About the Artist :: Emily Leonard Trenholm

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Emily Leonard Trenholm is inspired by shapes and color relationships occurring naturally in the landscape and paints on location, year round. Growing up in Yarmouth, Maine, the New England landscape directly and significantly influences her work. Emily graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2005 with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting. In May 2011, Emily completed her Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from Boston University, where she studied with John Walker, Dana Frankfort, Richard Ryan, Harold Reddicliffe and Richard Raiselis.

Emily says of her process, “Working as a perceptual painter, my compositions filter the world around me. I paint on location in an attempt to capture elements of physical and visual space. I am inspired by moments where the landscape becomes woven through light and shadow, active and inactive shape. Quilting has become a visual exercise for my painting. By placing and arranging color and light, I work to construct a painting in the way I would build a quilt. I hope to speak to the viewer about the act of looking and our visual connection to the physical world.”

About the Artist :: Thomas Merriam

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When Tom was just six years old his father would sit him down for hours to copy pictures selected from the National Geographic onto paper grocery bags. These pictures would be drawn over and over until they met Dad’s satisfaction. Tom’s father was a draftsman by trade and could not stress enough the need to pay attention to all of the details.

Tom’s home town of York Harbor, Maine was a hot spot for landscape and seascape artists. He developed a love for these subjects while sitting behind some of the artists and watching them paint.

George Carpenter who claimed to be the last surviving member of the Whiskey Water Colorist Association, let Tom apprentice with him for three years. He taught Tom many of the old ways that water colorists used to practice their trade. Tom learned to paint small in the field so as to catch the mood, to use whiskey in the winter as a wash so his brushes wouldn’t freeze and how to work outside in almost any weather.

“I enjoy painting small. My work fits into odd places that larger paintings don’t and I like concentrating all that color like a jewel into one little spot.”

A Maine native, Thomas grew up in York Harbor and now resides in Naples. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston. He is self-taught and has been painting for over 30 years.

About the Artist :: Bob Maurer

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Bob Maurer has been painting watercolors for thirty years and enjoys the medium and its spontaneity and freshness. His painting style has been influenced by the California Tonalists and the feeling of mood those early twentieth century artists were able to create. Interested in capturing a mood in his paintings, Bob says the actual objects in the scene often act more as a backdrop for the atmospheric effects he wants to achieve.

One of Bob’s favorite subjects is architecture. His interest in architecture began to emerge at about the age of 9 when he was impressed by the vocal and often newsworthy Frank Lloyd Wright near the end of Frank Lloyd Wright’s life. Bob’s love of older architectural styles led to a six year project of producing ink drawings of dozens of local landmarks for the Canton, Ohio Preservation Society. His paintings and drawings of buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places hang in the collections of Hillary Clinton, Ohio Governor Bob Taft, and numerous other elected officials across the country.

Old cars, trucks, boats and bicycles also catch his attention. He says that he has often gotten himself in trouble by being compelled to haul a special old relic home with him to care for it, but now has learned to be content to simply paint it where it lies.

After a thirty year career as an urban planner in Ohio, Bob is now a full time artist. His works are in many private, corporate and public collections across the country.

Bob is a Roycroft Renaissance Artisan, associated with the current interest in Craftsman design and bungalow architecture of the early 1900’s. The Roycroft working campus is located in East Aurora, New York, where Elbert Hubbard originally organized the Roycrofters in 1897.

He is a signature member of the Ohio Watercolor Society, one of the top watercolor groups in the country; and has qualified as a lifetime member of the Whiskey Painters of America, with a limited membership of 200 watercolorists who use whiskey instead of water (on their brushes) in painting miniatures no larger than 4″x 5″. The group was founded in the 1950’s in Ohio and now is a national organization.

Bob travels throughout the United States sketching and taking photographs to use as resource material for new paintings.

Art Experience

• 2003 Received Award of Merit, Ohio Watercolor Society Exhibition
• 2001 Ohio Governor Bob Taft is presented with one of my watercolors from Stark County judges
• 2001 Official artist for the Wm. McKinley 100th Anniversary Inaugural Celebration, McKinley Museum
  2000 Solo Exhibit, Massillon Museum
• 1999 Hillary Clinton is presented with one of my watercolors from the National First Ladies Library
• 1999 “Courthouse Snow” one of my watercolors is purchased for the permanent collection of the North Canton Little Art Gallery
• 85-89 Owned, Operated Centre Gallery, North Canton, Ohio
• 82-88 Official Artist for the Canton Preservation Society

Memberships

• OWS Ohio Watercolor Society
• RRA Roycroft Renaissance Artisan
• WPA Whiskey Painters of America