Gretchen Shepard & Wes Shepard

May 22 through June 14
Artists Reception May 30 from 5:30 to 8pm

Husband and wife Gretchen and Wes Shepard have been painting together for about a dozen or so years.  Our paths first crossed at a friend’s studio loft where a casual group of painters would meet to paint still life.  As artists do, we would gather at various times to critique others work, enjoy refreshment and share art related events.  In the passing of a few years each of our circumstances had changed drastically.  We were both widowed.  The rest is history and the following year we married.  We laugh, that together we have accumulated over one hundred ten years of marriage. 

Gretchen Shepard

Wes Shepard

“Painting enriches my experience with the natural world.  There is nothing quite like plein air painting, of contemplating the colors, forms and light of a peaceful environment.  Recent views of a heron feeding on shore and egrets gathered in the marsh have given me interesting challenges.  A trip to Alaska has prompted my putting brush to paper recording the beauty of Alaska’s  inland waterway and it’s magnificent glaciers. The colors, and cloud like atmosphere are still vivid in my memory. 

Although my primary focus is on painting with watercolors, I love the spontaneous nature of this medium, I also appreciate the saturated marks made with pastels. I am  continually inspired by expression with color."

Gretchen is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in education and applied arts.  She studied watercolor with locally and nationally known artists including Mel Stabin, Charles Reid and Paul Zimmerman at the West Hartford Art League.

Memberships include the Avon Arts Association, the Tobacco Valley Artists Association and juried membership in the Cape Cod Art Association.  Juried exhibitions include the Academic Artists Association, Springfield MA, the Southwick, MA Cultural Council Show, Piedmont Art Show, Somers MA and most recently the Granby Land Trust Show held at Lost Acres Vineyard, Granby CT.  The painting entitled the “Mashpee River,” won the Don and Marty Wilmot Award at this latest show.  Gretchen’s paintings reside in many private collections in the United States and England.

“In high school I was the class artist, my drawings were always used for various projects.  Upon graduation, my art teacher gave me a Winsor Newton pochade box, brushes and several tubes of paint with the advice to keep painting.  The second world war and military service altered this dream, but eventually I took oil painting lessons in Branford CT with my sister. 

Many years later when on a vacation in Bermuda, I met James Godwin Scott, then teaching a

workshop in watercolor. He invited me to audit his plein air demonstrations.  I frequently revisited Bermuda and attended Scott’s workshops.  I have been off and running ever since with watercolors, oils and most recently with pastels.  Pastels afford me the chance to use my drawing skills.   As a member of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, I learned that my high school art teacher,  Mr. Frederick L Sexton was a past president.  This was a full circle moment for me.

I am primarily a landscape painter, and select subjects that are emotionally and visually appealing.  If someone views my work and shares those feelings it is a dividend to be savored.

Seventy plus years later I still have the pochade box and the three brushes.”

Wes is a member of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club, Tobacco Valley Art Association and the Avon Art Association.  He has taken watercolor workshops with James Godwin Scott and Mel Stabin.  Pastel workshops were taken with Richard McKinley and Susan Ogilvie.  “Appreciation goes to Laurel Friedmann of Lyme Academy for showing me which end of the pastel stick to hold !”