Bernard Dellario earned a bachelor's degree from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, PA with an emphasis on finance and art history. He studied Art at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended several workshops with nationally known artists. He has been a member of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters since 2003. Fondly known as WSLP, one of the oldest active artist organizations in the Washington area, Bernard currently serves as President. He teaches painting classes through several venues, he has won national awards and exhibits throughout the Maryland Eastern Shore and Washington, DC region.

Christine Lashley is a contemporary artist known for her colorful and dramatic images. From glittering pristine waterways to the glass reflections in cities, Christine is fascinated by how transparency and light can abstract a scene and transport the viewer to a new environment. Christine spent many years as a watercolor artist before moving primarily to oils in 2011.

Exhibitions of Christine’s work include curated invitationals, museum shows, and gallery shows. She is a frequent participant in juried Plein Air painting competitions. Her numerous awards include Best of Show at Plein Air Telluride, Bath County, and Plein Air Texas. Publications include the cover of Plein Air Magazine.

With a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and prior study at the Sorbonne and Parsons in Paris; Christine continued her art education with workshops from prominent artists including Scott Christensen, Skip Lawrence, and Charles Reid. She has taught in-person workshops and classes for over 30 years and is the content creator for lashleyartclass.com, an online learning portal for instructional art videos and interactive lessons.

Wilfredo Valladares is an award-winning, internationally recognized artist, educator, and curator. He is the founder of Arte Studio 28 and Perspectivas Latinas, initiatives dedicated to promoting and fostering Latinx and Caribbean artists, traditions, and cultures. His artwork is held in collections across the U.S., Latin and Central America, South Korea, and Italy.

Valladares is a tenured Full Professor in the Visual Arts Department at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), where he also coordinates the Sculpture Program. He is the former Visual Arts Academic Chair at AACC. He serves on the Board of the Arts Council of Anne Arundel and is the former Board Co-Chair and Visual Arts Curator of the American Poetry Museum in Washington, DC.

He holds an MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park; a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art; and a Pedagogy Degree from Normal Mixta Matilde Cordova Viuda de Suazo. His international installations include Terzo Millennio (Milan, Italy; 1997) and Near and Far (Daegu, South Korea; 2014). Notable public art commissions include Pétalos Reflejantes (Silver Spring, Maryland; 2009) and Journey: Anacostia (Washington, DC; 2013).

Through his work and leadership, Valladares continues to transcend traditional paradigms of cross-cultural art. His practice bridges boundaries and connects diverse cultures, embedding history, memory, and personal experience into each creation.

John Brandon Sills received his BA In Fine Art at Towson State University in 1984, while a student at Towson State John studied studied Renaissance Art in Florence, Italy . John then attended the Schuler School of Fine Art in Baltimore, Maryland, graduating in 1988. His paintings are in numerous collections in the United States as well as collections in Canada, England, France, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, B.W.I.

John has won many awards including First place in the 2010 and 2012 Have De Grace Plein Air Competition. First place in the 2013 Paint Annapolis Plein Air Competition. Best Painting by a Maryland Artist Award in the prestigious Plein Air Easton Competition in 2010 and 2012, Artist's Choice Award in 2011 and in 2014 John was the Plein Air Easton Grand Prize winner. In addition, John received the Award of Excellence in the 2014 Laguna Beach Plein Air Invitational. In 2015 John was the 3rd place winner in the Plein Air Easton Competition. Continuing his success at Plein Air Easton, John won awards in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2024.

John paints nature in all its forms, choosing to emphasize those aspects that create an awareness of the environment. Toward this end, his landscapes exhibit the sensitivity that urges the viewer to appreciate and recognize the spiritual aspects of the Earth and actively participate in its protection and preservation. John believes that art is form of communication, so he places a high value on the inspiration behind the creation of a painting. In this respect John encourages young artists to look within themselves for the most beautiful vision that they as an artist can conceive of and courageously offer it to world to enrich and raise the consciousness of the viewer. This meditative process guarantees that the artist will produce the most sublime art of which they are capable.

As the director of the Corcoran’s Youth and Family Programs, Pasquini has revamped and revitalized the gallery’s approach to education with the aim of “empowering kids to confidence.” Most notable among her achievements is the growth in Corcoran ArtReach – an after school program that collaborates with community centers to reach 150-200 disadvantaged students a year. In one evaluation of the program, a parent called Corcoran Artreach “the best youth arts program in the area.” And this success has also brought Pasquini recognition, most recently as the winner of the 2009 UMBC Outstanding Alumni of the Year award for a graduate in the visual and performing arts. Pasquini points to a junior year internship at UMBC in the university’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture as a key moment in choosing a career in arts education, one which she says “changed my career and life outlook.” Working in conjunction with Arbutus Elementary School, Pasquini designed a program to introduce and integrate students into the world of art that included talks, tours of the UMBC Fine Arts Gallery and the creation of original works of art by students. The important thing, Pasquini recalls, was to find and reinforce connections between art and the students’ experiences.

Jo Fleming is the owner of a contemporary art gallery bearing her name in Annapolis. She launched the gallery over 7 years ago, partially to have a venue to show her own abstract landscape paintings and to curate and present the work of regional artists to Annapolis. Since then she has shown and sold the work of hundreds of artists during rotating exhibitions of innovative themed shows.

Compelled to chronicle the life and world around her, Abigail Faye McBride paints with the heart of a poet. Her oil paintings and charcoal drawings bear witness to a time, person or passing glimmer of light. Abigail paints landscape, figure and still life working interchangeably with brush and palette knife. Collectors, nationally and internationally, appreciate the color, mood and elegance of her work.

A consummate Cape School colorist, the draftsmanship in her work is born of an academic interest in the portrait and figure. Her work blends traditional subject matter with modern design sensibilities. She is part of a new breed of perceptual painters working from direct observation be it plein air or in the studio. Though often free of narrative, her work is grounded in the present day as a contemporary interpretation of genre painting.

McBride has developed a reputation as a dynamic teacher and mentor. She hosts online classes with the option of joining tightly limited critique groups. She also teaches at Anne Arundel Community College and selected traveling workshops. She is advancing principles of visual understanding acquired from years of study.

Early national recognition by American Artist Magazine helped launch Abigail into gallery representation. Using skills gleaned as one of the founders of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association and the Paint Annapolis plein air competition she co-launched Paint the Town, the first plein air event in Chesapeake City MD. Her work is featured in the 100 Plein Air Painters of the Mid-Atlantic large format book by Gary Pendleton, Shiffer Press. She is represented The Station Gallery in Delaware, Berkley Gallery in Virginia, Benfield Gallery and McBride Gallery in Maryland and The Egeli Gallery in Massachusetts. Abigail also shows her work in institutions and museum exhibitions.