After teaching for 33 years, I've had the opportunity to start a new career as a freelance artist. The painting medium of pastel has been my focus with rich, intense, color and bold mark-making. Finding beauty in everyday things, capturing dramatic lighting, and freezing moments in time have been the subjects of my artwork. Many of my local scenes were started on site, "en plein air", as the essence of a scene is recorded quickly while the light is fleeting. My work has evolved in the past year by starting with strong under paintings of bold color, then building layers of pigment and texture to create the finished work. 

A full time professional performing musician for decades, since my late teens, I started teaching later in life in 2002. I started teaching the piano at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Cape May from 2002 until they closed in 2010. I then started teaching piano in North Wildwood at Wildwood Catholic and Cape Trinity until 2014 when they disolved the music program. Since then, I continue to teach students in their homes privately. I am a classicly trained conservatory (college) educated musician. I attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the Philadelphia Conservatory which is now the University of the Arts. I also attended the Julliard School in NYC. I am also the teacher and co-founder at Mays Landing Music Academy from 2006 to present as well as a working and performing professional.

Sharon is a visual media artist who works in various mediums. She has shown in numerous shows throughout Pennsylvania. She has a master's degree in Art Therapy from Marywood University and a Bachelor's degree in fine arts. Prior to retirement she worked in the field of art therapy teaching people with physical impairments and emotional trauma. Sharon started a Cancer Survivor's Art Therapy group in conjunction with Chester County Hospital and The University of Penn Hospital. The group was new and different and ran for 8 years under her facilitating up until she moved to this area. Now she is doing what she loves which is painting, working with clay and teaching. "Art is an extension of everyone and needs to be nurished all through a person's life". 

Carol Anne graduated from Stockton College of NJ with a BA in Business Administration and a BS in Teacher Education. Carol Anne is a licensed Music Together^® director and a registered Music Together teacher since June 2017. She was inspired to open Maverick Art Studio in March, 2014 by the constant struggle to find art lessons and music lesson for her own children. "I wanted to create a space for the community and local artists to come together". 

She studied stained glass in college, has over ten years of pottery experience and continues to passionately develop her artistic techniques through workshops and classes. 

"I must imitate antiquity not simply to reproduce it, but in order to produce something new", that quote by Colucci Satutati a Renaissance man from the 14th century Italy, truly expresses how i feel about my art. In the early 80's I spent a year in Greece that experience opened me up creatively and consequently I became serious about my art. I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and I have exhibited at notable galleries and museums in the U.S. and in Europe. I was the guest artist at the Melina Merkouri Arts Center in Hydra, Greece in 2003. I exhibited in Payerbach, Austria with Ernst Fuchs in 2000. i am a member of the Cape May County Art League. See my art at facebook.com/artmyth. 

Susan Zipper, Mosaic Artist and Instructor

Susan has taught this ancient craft throughout the region for 40 years. Zipper, who believes, "we are all as human beings creative". She encourages "green" mosaics, which include found objects like buttons, broken china and other materials which are often overlooked or discarded. The artist has led classes at librairies, The Designer House in Cape May, Cumberland County Clay College, adult education programs and private parties. "I love to teach", says Susan, "and am always amazed at the pieces completed by my students." Challenge your inner artist and join us for a really enjoyable time... 

"What do you want to do when you grow up?" Art, art and more art. Make art, show art, teach art, be messy, smear paint, add dots, and swirls and then be messy again. Art has been my focus as long as i can remember. I like it; there are no mistakes in art, only opportunity. Before I had any art teachers, i opened magazines and drew what I saw. I taught myself to SEE. I didn't know that I saw things that others never bothered with. I love to teach others to SEE. It's like opening a gift on Christmas morning, surprise! The walls of my bedroom were filled with art. I paintined my shoes electric blue...everyone else had brown and black. I picked out the giant flowered pink, purple and orange prints for my clothes. My first apartment was shocking blue and lemon yellow. Color was my life. Nothing much has changed. Color still dominates and resonates throughout my art. Doesn't matter if it is pastels, acrylics, watercolors, or mixed media. Color reigns. My whimsical images feel like they could dance right off the canvas. My art makes my heart smile. Teaching multiplies the joy. Grin!

McShain, a graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, specializes in "plein air" watercolor painting, meaning the painting is done outdoors.

Lee Neuman is a visual artist who works in several painting mediums. Her work has been shown in Philadelphia, Ohio, Connecticut and South Jersey and hangs in private collections in and around the Philadelphia area and as far as Africa.

After moving to South Jersey in 2001 and settling in Egg Harbor Township, Lee was introduced to the artists in Millville and took classes at the Barn Studio, under the direction of Pat Witt. She has taken advantage of the many classes, workshops and opportunities for artistic growth in the area and continues to enjoy the company of the many artists who live and work in South Jersey. Working primarily in oil, she enjoys the connection to the environment in and around her hometown of Cape May Court House, painting plein air, the landscape she has grown to love.

Lee holds a degree in Early Childhood Education from Wesley College and has taken numerous Fine Art classes and workshops in Philadelphia and South Jersey. Lee completed her Bachelor of Arts coursework in Fine Arts in 2010 from Thomas Edison University.  

“Painting has been a fascinating journey of self discovery where the process of painting has brought me closer to my spirit.”