About the Artist :: Barbara R. Traficonte

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“I paint “en plein air” and also in my studio. Since studying with Albert Handell, if I am painting a landscape or seascape, I work a little differently than I used to. I now try to start a painting on site; work it until the light changes too much, taking pictures with my camera every 30 minutes or so, and then take it back to my studio and finish it, using my photos if I feel the need. I then let it sit for some time and keep evaluating it and changing it, if necessary. This is a slower process and I feel it has helped me to refine my painting. There is always the danger of overworking a piece this way, but I think in the end it has helped me to be a better artist.

“I have also a different view of what my paintings should be. I want the viewer to feel what I felt when I painted the painting. If should say something about the day and mood; about the light and color; and about me as the painter. The painting need not be sweet or pretty, but should be a well composed, strong painting which makes the viewer want to look at it.

“Finally, although I enjoy painting still lifes and do at times,  I am particularly inspired by and attracted to the flowers and landscapes of Maine in all their seasons. I love to paint and though I am a certified picture framer in my everyday life, I do make time to create a painting as often as is possible. There is a group of four women with whom I paint. We travel far and wide trying to find the perfect spot, with the perfect light and the perfect feel to paint. It is the joy of life.”

Barbara loves to create with pastels on Wallis paper, and archival acid-free material. She resides in Norway, Maine.

About the Artist :: Aline Ordman

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Aline Ordman is influenced and inspired by the New Hampshire and Vermont environment in which she lives. Her paintings not only reflect the area landscapes, but are also inspired by the particular qualities of light and color. Her landscapes, figures and still lifes use these qualities to illuminate the human and natural worlds, to capture the beauty that radiates from a particular passing moment. A flicker of light on a shoulder, a splash of sun on a summer hat, flakes of light in a stand of maples, a shower of late afternoon sun on a hillside- these are the moments that attract her.

Aline received her BFA at Cornell University, and continued her training at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, earning a degree in Illustration. She developed an early love affair with pastels, influenced by Degas, Marie Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, as well as, by the American Impressionists John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase.

My goal as an artist is to find those times and places where beauty is not only evident but startling and suddenly present.

Aline has extensive background in teaching. She has more than twenty years of collective experience teaching figure drawing and pastel figures and landscapes, at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Lebanon College in Lebanon, NH, Maryland Hall for Creative Arts, Annapolis, MD and at the Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH and AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH.

Her work has been accepted at many national and regional juried exhibits, including solo exhibitions at Maryland Hall, Annapolis, MD (1998) and Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (2005). Aline received national distinction of being awarded *Signature Membership* status in the *Pastel Society of America*, and was honored with *The Great American Artworks Award* at the 33rd Annual juried exhibition of the Pastel Society of America in New York City in 2005. That same year she was accepted in the juried show of the Hudson Valley Art Association and received *Honorable Mention Award in Pastels*.

Her work has been featured in several magazines and on several book covers and hangs in collections throughout The United States and Europe.