Bivenne Staiger - Watercolor
Bivenne has a degree in Fine Arts from SUNY/Stony Brook. She has fine-tuned her skills under Barbara Beck, Tony Couch, and Bob Norieka. Bivenne was the featured artist in the Holiday Show at Ursel's Web in Middletown. Bivenne was featured in the Hartford Courant, on the iTown cover - June 2008. A rich color palette, meticulous technique, and love of nature are evident in her paintings.
Ellie Bender - Pastel
Copyright Ellie Bender
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Ellie is a professional pastel artist and an experienced teacher. She is a member of the Pastel Society of Connecticut and has exhibited widely and won numerous awards throughout New England. She is well known for her beautiful pastel portraits.
A native of Meriden, Connecticut, Ms. Bender was trained at the Art School of Fashion in Hartford, Connecticut, and studied oil and watercolor painting at the Hartford Art School. She was employed as a fashion illustrator and commercial artist with many Connecticut department stores and advertising agencies.
Changes in the job market led her back into fine art, and into portraiture in particular. She studied pastels with Claudia Post and Alan Flattmann. People are the essential element in her work, as she creates settings to develop and enhance each subject. Contemporary Realism best describes her style of painting, which entails applying pastel in a layered technique creating intense color and strong contrasts, and reflecting her love of fabrics and texture.
She has won many awards, both national and regional; conducted workshops and demonstrations; taught classes for children and adults; and is a member of many art organizations. She has exhibited in galleries in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts.
Commissioned portraits are her specialty, photographing clients in appropriate settings, developing an excellent likeness, bringing a painting to a professional finish, and finally assisting the client with the selection of suitable framing.