in the Frankenmuth School District.

An avid drawer, Alan has captured visual memories of past vacations and camping trips throughout Michigan filling numerous sketch books.  These sketches have served as valuable subject matter to so many of his oil paintings.  His inspired works are numerous and are in private collections in California, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Germany and France.

In the awaking light of the early morning you might find Alan, a plein-air painter, capturing the essence of the visual moments presented before him in the vast rural farmland around his home.

When not painting on site Alan can be found painting in the garden paradise of his home.  Alan’s back yard is a sanctuary for his creative thought.

Alan’s avid interest in architecture and gardening are reoccurring themes in his current body of work.

It is the pure beauty of nature at its finest hour that inspires Alan’s oil paintings.  Alan is especially moved by sunlight and the magic a ray of light can cast upon a particular subject revealing the depth and fundamental form waiting to be captured on canvas…from a field of poppies to an Ida Red apple.

Alan’s rural landscapes are a balance between form, distance, colour, and content.  This balance creates a sense of calm and bucolic reverence for the rural heritage of Michigan, for the wonderland of her vacation lakes or for the sanctuary within a garden or public space.   It is as though you have been given a gift; to simply ‘step in’ for a moment and be surrounded by the spirit captured on that canvas.

My artwork is usually focused on abstract, and impressionistic landscapes, although I also enjoy developing my technique through other art styles. Mainly self-taught, I work in a variety of mediums with an emphasis on oil, acrylic, and oil pastel.

Being a Southwestern Michigan native, I couldn’t help but be influenced by Lake Michigan, and the surrounding scenery of the local area. I also draw inspiration from the four years I spent living abroad in Perth, Scotland, and the other places I have traveled.

Applying abstraction allows me to explore the range of possibilities through line, and color while pushing the boundaries of how the landscapes are usually perceived. I often imagine there is much more beauty in this world than we are able to see with just our eyes. I believe it can be found in the midst of light and shadows. The spaces in between.

Amy Peterman is deeply inspired by the beauty of Northern Michigan. Using acrylics on cradled panels, she aims to capture the essence of the great outdoors with expressive brushwork and vibrant colors. Her art invites viewers to experience the awe and tranquility of the natural world, mirroring the sensations she feels exploring it firsthand. With a background in graphic design and a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art, her creative journey is shaped by a diverse range of influences and skills. Amy makes her home in Petoskey, Michigan, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and her trusty Hungarian Vizsla, who takes on the important role of studio assistant.

My grandfather was a wood carver. When I was young, he’d help me with projects in his basement in Marquette, Michigan. This was my genesis. I suppose it’s in my blood. I have always been fascinated by nature—studying insects and birds, fly-fishing, camping and hiking. Wise people have written many books about the wonderment of nature. I’ve read many of them. What’s more, my eyes have witnessed wild places and the stories and memories hold those places in my mind. I’ve come back to wood carving the last few years. I’m still learning. But this I know, we learn to value truth more and more as our love and knowledge of nature increases.

For the past 10 years I've been working as an artist and dabbling in too many mediums to have focus. Then my husband and I decided to have children.  I always envisioned myself as a stay-at-home mom type, giving up my artist dreams, and loving every minute of my children. Although, life with 2 children is lovely, I am shockingly more ambitious than I ever thought I'd be.  

I paint for the process.  To stay grounded in life.  To keep a clear head when organizing my family's daily routines. And to accept all qualities of myself, whether good or bad.

Encaustic medium allows me to work in many layers while I process my experiences in life.  I hang photos all around me in my studio for reference, though I like to draw from my memories to create a landscape perspective. This method helps me exaggerate what might actually be there, like a story will do and tap into the feelings the scene leaves me with.

Through my transition to becoming a mother I have found a deep devotion to raising my children while staying at home, and I'm also an artist because I can't stop painting.

The feeling of a day spent in a special place, a moment or an afternoon, this is what want from my work. My process starts with a place. The place is most often where I have spent some time, not just “oh, this is a nice place, I think I will paint it”. It may be a place I go by everyday and to which I feel emotionally attached or it may be a place where I camped or sailed or hiked. Often it is a place on our 160 acres. I am especially fond of paths or places where you peek through or gaze out and beyond. Somehow these places feel secret or hidden away and there is something to discover. Most of my work is done on site but I also work from photos. Much of my work is done on black paper or sanded paper and chalkboards. I also work on sidewalks and bike paths. I often start with a limited palette of primary colors to set up my lights and shadows then start introducing other colors. 

Starting as a young man with a “knack for drawing”, Christopher Strunk’s natural talents were enhanced with an innate curiosity. He is a life-long student of art history with an obsession for all the interesting objects of beauty that our culture has provided. He has a special love for 19th and 20th Century landscape painting and modernism. After achieving his BFA from Western Michigan University, Chris dabbled in studies of art criticism before fully committing to his true identity as a professional artist. Initially showing work through juried shows, art hops and public spaces, Chris achieved gallery representation in his late 30s and is now a celebrated artist at galleries in New York, Ohio and North Carolina – and now with the addition of Somebody’s Gallery in Petoskey – three independent locations in Michigan.

On art as a discipline, Chris states, “Art practice has the same spiritual pursuit one seeks on a hike in a beautiful place. As the hiker can snatch a glimpse of the transcendent, so can the painter in his or her work. If we are attentive enough to this discipline, it can have infinite reflections.”

On Michigan landscapes as a favorite subject, Chris shares, “In Michigan, it’s as if each day has its own temperament. The elements come together in unique combinations, which modify the landscape as much as the change of season. Even a place you know well can be something to rediscover simply because of a mist in the air, a drop

in temperature, or a swirling wind. Over it all, the path of the sun across the sky casts shadows that stretch, contract, and stretch again. I never seem to tire of capturing a place in its moment; like a state of mind that flexes with the circumstances. Sometimes fleeting, always beautiful, Michigan is my favorite muse.”

Christopher Strunk lives in Holland, MI with his wife, Linda, cherished cats, Sweet Pea and Junior, and spunky Texas Heeler, Lulubelle.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My art is centered on organic forms and abstracted landscapes. Initially working intuitively, I embrace colorful underpainting and add handmade collage papers. I start with a loose thought (floral, landscape, color, pattern, shapes) and then move through the work driven by an internal desire to free myself from laboring, allowing myself to get lost completely in the process. After stepping back and observing the initial stages of free painting, I begin to see something. This is where I refine and define, focusing on composition, variety, value, focus, and feeling. I will add other mediums to the experiment- Cold wax, Oil paint, and Pastels.

We are all creative, and through art, we can learn to overcome the fear of comparison, the unknown, and the harsh expectations we impose on ourselves. It is the best therapy I have found to center myself and find inner peace.

My work is meant for the viewer to experience and contemplate.

ABOUT:

A Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit. Julie Tibus has been professionally selling and showcasing her work for over 15 years.  She is invited to teach master workshops at various art centers in Michigan and Florida. Julie possesses an insatiable curiosity that drives her to explore emerging mediums with a desire to discover new techniques. Her work is inspired by the intersection of nature and her own bold expression of it. This commitment to working in multiple mediums has led to a diverse body of mixed-media work, utilizing collage, acrylic, cold wax, graphite and more

I'm inspired by ancient ritual vessels, artifacts and architectural elements from many cultures. History and tradition are relevant to my work and give me a foundation on which to build and move forward. Central to my work is the constant exploration and development of form along with a balancing of contrasting surfaces to create work that is modern but at the same time acknowledges historical references.

I am fascinated by the versatility of clay and it's ability to survive the centuries by its metamorphosis by fire.

Steve Vachon earned a BFA at Indiana-Purdue University at Fort Wayne. He studied ceramics with Clyde Burt and Nancy McCroskey.

Born in the lush, gently rolling farmlands of Western Michigan, Karen   VanDam Michmerhuizen was early on aware of the constant inter-play   of light and shadow caused by the clouds which continually form and   drift ashore along the vast expanse of Lake Michigan.  The vivid richness of Michigan’s four distinct seasons formed a lavish palette that  delighted her senses and called her to brush and canvas.  But it was only after raising four children and leaving a career as an academic secretary that she began devoting full time to her artistic endeavors.  Today, she and her husband plan their travels to specific painting locations, and in-between she spends much time outdoors either in her spectacular garden or various close-to-home scenic locales, capturing the lights and colors she so admired as a child.

Chasing the Light

As a contemporary impressionist painter, I'm obsessed with capturing light. Plein air painting is my passion, but during the colder months I work on larger pieces in my studio. I paint in both pastel and oil, two mediums which complement each other nicely.

My subjects are varied, ranging from country landscapes to inner city architecture, from portraits to casual nudes, from seascapes to interiors. I love to travel and sometimes work from photos I've taken on the road, but when weather permits, my first choice is always to paint outdoors (en plein air), especially in my beloved Italy.

The consistent theme that attracts me is light and shadow. I aim for realism with a painterly twist, but sometimes I allow the rich hues and textures of a scene to dominate. Oil and pastel are exhilarating mediums that lead to endless adventures... and sometimes I'm just happy to follow their lead.

A devoted plein air painter, Jill Stefani Wagner’s oil and pastel paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and are included in various corporate and private collections.

Jill Stefani Wagner was born in Port Huron, Michigan and she received a B.F.A. from The University of Michigan School of Art. She owned an award-winning advertising firm in Ann Arbor, before "seeing the light" and becoming a full-time artist.