Wil Talk with Artists

Wil Talk Episode #65

Poppy Balser

“I live in an area with a vast variety of naturally beautiful scenery. I am surrounded by wild landscapes and have lived for almost all my life within walking distance of the ocean. These landscapes and seascapes find their way into my work. I go outside to paint as often as I can. Painting outside on location helps me observe and explore my subjects closely. I exhibit some of my plein air pieces. Others come into my studio to serve as references for when I make larger, more deliberate works. I value the experience of painting outside. When I can observe changing light and weather conditions closely over the course of hours this helps me to get to the heart of what I am painting. I go outside often to paint and stop when I find a scene that fills me with some mixture of delight, wonder or curiosity. I paint it to capture the sense of being there to share with others. With my paintings, I bring indoors the atmosphere and light of my outdoor natural landscape. I paint things as I perceive them, translating the sense of wonder I feel in front of nature to make fresh and spontaneous paintings which glow with quiet luminous colour.”

Wil Talk Episode #64

Marcia Baptista

In her art, Márcia deals with figures in environments and how their interaction reveals a narrative. She believes that the space a person inhabits is as important as the person itself. She works to provide depth to the context brought out by the two elements. She primarily focuses on the home and the dynamics that are created within it, drawing from personal experiences and cultural influences to highlight the dynamics within domestic spaces. She plays with themes such as intimacy and conflict and how these emotions manifest in the interactions between the figure and its environment.

Wil Talk Episode #63

Edmond Praybe

When painting landscapes, Edmond is interested in the tension between the concreteness of the motif, the land literally underfoot, and the ephemeral effects of light across the scene. The challenge is to reconcile these disparate aspects with solid compositions and a sensitivity to nuances of color, tone, and touch. He is less interested in describing recognizable landmarks than he is in conveying a sense of being in a specific kind of light or in a certain space over a span of time. There is a more ‘in-the-body’ feeling about painting en plein air than there is with other motifs. You are in the same light, inhabiting the same world as the elements you are depicting, and that experience can not help but imprint itself into his work. It’s a physical, messy process and the paintings are always changing and the results are unexpected and exciting.

Wil Talk Episode #62

Shelley Lowenstein

While most people can confidently name a variety of cells including brain cells, skin cells, liver cells, white blood cells, and assert that each is critical to a person’s health, beta cells tend to remain in relative anonymity. Even among the millions of Americans living with type one diabetes, beta cells are rarely a conversation topic. Shelley Lowenstein aims to elevate awareness of the remarkable beta cell through her art … and for her daughter. This Mom-with-a-cause decided to make the hard-working beta cell a household word—- to make it famous— and she turned to 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional work. It was when she discovered immersive digital art that the world of the beta cell exploded onto the science/art scene.

Wil Talk Episode #61

Marisa Canino

Marisa is a primarily self-taught artist living in Forest Hill, Maryland. She is an acrylic painter and mixed-media artist who returned to making art in 2020 after a 25-year break. Her portraits and landscapes typically focus on elevating small moments and everyday scenes that may otherwise go unnoticed. In her collage work, she is particularly drawn to creating compositions that can contain evolving narratives when connections are sparked with viewers.

Wil Talk Episode #60

Joe Dickey

Joe has been a professional and nationally recognized woodturner since 1984 and a founding member of the Chesapeake Woodturners, a chapter of the American Association of Woodturners. Joe has recently served as treasurer of this organization and has twice served as President of the Maryland Federation of Art in Annapolis, Md. Joe co-founded and acted as administrator of the Woodturning School and Co-op at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, also in Annapolis. He has taught at the J. C. Campbell Craft School and altogether taught hundreds of basic and advanced students in the Maryland Hall facility. Joe has also given demos and workshops in dozens of local chapters in the central Atlantic region.

Joe’s first big show was the International Turned Objects Show and U.S. tour, and have been featured in numerous books and magazines including American Craft, Southern Living, J. American Woodturners, and local media. His work is in several museums and private collections and has recently received an “Award of Excellence” from the European “Who’s Who in Visual Art”, and the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Anne Arundel County Arts Council.

Joe’s first career was as a research physicist in the U.S. Navy Lab system and later at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate students. Joe is also a professional banjo player currently with Shenandoah Run, a folk group centered in the Washington, D.C. area. Joe and his wife also managed an American Chestnut restoration orchard on their farm in Davidsonville, Md.

Wil Talk Episode #59

Ritchie Vios

Born and raised in Cebu City, Philippines, Richie N. Vios hails from an artistic family Studying architecture, in 1995 he graduated with a bachelor’s architecture degree and University faculty member, teaching architectural design and presentation. In 2004 they decided to leave the Philippines in hopes of a better future in America, For the next five years, he worked closely as an architectural designer at a local architectural firm in Clearwater, Florida until his family decided to move to again in Baltimore, Maryland. Seeking to introduce more Western architectural concepts in Southeast Asia, Richie returned to the Philippines by himself to share, develop, and construct many of the things he had learned from America. During the next five years there, in his spare time, he refined and honed down a unique mastery of watercolor painting evident in all of his art to this day. In the summer of 2017, his family would move back down to south Texas, and after being away from them so long he made sure to be there for them in Victoria, Texas. that’s where he knew he could passionately chase the American dream again not as an Architect but as a watercolor impressionist and Pleinair artist. Currently, he lives in Austin Texas but travels most of the time to compete in Plein-air events all over the United States and conduct watercolor workshops along the way.

Wil Talk Episode #57

Beth-Ann Wilson

Beth-Ann is a teacher, gallery owner, artist, and more. Her portrait work depicts women in a “strong pose who are surrounded by and interacting with elements” that combine modern imagery and academic approaches to painting. These paintings feature vibrant colors and lively brushwork. Beth-Ann also grew to love the intimacy of plein-air painting. Especially finding beauty in the mundane and depicting the ordinary as extraordinary.

Wil Talk Episode #56

Amanda Milliner

This digital discussion is with artist Amanda Milliner, a fine artist that works in a variety of media from oil paint to paper collage. She paints in a representational style and from life; both ‘en plein air’ as well as in her home studio located in central Maryland. A lifelong artist, Amanda grew up around the Chesapeake Bay, outside of Annapolis. Amanda found an early interest in painting, art history, and 2-D design.