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NAA Featured Artist Series
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 While Stephanie Noah was preparing for the birth of her son last January and her mother, Sheila, was preparing to become a grandmother, both were also painting some of the images that would become a part of their first joint exhibit: Bequest.From childhood, Stephanie was fascinated by the art materials that were in everyday use in their home. Sheila encouraged her interest by making available to her good quality brushes, paints, inks and her first sketchbook. Growing up, Stephanie continued to develop as an artist, ultimately majoring in Illustration at Rhode Island School of Design. During her senior year she studied abroad in Rome, Italy, as part of the European Honors Program. While there, she put the experiences she had traveling and visiting museums into painting and printmaking. After graduation, Stephanie gained a variety of experience working in the arts and later as a graphic designer. Two years ago she started her own company, "Noah Design & Fine Art" which provides graphic design and illustration services. She will add to it children's art classes in the fall. Stephanie's recent work focuses on the natural world of her garden and on objects found on the beaches of New England. As she describes it "I enjoy the challenge of working from life with a focus on my use of color and negative space. I try to make paintings which are like windows. The subject matter is cropped so that the viewer only sees a piece of what is going on and then needs to imagine the rest. For me, painting, gardening and teaching are all part of what Thomas Moore calls 'Care of the soul.' In order to live a healthy life, the soul must be nourished in equal measure to the body."  Sheila Noah traces her artistic roots to her maternal grandmother who painted and sketched as a young girl living on an Irish farm. Mary Dolan Gallagher of County Fermanagh, had a keen eye for the beauties of everyday life but it was her nostalgic descriptions of the lovely lakes and mountains that has drawn Sheila to the Irish countryside to paint. Many of the works in this current show are landscapes painted along the South Coast of Ireland. Besides painting in pastel and watercolor, Sheila often combines printmaking techniques with applications of pastel, a technique that she first experimented with while she was studying printmaking at the Decordova Museum. Several of these current monotypes were printed without the use of a press.Sharing exhibition space has been a long held dream of both women. There are two gifts that were bequest to Sheila and passed along to Stephanie: A love of the natural world and a desire to paint it. Sheila lives with her husband Bruce in Maynard, Massachusetts and maintains a studio there in Artspace, a community of 65 artists. Stephanie and her husband, David, live and work in Newburyport with their son Lucien. The exhibit "Bequest" will be held from September 5 - September 11 at the Newburyport Art Association. An opening reception will be held Friday September 6 from 7-9 PM. |
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