The Southern Atelier Board, Staff and Instructors
Board
Charles Miano, President
Mimmi Fitzgerald, Vice President
Margaret Miano, Treasurer
Kerry Vosler
Susan Foster
Brian Gormly
Betsy Jones Wade
Advisory Board
Joe Brown
Judith Carducci
Lois Griffel
Robert Liberace
David Kassan
Mary Minifie
Staff
Mimmi Fitzgerald
Executive Director
mimmi@thesouthernatelier.org
Susan Foster
Administrative Coordinator
Kerry Vosler
Promotional Consultant
Geza Darrah
Marketing Consultant
Mucha
Resident Dog
Instructors
Founder
Charles Miano
Charles Miano is an expressive realist painter who is well known for his teaching. His talents include singer/song writer musician. His first love, visual art, has stirred thousands of people from around the world being prominently featured in educational books and periodicals.
Charles Miano is the founder and director of The Southern Atelier in Sarasota, Florida. This Atelier is a visual arts studio dedicated to the study of Old Master Craftsmanship, working from nature and the sun's revelation of prismatic color in the South. Miano believes nature to be his ongoing principal educator, though he has studied painting both academically and privately with various Mentors. This includes time spent at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, USA, in Florence, Italy and in Museums around the world. Miano is also an advocate of workshop studies and frequently partakes with friends and renowned artists. He currently holds a master class at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Miano is a member of the Portrait Society of America. Presently he is represented by M Gallery of Fine Art in Sarasota, Florida.
Steven Assael
Steven Assael was born in New York, New York in 1957. He attended Pratt Institute and presently teaches at The School of Visual Arts in New York. Mr. Assael balances naturalism with a romanticism that permeates the figures and surroundings of his paintings and drawings. The focus of his work is the human figure, either individually or in a group, rendered in glowing relief by gentle beams of warm and cool light. Steven Assael’s classical talents are as rare as they are essential to the diverse art world of the late Twentieth Century.
Assael has had several solo shows nationally in recent months, including the Columbus Museum of Art, Cress Gallery of Art at the University of Tennessee, Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, and Forum Gallery in Los Angeles. In 1999, a retrospective one-person exhibition was held at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. Steven Assael’s work has also been exhibited at The Arkansas Arts Center, (AR), The New York Academy of Art, (NY), The Arnot Art Museum in (NY) and is represented in the public collections of The Hunter Museum of Art in Chattanooga, (TN), The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art & Design (MO), and most recently, The Columbus Museum of Art (Columbus, OH).
www.stevenassael.com
Clayton Beck III
After graduation from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Clayton studied at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts with Richard Schmid. Clayton’s career began while still at the American Academy, exhibiting at Jody Kirberger’s Talisman Gallery and winning awards from the Midwest Pastel Society, the Palette and Chisel and the Pastel Society of America. He began teaching Saturday classes in Chicago after graduation from art school.
Artist Statement: “My love for painting has always been enhanced by my love to teach. Any artist who thinks they understand painting should try teaching. They will soon realize how little they know. I have always felt that I have a responsibility to teach because I have been given a generous gift from my teachers (i.e. Bill Parks, Ted Smuskiewicz, and Richard Schmid) and it should be passed on to the next generation of painters who share this love of art.
www.claytonbeck.com
Judith Carducci
Listed in "Who's Who in American Art," Judith Carducci received international recognition as one of today's best portrait painters. Her work has been shown in such venues as The National Arts Club and the Salmagundi Club in New York City, the Cahoon Museum of American Art, and the Butler Institute of American Art. She has been featured in International Artist, Pastel Artist International, American Artist, The Pastel Journal, The Artist's Magazine, and the books, Best of Portrait Painting and Best of Pastel (North Light Books), "100 Ways to Paint People" (International Artist), and Portrait Highlights (American Artist). She is one of two Americans featured in the book Paint! Portrait and Figure by the Swiss publisher RotoVision, and her painting, "Xanadu," was selected as one of the "best of the best" by the former curator of the Smithsonian Institute's Renwick Gallery for the art book Beautiful Things (Guild). Her work is in collections in the United States, Canada, Israel, and Europe.
www.judithcarducci.com
Katie Dobson Cundiff
Katie Dobson Cundiff tutored under her father, Steven Gaston Dobson, an accomplished Chicago Illustrator. Dobson Cundiff graduated with honors from Ringling College of Art and Design in 1971. She focuses on painting Florida landscapes, but also enjoys painting still lifes and people connected with the land. In March of 2004, the Museum of Florida Art and Culture displayed her work in a solo exhibition, "Painting Paradise". Florida Landscapes at the Turn of the 21st Century. She is associate member of Oil Painters of America and American Women Artists, and a signature member Associate Member of Plein Air Florida.
www.dobsonart.com
Romel De La Torre
Born in Cebu City, Philippines in a community of artists, Romel de la Torre's artistic interest started at a very young age. With the encouragement of his parents he began sketching the world around him. He started getting awards and recognition from school competitions and at age 10 appeared on TV after receiving a medal for his painting.
In the late 70's Romel and his family migrated to the United States where he began going to museums studying and learning on his own; works of famous artists like Sargent, Sorolla, Fechin, Mucha, and the American Impressionists. The exposure to these masters' paintings laid a strong foundation to his belief of what great art is.
He attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where he was awarded the President's Foundation Award and the Union League Scholarship Award. After graduating with a fine arts concentration, Romel continued to paint in the Chicago area and joined The Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts, where he began painting with nationally renowned artist Richard Schmid and a community of other painters. It was a turning point of his creative and artistic career.
The artist has been painting full time and currently instructs advanced painting and portraiture at The Palette and Chisel Academy on Fine Arts, Chicago. He is a signature member of the Oil Painters of America & the Portrait Society of America; his oils, pastels, watercolors, and portraits are housed in private collections throughout the United States and several foreign countries. His paintings have been published in The Artists Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine, U.S. Art Magazine and the American Art Collectors Magazine.
Romel has received numerous awards and honors for his works, among them is the 2008 Oil Painters of America National Exhibition/Grand Prize and the Artists Magazine Portrait Artist of the Year.
www.romeldelatorre.com
John Ebersberger
Expressing the full spectrum of nature’s beauty, John’s paintings reflect the twin strains of Impressionism and Classical Realism. After earning a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1977, he began studying under Cedric Egeli, the nationally known portrait painter. It was Egeli who introduced John to Henry Hensche, the master impressionist who had served as Charles Hawthorne’s teaching assistant in the 1920s in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Struck by the intensity of light Hensche was able to achieve in his canvases John studied every summer with him until his death in 1992.
John’s work and articles have appeared in The Artist’s Magazine, American Artist, American Art Collector, and Workshop Magazine and has garnered many national and regional awards.
www.johnebersberger.com
Susan J. Foster
Sue Foster was born in Warren, Ohio in 1953. She spent her early years traveling the U.S. with her family before marrying an airline pilot who took her around the rest of the world. They settled in Toronto Ontario where she began studying at the University of Toronto and The Ontario College of Art. They moved to Florida in 1993 where Susan began painting full time. Since then her studies have continued with many painters including Clayton J. Beck III and Romel de la Torre. She is currently teaching at Ringling School of Art and Design (CCSP), at The River Sudio School she established in 2001 and at The Southern Atelier.
Lois Griffel
Lois Griffel studied classical painting at the New York Art Students League with great artist who included Ray Kinstler, Burton Silverman and Harvey Dinnerstein. After moving to Provincetown, MA in 1975, she became close friends with Henry Hensche. Hensche was the greatest influence on Griffel’s paintings which now combines a classical background with the color of the impressionists. After stepping in as the new Director of the Cape Code School of Art she expanded the color principles of her predecessors and since then has authored two books published by Watson-Guptill, entitled, Painting the Impressionist Landscape and Painting Impressionist Color.
www.loisgriffel.com
David Kassan
Following his initial drawing studies at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, David attended Syracuse University in New York, where he studied under the auspices of Jerome Witkin, Robert Dacey, and Sarah McCoubrey learning a complete painter should have a strong grasp of the picture making process and a well thought out concept behind a painting. While earning his B.F.A, he was able to take advantage of the school's exceptional Art History Department, and on completion of his degree, moved to Brooklyn to continue his studies at The National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York, where he had the good fortune to study with a number of artists whom he respects, including: Aaron Shikler, Mary Beth Mackenzie, David Levine, William Behnkin, Harvey Dinnerstein, Burton Silverman, Steven Assael, and Costa Vavagiakis.
David has numerous honors and awards from Arts organizations and magazines include and has lectured at Universities and schools around the nation. David's work has been placed in important collections domestically and worldwide. David Jon Kassan is currently represented by Gallery Henoch, New York.
www.davidkassan.com
Robert Liberace
Robert Liberace is a contemporary classicist, equally accomplished in drawing, painting, and sculpture. His work is inspired by the centuries of knowledge, skill, and elegance of the old masters. In the February 2006 issue of The Artist's Magazine, Rob received the honor of being selected as one of the top twenty realist artists under the age of forty. Rob is known for his inspiring and informative teaching style. He teaches at The Art League of Virginia and holds workshops throughout the United States and abroad. American Artist's Workshop Magazine featured one of Rob's Ireland workshops in their Spring 2006 issue. Rob as also been written up in the Summer 2009 issue of the same magazine. Robert received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from George Washington University. He is represented by the Arcadia Gallery in New York City, the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, and the M Gallery in Sarasota.
www.robertliberace.com
Mary Minifie
Mary Minifie was educated at Wellesley College and earned an M.F.A. from Boston University School of Fine Arts. For the next ten years she lived and worked abroad in Cairo, Egypt, Oxford, England, and Vienna, Austria, exhibiting widely. In 1985 when she returned to the U.S., she began her study of portrait and the figure with portrait painter, Paul Ingbretson. Mary is recognized as an ARC living master.
www.maryminifie.com
Stephen Perkins
Stephen Perkins is a figurative sculptor trained and working in the classical method. His work ranges from small terra cotta, bronze and marble figures to life size and monumental. Stephen is also accomplished a relief work and portraiture. His study included time with American sculptors Walker Hancock, Leslie Posey and Elisabeth Chandler as well as painters Henry Hensche, Deane Keller and Cedric Egeli. Stephen has taught as the new York Academy, The Academy of Art University and the Grand Central Academy. He teaches national and international workshops.
Honors include the Paul Jennewein Medal, the Bartlett Prize and five academic scholarships from the National Sculpture Society. Stephen maintains a studio in Florida.
www.stephenperkins.net
Hodges Soileau
Hodges Soileau graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in pursuit of his art. He has had a successful career in illustration which lasted twenty five years. His art graced the covers of more than three hundred book covers and he was a twenty three year member of the prestigious Society of Illustrators in New York.
Hodges has had numerous one man shows, and has participated in group shows throughout the United States. He won first place in the T.S.A.A. exhibition in Tarpon Springs 1997, the Artist Magazine 2001 Art Competition finalist, the Artists Magazine 2002 Art Competition finalist. 2004 Face and Figure exhibition, best in show, Venice Art Center, Venice, Florida. 2004 Spring Exhibition, best in show, Venice Art Center. Most recently received an award of excellence in the 2004 Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional Exhibition. He received an award of excellence in the 2006 Oil Painters of America National Exhibition, and most recently received a 2007 Certificate of excellence award in the International Portrait Competition hosted by the Portrait Society of America.
www.hodgessoileau.com
Dan Thompson
Dan Thompson was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and graduated from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. He earned his MFA from the Graduate School of Figurative Art of the New York Academy of Art, and supplemented his training with several additional years of private study and studio apprenticeships along the east coast of the United States. He has been awarded two grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and has twice received the Ethel Lorraine Bernstein Memorial Award for Excellence in Painting from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In 2001, Thompson won Best of Show in the American Society of Portrait Artist’s International Portrait Competition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In 2006 Dan Thompson co-founded the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York. He has also instructed privately at Studio 126 in New York and taught at Parsons the New School for Design, the New York Academy of Art, The Art Students League of New York, and Studio Incamminati, in Philadelphia, PA.
Since 2002 Mr. Thompson has served as a juror and board member for the Portrait Society of Canada’s International Portrait Conference in Toronto. He has also lectured at the Dahesh Museum of Art and Studio Incamminati.
In 2008 Dan Thompson co-founded Janus Collaborative School of Art in New York.
His work can be found in public and private collections throughout the United States, and in Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.
www.danthompsonart.com
Kerry Vosler
Kerry Vosler is a gifted and seasoned teacher who shares her artistic understanding with her students. Kerry studied directly with many master painters including Daniel Greene, Lois Griffel & John Kilroy at the Cape Cod School of Art, Robert Liberace, Judith Carducci & Charles Miano to name a few.
When not painting or teaching workshops Kerry is a vigorous promoter of representational art and solid programs of instruction for artists. She believes today's representational artists are embarking on a new and exciting chapter of artistic development. Kerry is currently the Florida State Ambassador for the Portrait Society of America and on the board of directors for The Southern Atelier.
www.kerryvoslerportraits.com
