Keith Demanche has been the recipient of “Best Plein Air Pastel” in Plein Air Magazine Salon, “Best Pastel” in the Newburyport Art Regional Juried Show, and the Caran D’Arche Special Award in the UART Annual Competition among other awards. His work has been included in shows at the Haggin Museum, CA, The Guild of Boston Artists, MA, and the Rochester Museum of Art, NH. He is a Master Circle member of IAPS and a Master Artist in the Newburyport Art Association. He is a signature member of both the Central Mass and New Hampshire Pastel Societies where he has hung many shows for local exhibitions and has been co-chair of the NH Society Juried Exhibition for almost a decade.
“There is no place better than at my easel on a river bend or in a parking lot to find a little corner of the world that speaks to me,” says the artist. Keith has been painting for 10 years, learning the craft as he worked full time doing graphic design in his own business. Pastels fit his style perfectly and he hasn’t looked back since while taking classes at MassArt. “I love to capture a moment en plein air without hesitation and pastel’s forgiving nature and immediacy really let me get what I want from a given location.” Keith is a self-taught artist who lives and works in New Hampshire with his wife Stacy and their two dachshunds.
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary):
Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays
John Haiduk (29), known as SKRIBBLES, is a New Jersey-born abstract expressionist and minimalist based at Western Avenue Studios & Lofts (Lowell, MA), with work represented at the New England Art Center (Boston, MA). Holding BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Manhattan University, he frequently applies a systems mindset to his creative practice. John is currently serving as Operations Manager at Refuge Art School, where he develops in-house processes for public art, funding, and administrative roles filled by working artists and program students. John’s work reflects his passion for collaboration and multi-disciplinary approaches—he invests time in meaningful projects and pursues continuous growth.
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary):
Tuesday – Saturday: 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Painting outdoors in an adult class at the age of 6 began a long love affair with a practice Ann Marie continues to this day. Nature, in the form of landscapes and florals, provides endless inspiration and is captured in her colorful, impressionistic and expressive style often with folk elements.
Ann Marie often shares this love of art with others through teaching and organizing community art groups such as Central Mass Plein Air Painters, Open Studio opportunities and adult education classes and has worked and taught in oils, acrylic, watercolor, gouache and mixed media collage and fiber.
Over the years Ann Marie has participated in multiple juried and solo shows and curated several community art shows and maintains a membership with the Bolton Artisans Guild of Bolton, MA. She counts herself fortunate to be able to paint and teach art full time in addition to raising three sons.
Ann Marie holds a Masters in Education from Boston College and a Masters in Mental Health Counseling specializing in Art Therapy from Lesley University and has taught in the public schools, community organizations and worked as a mental health counselor.
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary)
Ann Marie is planning to be at Fivesparks nearly every open day.
I am a storyteller. My work is a visual narrative of my surroundings and my past.
Using clay, I attempt to create the experience of shared stories, magic and nature. My work manifests ephemeral feelings and nostalgia. The fleeting joy of colors that come with short seasons and the yearning we feel for that color once winter has arrived. I am inspired by what I see and try to capture that.
My current work is called “Forest Tales” and relays a story about searching for something deeper. I ask you to lift the ground from under you to explore deeply the magic around us that we are in peril of losing. Darkness, light and magic. All of it. Suspending your beliefs and reckoning back to your younger self. The experience of having lost the innocence of childhood and magical thinking, and now living with the reality of that. You experience JOY but know the consequence of not protecting or guarding the source of it. Nature is calling to us to experience its beauty and its loss. The complexity of these emotions are what calls me to make this work
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary):
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Saturday: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Art has led me along garden paths: I have painted all my life and I love gardening. Combining my two passions, my focus is on Garden Painting. I was an auction assistant at Skinner/ Bonhems for many years where a world wide variety of antiques and arts honed my artistic perceptions.
Recent art accomplishments and activities:
2022, 2023, 2024 Destination: Nature at Fivesparks.
2023 Exhibited 30 Paintings in “Views from the Gardens” at Tower Hill, New England Botanic Garden.
2018 “The Light Too Bright to Look:” Exhibited 26 of my paintings of Monet’s Garden plus a collection of 20 of my previous paintings at the Harvard Cultural Collaborative (now Fivesparks).
2014, 2016 & 2018: Painted, sketched, dreamed in Monet’s Garden in Giverny, France.
2013 Created illustrations for the book “An Eden of Sorts” (W.W. Norton) by John H. Mitchell. I painted 11 garden views used for full page color illustrations and the book cover.
2011 “Three Seasons of Garden Paintings:” Showed my solo exhibit at the Harvard “Old Library” which is now Fivesparks.
Various shows at the Concord Art Association
Exhibited at the College of William and Mary Tricentennial, Fitchburg Regional Exhibit, Audubon Habitat in Belmont, Harvard Public Library, Indian Hill Arts and Concord Art.
Other Notes: The college of William and Mary in Virginia (BA in Fine Arts and an art teaching certificate.) Taught art in public schools in Virginia and Washington DC and Gould Academy in Bethel, ME.
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary)
I’m a Massachusetts native with a love of ceramics and traveling. My husband, Neil, and I have taken our RV to the Southwest where we enjoy the warmth and hiking. In the summer we make shorter trips in the Northeast. With the arrival of two grandbabies, our travels have slowed down, but we love our visits with the babies and their parents!
I’ve had an appreciation of clay since graduating college and taking wheel throwing classes. My artistic awakening, however, only started 6 years ago when I began hand-building. Since then, I’ve grown as a creator and continue to learn more about the possibilities of this exciting medium. I am a slow ceramicist, and I like it that way! Hand-building allows me to spend more time with each piece – gradually building it to its final form, then refining with careful attention to the lines and textures.
The pieces I chose for this show are some of my favorites from the past year. I have a variety of silhouettes, made using multiple techniques. The common thread though is that each is something that could be found in nature – but isn’t.
Please follow me on Instagram, @AnneSwintonPottery
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary)
Tuesdays, Fridays & Saturdays: 1:00 PM-4:00PM
I enjoy drawing and painting everyday scenes from Harvard and our local area. I’ve lived in Harvard for 50 years and traveled around the local towns for my work for ten years. I particularly like finding spots that have a connection to the rural past, the barns, old houses, and public buildings. I want to capture the remaining agricultural and traditional New England landscape in this area.
I try to work outside as much as possible, though I do use my own photographs so I can paint throughout the year. In the warm months I keep my painting equipment ready to go outside, and I’ve been spotted all over the local area. Most of my paintings are done in oil.
I enjoy doing “house portraits” on commission, trying to show the aspects of the house and surroundings that the owners like most. I also do “pet portraits” on commission.
Artist Biography facts
Born in New York City, I studied art at the H.S of Music and Art, and attended Cornell University, where I earned a liberal arts degree, with a major in English Literature. I have a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Boston University. I taught in Littleton for 27 years, and was a Teacher Leader in the Reading Recovery Program, training teachers (including Harvard teachers) in this method of teaching reading.
I live on South Shaker Road in the Shaker Sisters’ shop, where I have lots of great scenery to paint. I also like to work in my garden, read, and tend my sheep.
Fivesparks Working Schedule (Hours may vary)
