Get to know ARTclectic Artists!
Errol P Bruce
Marquetry is the art and craft of applying pieces of wood veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. Caribbean born artist Errol P. Bruce, creates life through arts with the use of Marquetry, a technique dating back to the 16th century France. Although originally used as a decorative technique in furniture making and craft work, his work has transformed the technique into a mesmerizing art form. He uses tiny individual pieces of exotic wood from all over the world, some the size of a pin head, which are inlaid to form an intricately detailed design. The vibrant colors are a reflection of his Trinidadian upbringing and his work as a costume designer for Trinidad’s well known “Carnival” celebration.
Ken Landon Buck
Ken has achieved signature status in seven watercolor and pastel societies nationwide and has won "Best of Show" awards in the top juried national and international exhibitions. His work has been published in the Encyclopedia of Living Artists in America, BLINK, and the Pastel Journal’s Top 100 artists for 2020. His paintings are in numerous private and public collections including Cincinnati Financial Corporation, Baker Hunt Foundation, the Erlanger Public Library, and the Springfield Museum of Art. He has been teaching pastel and watercolor classes at various places for many years, including the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and was recently featured on WCET’s program “The Art Show”.
Dorothy Burdin
Dorothy Burdin is primarily a painter of florals and landscapes. Turning to nature as a source of her ideas, she feels that the natural world around her provides the best images for her work. Her paintings are interpretative and representational with the use of delicate brush strokes and soft colors, which seem to reflect her personality. She has traveled extensively abroad, and her experiences are apparent throughout her work. She has had several solo-woman art shows in the Cincinnati area and her work is displayed in many private collections. Recently, she completed a nine painting, abstract landscape commission for a private collector.
Classical Stained Glass
Classical Stained Glass, formerly Classical Glass, has been in continuous operation since 1974 as the leading stained-glass installer and restorer in Cincinnati Ohio. They strive to give every customer's project, no matter how large or small, the same exacting attention to detail. In addition to having many art pieces in stock, they can do custom work. They have restored the stained glass for St John’s Church in downtown Cincinnati Ohio and built and installed the stained glass in the Mary Seat of Wisdom Church at Thomas Moore College. They also manufacture Garden Bath windows for the leading home builders in the Cincinnati Area, including the Drees Company, Lucke Homes, David Ott Builders, Pendragon Homes, John Henry Homes, Great Traditions Builders, and Zicka Homes.
William Dinkins
Bill spent over 40 years in advertising, beginning as a graphic artist and concluding as an Art Director. Upon retirement, he focused on his first love, painting, but also enjoys photography. Bill’s artwork is on display in several Ohio galleries, including Coppertop Gallery in Loudonville, Imagery Gallery in Chagrin Falls, and Eisele Gallery in Cincinnati.
Andrea Eisert
Andrea is an abstract painter, primarily working with acrylics. She specializes in large-scale hard-edge geometric designs. While she has practiced several disciplines during her lifetime, such as drawing, painting, jewelry design and landscape design, she has always been an artist. She has the eye for design and attention to detail to bring her imagination to life through her art. Each piece of her art is one of a kind and personally designed by her. She has studied under some of the world’s great abstract artists, including John Beckley, the internationally known French abstract artist. She credits John for being the single biggest influence on her abstract work. She also studied under David M. Kessler, the Certified Golden Color Educator. His influence has been her guide to her skillful use of color. Because of her hard work, dedication and outstanding artistic skill, she was recently awarded two international artist awards for excellence in design.
Tracey Ellis-Haynes
Tracey is a nationally recognized narrative figure and portrait artist. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Mount Saint Joseph and was a federal trial illustrator and graphic designer for 27 years. She has received many portrait commissions, private and corporate, including Cincinnati Children’s Hospital “Portrait of a Soul”. She has been selected to exhibit and won awards in many exhibitions in Cincinnati and throughout the country. Through her subtle use of symbolism, color harmonies, and the figure, her work tells a story about her subject’s inner worlds and private experiences, intertwining universally human themes of subconscious desires and personal experiences
Cathy Fiorelli
Cathy has been an artist her entire life, transitioning from representational to abstract style over time. In college, she studied printmaking and painting. Her minor in English literature helped to inspire many of her artworks and their intriguing titles. Defining a painting by way of a title is as important to her as its content.
In addition to ARTclectic Gallery, she displays her work at Purple Paisley Gallery in Covington, Kentucky, Strauss Gallery in Hamilton, Ohio, and Trumbull Gallery in Warren, Ohio. She also posts new work on her Facebook page under Catherine Louise Fiorelli.
Carolyn Szafran Holland
Working mainly in pastels, Carol finds the landscape of southwest Ohio and its environs endlessly inspirational. She paints outside, known as "en plein air", and in studio, capturing local color wherever she finds it, hoping to convey her love of the region and what is off the beaten path. Her emphasis on strong line and shape within her subject matter is based on a firm drawing foundation gleaned through her studies in Fine Arts and Medical Illustration. Recently, Carol was privileged to study with local artist, David Mueller, taking his two-year Sophisticated Fundamentals class. Carol is an Associate member of the Cincinnati Art Club, a plein air member of the Brush and Palette Painters, and a signature member of the Pastel Society of America.
Nancy Jones
Growing up in New England, Nancy had many opportunities to be at the shore. She loved the sights and sounds of the waves crashing in, with shells and pebbles rolling under the water. She loved the feeling of the sand under and around her feet as it was drawn back by the receding water, as well as the taste and smell of the salty water as she was tossed around while riding the waves. When she paints, she relives those precious times and desires that those who view her work sense a visceral connection to their own water experiences.
Jim Kaelin
Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Jim relocated to Cincinnati to complete a degree in Graphic Design at the University of Cincinnati. He has worked in the advertising and marketing arena for over 30 years and, over that time, periodically explored painting as a hobby, admiring the work of artists such as Steve Lyman, Robert Bateman, Carl Brenders, and many others. Awed by nature since a child, Jim is motivated to understand and appreciate the natural world better through illustration and painting. In recent years, he has had more time to spend in nature and practice his art. He looks forward to sharing these moments by way of painting.
Chris Krupinski
Art is a key element in Chris's life. She has been drawing and painting all her life but discovered watercolors in the mid-1980s and has had a passion for the medium ever since. Chris has achieved signature status in numerous watercolor societies nationwide and has won many “Best of Show” awards and top prizes in the top-recognized juried shows, both nationally and internationally. Chris’s artwork has been jury selected to exhibit in China, Turkey, Taiwan, Greece, Holland, Italy, and Russia.
Christine Kuhr
Christine Kuhr is an American Scene Oil Painter creating plein air and studio work. She has a professional artist diploma from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, majoring in painting and illustration. Christine is a Signature member of the Cincinnati Art Club and the Women’s Art Club of Cincinnati, and a member or the Brush and Palette Painters. She has exhibited extensively with these organizations and others in group and juried exhibits and has received awards of excellence. Her work is in private and corporate collections.
Daniel Kunkel
Dan's life as an athlete, outdoors adventurer, history buff, and former math and science teacher has informed everything he has created over the past forty years.
His latest artistic subject matter, football players in action, are cartoonish and ham-handed, complex and fun, and a lot like the athletes they portray in action.
Lisa Lager
Lisa lives on the Upper West Side of New York City and grew up on Long Island. She studied Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University. Early in her career, she curated artworks at the Brooklyn Museum and Sotheby’s and marketed art books for Rizzoli Book Stores. A life-long painter, jewelry designer, cyclist, sailor, dancer, and full-time philanthropic counselor, she enjoys finding interesting perspectives that capture the intersection of beauty and emotion.
Ivanka Lempitskiy
Ivanka makes decorated Ukrainian Eggs, aka Pysanka, using beeswax and dyes applied to empty cleaned chicken eggshells. Each decorated egg displays elements of a 2,000+ year old Slavic art culture. Many colors and designs are used on decorated eggs, with each color, pattern, and overall design conveying specific traditional meanings.
The tradition of Ukrainian egg decoration originated in pagan times. With the passage of time, new designs were introduced. While some versions of decorated eggs retain their pagan symbols, others have incorporated Christian symbols and motifs.
Pysanky make wonderful gifts of good wishes to all people around the world. They appeal to young and old, women and men, everyone who has a need for peace, beauty, and creativity.
Ivanka is Ukrainian born and enjoys sharing her knowledge of creating Ukrainian Eggs. If you are interested in learning how to decorate eggs, she teaches classes, "How to make Ukrainian Easter Eggs", at the Barn in Mariemont and other locations.
John Leon
Since starting his career as a sculptor in 1980, John Leon has created over 500 bronze sculptures, dozens of stone and wood carvings, and many cast stone and ceramic pieces that can be found in private, public, and corporate collections on five continents. He has exhibited widely in museums and galleries internationally. He was one of eighteen sculptors chosen for The First Central American International Stone Carving Symposium in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. He is an exhibiting member of the National Sculpture Society and the Cincinnati Art Club. He has taught stone carving at the Cincinnati Art Academy and currently teaches carving and clay work from his studio. He has been a featured sculptor in American Artist and Sculptural Pursuit magazines.
Tony Lipps
Tony Lipps attended Kent State University's Fine Arts program from 2001-2005 and then joined the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, where he served for 13 years, as a Deputy in Corrections for 6 years and as a Patrol Officer for 7 years. While serving as a police officer, he pursued his art passion as a hobby and gained a strong following for his works. In 2019, Tony was able to pursue his life as an artist full-time, with the support of his wife, Libby Beiting-Lipps, and his two young sons, Julius and Remy. As a full-time artist, Tony continues to explore new technical approaches across various subject matters. Each year he invests time and money to discover new techniques and refine his overall approach to creating art. A recent project takes him in a new direction for subject matter and technique, where adding an abstract dynamic to his realistic paintings enhances his vision of the human body in motion. Tony is currently inspired to capture the drama and impact of ballet dancers in motion.
Ed Noble
Growing up in West Virginia, Ed has a lifelong appreciation for the beauty of nature and the year around abundance of color. He developed a love of art at a very young age and has been drawing and painting the world around him ever since. He recently retired as an Air Traffic Controller having lived and worked in Houston, Texas, Little Rock, Arkansas, and now Cincinnati. Now he is able to paint and draw on a daily basis. He enjoys working with a lot of different media, from charcoal to oil paints, on a variety of subject matter, from portraits to landscapes and still life, while always being mindful of using strong color and contrast to convey his original inspiration.
Dana Olsen
Dana's lifetime profession has been teaching primary education but she has always made time to produce art and take art classes. After retirement, she focused on her painting and has enjoyed painting a variety of subject matter, from her own photos, plein air on-site scenes and still life. Most of her work leans toward an impressionistic style. She believes paintings are constructed with “pieces of paint” – using correct value, color shape and composition to create a pleasing image. Every one of her abstract works tells a story from a real life experience.
Melissa Powers
On January 24, 2023, Melissa was sworn in as Hamilton County Prosecutor. In 2016, Melissa was elected to serve on the Hamilton County Juvenile Court. There, she presided over custody, dependency, and delinquency cases; including hundreds of violent felonies committed by juvenile offenders. Melissa was the Juvenile Court Administrative Judge from 2020-2022. As Administrative Judge, Melissa was responsible for managing 300 employees and a $35 million budget.
Melissa is a lifelong Cincinnatian, graduating from McAuley High School in 1979, the University of Cincinnati in 1984, and the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1991. She has served on numerous boards, including Cincinnati Works, Operations Legal Help Ohio, Cincinnati Fire Foundation, and the Tri-State Veterans Community Alliance. Melissa is married and is the proud mother of four children and grandmother of four grandchildren. In her spare time, she enjoys painting in oils.
Priya Rama
Priya Rama's art is born from her chronic migraines. When one begins, along with the pain and pressure, colors and shapes appear in her mind's eye. These get transformed into hyperchromatic paintings of resilience.
An abstract expressionist, her paintings highlight a spontaneous, intuitive, and personal mark-making, with rich color and palpable texture. Her paintings especially explore dualities-- of pain/beauty, emphatic color/delicate brush lines, rich details/quiet resting spots, spontaneity/deliberate placement, translucency/opacity, and contemplation/assertion.
Carol Holland Rentschler
Carol attended Principia College where she graduated with a Math, Computer Science and Business Administration degree. Her 45-year career working with computers has allowed her to exercise her math / logic as well as design skills. Carol originally learned to knit from her grandmother at 10 years old and picked it up later to relax and unwind. Carol has won many awards for her unique and hand-crafted pieces including: 2013 WACC Annual Juried Exhibit Mary Ran Gallery Appreciation, 2014 Hyde Park Square Art Show Honorable Mention, 2016 WACC Award of Merit, 2017 WACC 1st Honorable Mention, 2017 Hyde Park Square Art Show First Place and 2019 WACC Blick Art Materials Award.
Mark Schlachter
Teacher, photographer, theatre designer, broadcaster, librarian, writer, and sculptor all describe Mark who is a Cincinnati native. Mark’s work ranges from diminutive desk top pieces of steel and brass to 10-foot forms for outdoor display demanding attention from passers-by. His pieces are held in collections in five countries and a dozen states and can be found on public display in Ohio, Kentucky, New York, and Indiana
Thomas Schroeder
Tom grew up surrounded by marshes, lakes, and farmlands in rural southern Minnesota. He moved to Ohio to study architecture at the University of Cincinnati. His architectural training instilled in him a strong base in classic compositional skills. He also developed an expertise in drawing in perspective through his architectural illustration work. He is self-taught in various media, ultimately concentrating in watercolor over the past 20 years. Tom has attained Signature status from many watercolor societies and won numerous awards of distinction.
Keith Shebesta
Keith is native to the greater Cincinnati area and has dabbled in art since elementary school. As an adult, however, Keith pursued business degrees and occupations and currently is self-employed rehabilitating houses in distress by giving them a new lease on life. He married his high school sweetheart over 49 years ago. He and his wife are the proud parents of three grown sons and their families that include two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. In recent years, watercolor painting has taken a more central role in his life. Keith paints realistic scenes in vivid colors that convey a story for the viewer. He enjoys capturing moments that others may not have had a chance to see or experience themselves. Keith’s artworks have received multiple awards and recognition in juried art competitions.
-14490.jpg)
Starr Winmill Shebesta
Starr is a watercolor artist and the gallery owner of Artclectic Art Gallery. She launched Artclectic Art Gallery in 2022 to provide a showcase for the eclectic and outstanding artwork of artists who live in the Cincinnati region. She serves on the Board of the Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society as its Treasurer and is a Signature member of the Women’s Art Club of Cincinnati. She recently won the Martha Ray Watercolor Award at the 2022 Woman’s Art Club of Cincinnati Annual Juried Art Show.
Alison Shepard
Alison’s painting and printmaking has been exhibited throughout Greater Cincinnati, United States and Europe. Her work has been collected by many private clients in the Midwest region and California. She has work on permanent display at the Museum of Spiritual Art in Franklin, Ohio. Her printmaking is part of the works on paper collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the University of Dallas, and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Alison earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from Northern Kentucky University in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Miami University in 2003. She has studied abroad at the Mirror Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, Spain and also at Barcelona Academy in Spain. She has taught art at Miami University, Mount Saint Joseph University, and Thomas Moore University. She is currently teaching at the ETB Music and Fine Arts Center.
Mark Shiveley
Mark recently found out he is related to Georgia O’Keeffe through his great grandmother. This information has inspired Mark to explore acrylic paints on a variety of topics, and not only flowers! Having lived in Sarasota, Florida for a period, Mark is originally from Cincinnati and currently lives there now.
Thomas Stead
To Tom, all art is personal, not only to the artist, but to the other human experiencing it as well. Each person comes to a work with completely unique life experiences and filters. As an artist, Tom is true to his own thoughts and feelings. When that truly occurs, the art starts to "breath" and take on a life and energy of its own. The difference between looking and really seeing becomes paramount. Tom say that his art "talks" to him during that process. It makes subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) suggestions for the benefit of the work. The colors and shapes have to dance for him. That complex energy is what he believes makes a good art work attractive and substantial.
Melissa Claire Sylvester
Melissa Claire is a local musical artist, singer-songwriter and soon to be children’s book author. She is part of the duo band, “LizaSly”, and performs solo behind the piano. In addition to music, she has found a passion for painting. She enjoys creating landscapes, fashion, abstracts, trees, and animals, just to name a few. Her oil pieces are whimsical and yet sophisticated and may just be the right addition to your home!
Deb Ward
In the mid-1990’s Deb reignited her early love of art by studying watercolor. She now also works with fluid acrylic and paints mostly still life. Deb began teaching watercolor in 2004 and holds weekly classes in her home, seasonal classes for the Cincinnati Recreation Commission and workshops throughout the year. Her work has been recognized in local, state and national shows, national publications and books. She holds signature status in four state art societies. In addition, Deb has chaired ViewPoint, a national multimedia art competition, and is a past president of Greater Cincinnati Watercolor Society where she remains an active member.
Doug Welsh
Doug has studied with Chuck Marshall, Ron Johnson, Joe Lombardo, Bill Fletcher, Marc Hanson, Tom Post, Roger Dale Brown and others. A Signature Member of the Cincinnati Art Club, a member of Artists For Conservation and Oil Painters of America (OPA), he can be found most days either in his studio or outside, painting en plein air.
