In conjunction with gallery printmaking artist Shirley Bernstein, Silver Circle Gallery in partnership with the Pomfret School Gallery will host "The Transferred Image" exhibition. This featured display represents 15+ local print artists from the Printmakers' Network of Southern New England, a group of artist/printmakers many of whom are respected educators as well as award winning artists. The PNSNE seeks to preserve and incorporate the tradition of printmaking while encouraging creative expression and experimentation. The organization's mission is to advocate traditional printmaking and provide a resource for regional artists working with the transferred image.

The exhibit will be on display August 3 - 26, with an opening reception and artist demonstrations scheduled on Friday August 3rd, 6-8pm.

Learn More About the Artists Here:

Shirley Bernstein  

Shirley Bernstein is the curator of Silver Circle Gallery and the Pomfret School Gallery’s upcoming printmaking exhibition, “The Transferred Image”. Bernstein works in a variety of print media. Her most recent works involve color reduction woodcuts; however, she works with a wide variety of materials.   

“My images began dealing with the moving, majestic, aliveness of the sky and the land. They took on a spiritual quality with a meditative stillness as well as reflecting the force and vigorous action in nature. Luminous energy effects on the clouds and reflections on the landscape are explored through a combination of reflected, direct, filtered and backlighting situations...I try to use the energy of cutting the wood to express the energy I feel in the landscape." 

Carol Strause FitzSimonds 

Carol Strause FitzSimonds has received numerous awards for her drawings and artist books in juried exhibitions across the country. Her work can be found in such collections as the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Newport Art Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, and the United States Library of Congress.  

FitzSimonds is a founding artist member of the Art League of Rhode Island and has achieved the rank of artist member or fellow in such national organizations as the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Society of American Graphic Artists, the American Artists Professional League, the Audubon Artists, and the Boston Printmakers. 

“I find my inspiration in making ordinary places and common objects meaningful. Because of their natural beauty or intrinsic simplicity, images call to me...The 21st Century has brought to printmaking such potential for innovation in both the execution of the artists’ vision, and indeed, the very vision itself. As an artist, I can move at will, from using traditional materials such stone and wood and copper to new 21st Century materials and computer technology. Today is a fabulous time to be a printmaker.” 

Elizabeth Goddard

Lisa Goddard’s work includes color and black and white woodcuts, monotype prints, oil paintings and illustrated journals. Goddard’s work can be found in numerous private collections and institutions and she has served as the executive director of the Newport Art Museum, a 105 year old nationally accredited museum and art school housed in the National Landmark John N.A. Griswold House. She has been a regular participant in the New England Museum Association and has juried a number of art exhibitions in Southern New England. She is co-founder of Studio Goddard Partridge located in the arts district of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Ms. Goddard won a New England Emmy Award as Associate Producer of “Miller’s Court”, WCVB-TV. Boston. 

“I am interested in emphasizing the abstract qualities of familiar landscapes through color, form, line and texture. For me, creating a landscape is about more than defining what is known: it is about internalizing a space, and recreating it as a place beyond. By using flattened shapes, heightened color and the linear elements of pen and ink in my prints, I am able to “set the stage” for a highly personal view of the natural world.”

Jo Yarrington  

Jo Yarrington’s drawings, photographs, and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at Artists Space, NY, Rotunda Gallery, NY, The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, NY, National Museum of Catholic Art, NY, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, MA, Museum of Glass, WA, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT, and William Benton Museum of Art, CT. International exhibitions have included Galeria Sala Uno, Italy, Temple Gallery Italy, Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato, Mexico, Christuskirche, Germany, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, Garnetthill Synagogue, Scotland, and Glasgow Cathedral, Scotland. Recent articles include Glass Magazine and World Sculpture News.  

She is a recipient of fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation the MacDowell Colony, the Brandywine Institute, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. In 2001, she represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates.  

She is a Professor of Studio Art in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. She lives and works in New York City and Norwalk, CT.   

“I work with various combinations of glass, waxed paper, and transparent photographs, and these translucent materials function as both a physical framework and symbolic membrane. As these materials inherently capture and transform light, they grant renewed liveliness to an image or drawn mark, underscoring its origin as an idea or moment in time. Light never exists as a static entity. Its flickering assures that change is imminent.” 

Barbara Pagh

Barbara Pagh is a full Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at URI. Pagh’s solo exhibition Alignments was on view in the Main Gallery at the University of Rhode Island in 2016 and Bundle at Hera Gallery in 2017. In 1997 she exhibited at Keimyung University in Taegu, South Korea and in 2011 she was invited to participate in a national portfolio exchange, East/West. Her work can be found in corporate and private collections.  

Pagh is a founding member of the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England. She is a member of Hera Gallery in Wakefield, RI and serves on the Board of Directors and is currently President. Pagh and her husband Jeff Bertwell founded their own printshop, Queen’s River Press, in 1985. 

“The most dominant theme has been landscape or the natural world including the American Southwest, coastal areas on both the eastern seaboard and the Pacific northwest, the Scottish Highlands and Ireland. There is no attempt to create a realistic representation of place, but a subjective impression based on structure and color and resulting in a layering of texture and form...Printmaking allows me to experiment with the multiple in different ways by printing different colors and varying the combinations of images.” 

Claudia Fieo

Claudia Fieo is a Professor of Art at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Her prints have been exhibited regionally and nationally. Among the public collections that have acquired her work are the Boston Public Library, Newport Art Museum, and Slater Memorial Museum, among others. Her prints are also in numerous private collections.   

Fieo has been a member of Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England since 1992; she was an affiliated artist with Hera Gallery for several years and continues as a member of the Monotype Guild of New England and Zea Mays Printmaking Studio. She moved to Florence, Italy for her graduate studies earning Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Printmaking. Fieo received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Carnegie Mellon University. 

“Along the way, my impulse has been singular—to give expression to the mystery of life’s contrasting forces.  Through visual language, I have sought to understand, and ultimately to accept, both the beauty and cruelty inhering in the cycles of nature...Nature is for me the palpable manifestation of the divine; I am fascinated with its seamless harmonies and troubled by human intervention rupturing its tides.” 

Grace Bentley-Scheck

Grace Bentley-Scheck maintains her studio, Sassafras Press in Narragansett, Rhode Island. Her work has been exhibited in the United States, Poland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland and Australia and has been included in many private and public collections including The Portland Art Museum, Oregon, the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee, and the Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island. Her work was shown in a two person show at the Old Print Shop, NY and it was included in The Society of American Graphic Artists Centennial National Exhibition at the Art Students League of NY where her print was awarded the A Friedman Materials Award. She also participated in The Future: LAPS International Print Exhibition at Scuola Internazionale di Grafica Gallery, Venice, Italy. Recently, she was elected Print Artist of 2016 by the Print Club of Rochester (NY). Her work was also included in the Pacific States Biennial in Hilo, Hawaii and in 2016, A State of Mind, a Boston Printmakers Members exhibition. 

She is also a member of The Society of American Graphic Artists, Boston Printmakers, Los Angeles Printmaking Society, The American Color Print Society, the Printmakers Network of Southern Rhode Island, The Art League of Rhode Island, and 19 on Paper. 

Eric Goldberg

He taught at numerous colleges and universities for many years and was founding Chair of the Art/Design Department of Quinebaug Valley Community College in Connecticut from 1986-2003. He is a member of the American Print Alliance, The Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), Los Angeles Printmakers Society, The Printmakers Network of Southern New England and The Boston Printmakers, where he’s a member of the Executive Board. His prints and paintings have been extensively exhibited in the USA and abroad and he has received many awards including several from The Society of American Graphic Artists; The Newport Museum of Art; The Boston Printmakers and The Washington Printmakers. Most recently Goldberg’s work has been added to the collections of The Boston Athenaeum, The National Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, Republic of China, The Sakima Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan and the Print Collection of The Boston Public Library. 

Much of Goldberg’s work begins with drawings and evolves through etchings on copper plates, both monochromatic and multi-colored.  

“Etching on a copper plate is, by its very nature, a process with many steps from its beginning through its completion. It is a process which is well suited to my way of working. I am able to develop a drawing which evolves as it proceeds...My imagination is fueled by the world around me, by places and people and the thoughts and feelings they evoke. As an artist, I make images which express these concepts and emotions. I want my images to convey both the natural world and deeper truths, which are wordless and need to be expressed through metaphor.” 

Joan Hausrath

For the past twenty years, Hausrath has investigated non-toxic alternatives to traditional printmaking processes and has received several grants to support her research. She has participated in residencies at the Edinburgh Printmakers Studio in Scotland and Studio Camnitzer, in Valdottavo, Italy. Her prints are widely exhibited in the US, internationally by invitation, and are in numerous private and public collections. She is Professor Emeritus from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts where she taught printmaking, design and art history. She has conducted Art History Study Tours to London, Amsterdam and Paris and curated more than 20 exhibits for Bridgewater State University’s Anderson Gallery and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA.  

"Natural forms, textures and patterns often inspire my work.  While working on the images in my series of prints, Sticks and Stones, I was reminded of the Japanese aesthetic ideal of wabi-sabi, where references to natural elements are rendered in their purest, yet imperfect state.  My goal in creating the prints was to achieve a reverence of nature through an intimate view of the weightiness of the stones contrasted with the linear and angular brittleness of the sticks, thus expressing both the permanent and fragile aspects of our natural world."

Mary Teichman

Mary Teichman’s etchings are in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Boston Athenaeum, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, and The Museum of the City of New York, among others. She worked at Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop in New York City until she bought a press and set up her own studio. She currently lives in Easthampton, Massachusetts. 

Teichman’s work involves colored etchings that use four color plates printed sequentially, “wet on wet,”. This produces secondary colors as well as browns and grays in order to evoke memories and the quality of life at night. 

“My color etchings are triggered by things I observe: a color or texture, a slant of light– my layered technique, with its possibilities for rich color and dense blacks, lends itself easily to night scenes.”  

Carmela Venti

For over ten years, Carmela Venti has been creating “Map Portraits” which examine person/place relationships and explore issues of cognition and identity. Printmaking from hand drawn images to computer/ digital prints. Her images use a range of print media. Her work has been included in Map Art Exhibitions at the Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois, the Louisville Art Association, Kentucky, the Turman Gallery, Terre Haute, Indiana, and the DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts. She has shown her work internationally at various Cartographic Congresses in Interlocken, Switzerland; Vienna, Austria, and Stockholm, Sweden. Venti is former President of Connecticut Women Artists, Inc., and has been affiliated with Southern Graphics and the International Map Trade Association.  

Venti’s personal political experience has ranged from speaking at local town meetings against the landfill expansion to protect the aquifer and future water supply to globally exploring her family’s immigrated origins. Recently the international adoption of her son and daughter has also exposed her to global politics. And her son’s autism spectrum disorder has added new challenges, travel, research and perspectives for her work.  

Amanda Lebel

Amanda Lebel’s work has been included in several Print Biennials, museum shows and in printmaking exhibits throughout the Northeast. Lebel is owner of and instructor for her own press, Ama-Bel Press. She has taught printmaking, drawing and book arts courses for Eastern Connecticut State University, Western Connecticut State University and The Rhode Island School of Design. 

Margot Rocklen

Margot Rocklen worked as a graphic designer and illustrator before beginning her teaching career. She is on the arts faculty at Gateway Community College in New Haven, Connecticut and previously taught at Paier College of Art and the Cooperative Arts and Humanities Magnet High School in Connecticut.  

Margot is a founding member of the Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England and has initiated many of their exhibits and projects. INKLING, a program of printmaking activities and exhibits designed for hospital patients and conducted by PNSNE members, was presented at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C., and at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. Most recently Margot helped coordinate Visions/Revisions, a twenty-fifth anniversary program of demonstrations and workshops for PNSNE, at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT and the CT Historical Society in West Hartford. Margot is an active member of the Monotype Guild of New England, an exhibiting Board member of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, a member of the Guilford Art League, and the Enamel Guild North East.  

Her most recent exhibit was in 2016, at the Audubon Society’s Boston Nature Center. Margot also exhibited work in Expressions in Print at the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, and was accepted into the New Haven Paint and Clay Club’s 117th Annual Juried Art Exhibit. In May, Rocklen received an award for a diptych print at the Monotype Guild of New England’s 5th National Monotype/Monoprint Juried Exhibition. 

“During the development of a print, I may use one or several processes: Intaglio, Mokuhnga (Japanese woodblock technique), monotype and monoprint...The monotype medium, for me, is uplifting and often experimental. Because of its eclectic nature I can combine drawing, painting and printmaking techniques, and this has influenced the way I work in traditional forms of printmaking...When I work on a Japanese woodblock print I notice that my visual and tactile senses heighten, and I rely on them more than in any other printmaking process...My objective is for viewers to make their own inferences and associations through the content of the work and the emotions it evokes, and to gain a sense of the moment/place/energy that inspired the image.” 

EXHIBIT ON DISPLAY THROUGH THE END OF JUNE

“Trashion Show”
In celebration of Earth Day, this whimsical display will have work that features the art of "upcycling", transforming everyday trash into creative treasures. Works will be featured by Jacqueline Lucier, Pat Miller, Audrey Mucci, Phoebe Godfrey, Tina Shirshac, Ann C. Rosebrooks, Frances Kornbluth, Daniel Durand, Jennifer Flanagan, Heather McLean, David Corsini, and other community artists we are looking forward to welcoming into the Silver Circle Gallery. The opening reception will be a part of First Friday on May 4th. Refreshments will be available.