During May, six Geneva Lake Art Association Inc. members will exhibit their artwork at the Lake Geneva Library, Talmer Bank, the Lake Geneva Creperie, BMO Harris Bank and Lilpots European Floral Design.
The artists – Susan Alter and Carol Smith, of Lake Geneva; Nikki Marsicano, of Delavan; Sharon Larson, of Harvard, Ill., Katherine Weber, of McHenry, Ill., and Kathy Bucher, of Elkhorn – will be featured as Artists of the Month at the businesses.
At the library
Lake Geneva Library, 918 W. Main St., will host Alter’s work. Alter and her husband, Richard Alter, live in Lake Geneva but winter at Briny Breezes, a small retirement community in southeastern Florida where Alter has won awards in the local art league.
Alter began watercolor painting in 2008 while attending a continuing education class in Glendale studying with Chris Juter. Other mentors have been Vicki Lilla, of the GLAA, and Charles Passerelli, in Florida.
Since retiring from nursing, Alter has been active in the art leagues of her winter and summer communities. While in Florida, she has served for three years as vice president of the Briny Breezes Art League. Her work there includes organizing lessons, arranging for demonstrators and putting workshops together. She is now president of the organization.
During the summer in Lake Geneva, Alter has volunteered for the hospitality committee, gallery sitting, Art in the Park and The Paint In. She has found that having a passion like art adds to the fullness of living.
At Talmer Bank
Larson will exhibit her paintings at Talmer Bank and Trust, 550 Commercial Court.
After graduating from high school in Rockford, Ill., where she was born and grew up, she attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary and special education, she taught in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and was a teacher for adult literacy.
“Ever since I was a young girl, I loved drawing and painting. I also loved animals and spent many summers on my uncle’s farm in central Wisconsin. My lifelong love of drawing, painting and animals has been my inspiration for my art. For a painting, I choose a medium based on what I think the subject would look best in, mostly watercolor or oils.
“For subjects, I draw on my life experiences with family, city and country life, animals of all kinds, and my own fox-hunting experiences. Over the years I have studied with many teachers/artists in watercolor and oil. I’ve always loved beautiful times, objects and ideas, and trying to capture their impressions in my paintings.”
Samples of Larson’s work are on her website at www.sllarson.com.
At the Creperie
The Lake Geneva Creperie, 234 Broad St., will display the works of Marsicano and Smith.
Marsicano has been a visual art instructor since 1990 at St. Andrew Parish School in Delavan. She received her education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque. She also holds a teaching certification from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Marsicano has exhibited in university, state and local art shows and works in various media including painting, drawing, sculpture, jewelry, printmaking, decorative art, illustration and design. She was the recipient of the 2001 Herb Kohl Education Foundation Fellowship Award, and is the vice president of the Geneva Lake Art Association.
Marsicano has also worked in various studio groups with fellow artists in New Mexico and Wisconsin. Her work in progress includes art curriculum design and visuals; story and illustration for a children’s book; and ink-on-wood drawings.
Her inspirations are the lines and shapes found in nature, focusing on positive and negative shapes and spaces created by nature. Marsicano can be reached by email at bynichol@yahoo.com.
Smith is a past GLAA president. She creates art in a variety of media including oil and watercolor painting and collage. She recently headed up the Arts Alive program within GLAA, which is associated every year with the Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, also sponsored by UW-Whitewater.
At BMO Harris
Weber will exhibit her watercolors at the BMO Harris Bank, 410 Broad St.
“I have been exploring art from an early age, but it has only been in the past few years that I have been drawn to the watercolor challenge,” Weber said. “Watercolor commands going with the flow – so much magic can happen. My painting goal is interpretive rather than actual. Daily I look forward to picking up my brushes. Expanding my repertoire of painting techniques is my current focus.
“My grandfather was an artist and probably gave me my first paints. Instruction began for me at the Art Institute of Chicago, but then life took over, and although I kept a hand in art through the years, it was only after retirement that I began to focus on watercolor, with the emphasis on color. Whatever the medium I use, however, nature is always my inspiration. A rural upbringing and life in the country likely influences my painting of life around me.”
Weber is a member of the Geneva Lake Art Association and treasurer of the Lakes Region Watercolor Guild. She has had paintings juried into shows at The Lake County Discovery Museum, the Illinois Watercolor Society “Small Waters” show, Women’s Works in Woodstock, Ill., and “Bog Art” at Volo Bog, Wauconda, Ill. She also has participated in shows at the Woodstock Opera House, the Dole Mansion in Crystal Lake, Ill., the Lake Geneva Public Library, Lilypots Flowers in Lake Geneva and The Studio in McHenry, Ill.
At Lilypots
Bucher will be the featured artist at Lilypots, 605 W. Main St. Bucher is the Exhibits Committee chairman for the GLAA and works in oils and watercolors. She and Carol Smith have received painting instruction from local artist Alice White.
