Everyone needs a passion and I have found mine painting with watercolors. Until\u00a0 recently I lived and painted in Vermont for over 30 years. Painting the landscape provides limitless possibilities and the ever changing light offers much inspiration along with the challenges associated with the medium. My paintings are bold and colorful impressions of the places I visit and the vistas I capture around my home and beyond.<\/p>\n
![\"Coastal](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Bell-Diane-Coastal-Maine.jpg?resize=300%2C221\")
<\/a>Coastal Maine by Diane Bell<\/p><\/div>\n
Learn more about Diane and view samples of her art in her Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n I consider myself to be more of an art enabler than a working artist these days.\u00a0 180 school days a year I work with about 125 talented and hard-working high school students, challenging them to expand their art making skills and ideas. I have served on the board of the Franklin Art Association for over 12 years.\u00a0 In addition I have 2 children whose art I am to foster whenever possible. Consequently I rarely have time to make my own art, preferring to work on small collages and photography in recent years. \u00a0The vast majority of my photography features locations where my feet and wheels pass regularly walking our dogs and commuting to Silver Lake Regional High School where I teach.<\/p>\n Learn more about Hannah and view samples of her art in her Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n I am a landscape and nature photographer with professional experience in the environmental field. My field work sometimes brings me to beautiful landscapes and wetlands which allow me to experience the art and science of photography. I like to experiment with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings to present the best quality of exposure.<\/p>\n White Pines at Stony brook by Marc Cohen<\/p><\/div>\n Learn more about Marc and view samples of his art in his Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n When retiring from elementary teaching, then moving from Maine, Gail Eckberg was asked to teach art with the Franklin Public Schools Continuing Lifelong Learning in 1999.\u00a0\u00a0 She has taught pastel, watercolor, oil, acrylics, mixed media, monotype images, and more, from that time.\u00a0\u00a0 She has demonstrated for art groups, held plein air workshops, and has judged both adult and youth art exhibits.\u00a0\u00a0 Her award winning art is held in private and public collections, both here and abroad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Her travels worldwide have taken her from simple to over-the-top places, staying and ‘going native’, while honing her artistic skills.\u00a0 Growing up with many various artists in her family, she learned to appreciate art as well as doing it herself from a young age, and throughout her life.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She loves sharing her art background and knowledge with others, and wants everyone to either paint or appreciate the arts, or both.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a teacher, it is so gratifying to see students achieve, grow, and accomplish skills with each class.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Drawing out the artist in a person, to paint in their own style, while truly enjoy doing it, is what it is about, for this artist-teacher.<\/p>\n Circa 1780<\/p><\/div>\n Learn more about Gail and view samples of her art in her Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dick Fotland received science degrees from Case Western Reserve University.\u00a0 During his professional career, he conceived and developed a number of technologies for forming images on paper.\u00a0 He started watercolor painting in 1997, switching to oil in 2000.\u00a0 He reasons that conceptual engineering and art share many attributes; both require vision to foresee possibilities, striving for simplicity and focus, and the ability to discard what doesn’t work.<\/p>\n Learn more about Dick and view additional artwork on his YouTube channel at Colors and Keys – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve been painting for most of my life, always trying to find new ideas and new ways. Modern, painterly, spontaneous, alive, any subject but mostly landscape. My goal in life is to paint murals.<\/p>\n Sketch for a Pas de Deux<\/p><\/div>\n Learn more about Anthony and view samples of his artwork in his Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n Scanner photography, or scanography, is a fairly unknown but growing art technique, using a digital scanner to capture images of flowers, leaves, seashells and more. The unique images the scanners capture yield an almost three-dimensional effect. But after visualizing and composing the shots, that’s where the hard work begins: detailed editing to remove any stray pollen or dust, and to turn the background 100% black — a process that can take 15-20 hours per image and often much more. The inky black background, though, makes the resulting images “pop”.<\/p>\n Shibumi<\/p><\/div>\n Learn more about Dale and view additional artwork at www.BitsOfNature.biz<\/a> or in his Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Explore the talent and inspiration of the many varied artists that are members of the Franklin Art Association! Diane Bell Everyone needs a passion and I have found mine painting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":262,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-22","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nHannah Close<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Close-Hannah-Ech-a-Neck.jpg?resize=300%2C296\")
<\/p>\nMarc Cohen<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"White](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Cohen-Marc-White-Pines-at-Stony-brook.jpg?resize=225%2C300\")
<\/a>Gail Eckberg<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"Circa](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Eckberg-Gail-Circa-1780.jpg?resize=300%2C226\")
<\/a>Dick Fotland<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n![\"Dick](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Fotland-Dick-1.jpg?resize=300%2C249\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAnthony George<\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Sketch](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/George-Anthony-Sketch-for-a-Pas-de-Deux.jpg?resize=240%2C300\")
<\/a>Dale Hoopingarner<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
![\"Shibumi\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.franklinart.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Hoopingarner-Dale-Shibumi1.jpg?resize=240%2C300\")
<\/a>