A Mix of Oil and Water- A Group of Nine Painters in the Jamie Gagarin Community Room and Gallery

LITCHFIELD, Conn. - Aug. 19, 2016 - PRLog -- This exhibit presents the watercolor and oil/acrylic paintings of a group of nine artists who first met while attending classes with Marija McCarthy at the Washington Art Association. When Marija relocated, they decided to continue to paint together and keep enjoying the enthusiasm and constructive criticism they give each other. They meet all through the year either en plein air or at the Litchfield Community Center in winter. They call themselves "The Oil and Water," as they paint in both mediums (sometimes pastels), proving they really do mix!

Roz Benedett has been painting for over thirty years. She began painting with a dear friend's encouragement using oil paints.  Presently, she belongs to the Washington Art Association, Kent Art Association and New Hartford Art League where she often presents her work in exhibitions. She won First Place at the New Milford Railroad Exhibit. She has studied with renowed artists Edward Spaulding DeVoe, Trey Friedmen, and Marija McCarthy; and recently exhibited at the The Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury for a show of Fifty Years of Marija McCarthy's students.

Sandy Dolinsky studied graphic art in school and has always been interested in art. With friend and fellow artist Hitchy Rahilly, she founded March 7 Designs, where they designed stencils for walls and floors around Litchfield County for fifteen years. Now that her children are grown, she has returned to oil painting.

Maryellen Furse holds a degree in fine arts and paints mostly landscapes in oil. Over the past few years she has exhibited her paintings locally, including:  Familiar Places, a two-person show at the Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury (2014); The Art of Painting, curated by William Bailey at the Washington Art Association (2015); and the Member's Exhibition at the Washington Art Association (2016). At the Member's Exhibit, she was awarded first prize in painting juried by Hugh O'Donnell.

Jan Grody earned her B.A. in Fine Arts from Wells College in New York. She has spent much of her life in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts and now lives in Connecticut. Both settings surrounded her with beautiful and inspirational scenery. She enjoys plein air painting because it brings her out-of-doors, away from distractions and into the natural places she appreciates and cherishes. She has exhibited at the Washington Art Association, Gunn Memorial Library, and the Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury.

Carole O'Toole interest in the visual arts developed out of many years as a ballerina and then modern dance performer. The physicality and rhythmic patterns in her paintings reflect that background and her belief that "life is movement and movement is life." Her landscape art is inspired by the glorious en plein air settings of New England, Mexico and the Caribbean. She has exhibited and taught art courses at the Washington Art Association, as well as in St. Croix and San Miguel, Mexico.

Nancy Rainsford Pistone enjoys capturing and preserving moments from her travels and local surroundings in drawings, watercolors and pastels. Her work has been included in shows at Minor Memorial Library in Roxbury, the Washington Art Association, and Mark Twain Library in Redding, CT. She has also donated art to various organizations, including Flanders Nature Center and the Roxbury Land Trust to use for fundraising events.

Hitchy Rahilly is an interior designer and has been a lapsed oil painter since her college days when she studied at the American Ecole des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleu, France. For 15 years while raising her family, she had a business designing and stenciling walls and floors with Sandy Dolinsky. Three years ago she began painting again in Marija McCarthy's class. Now with lots of encouragement from the painting group she is back painting and loving it.

Kit Sagendorf has worked in various art departments in the publishing world; Cosmopolitan, Saturday Review, and Ladies Home Journal among others. In addition, she is a cartoonist and garden illustrator for several gardens that are on the Smithsonian Register. Kit is currently trying to master watercolors. She lives in Roxbury with her husband, Marty, and two very silly dachshunds.

Diana Swoyer has taken up painting seriously in the last few years after a 30-year career producing TV Commercials. She was introduced to the glories of painting by studying with Marija McCarthy at Washington Art Association. She has been in a number of group shows and was honored with a Washington Art Association Ferguson-Sherr-Rea Awards First Prize Works on Paper in 2015. She also has a thriving business painting pet portraits. Visit MyPetByDS.com.

In the Jamie Gagarin Community Room and Gallery: September 1- October 29. Reception- Thursday, September 1, from 5:00- 7:00 p.m. at the Oliver Wolcott Library, 160 South Street, Litchfield, CT. 06759. 860-567-8030. http://www.owlibrary.org