Ami Brown
Ami has been practicing art for more than 20 years. She enjoys painting many styles, using unique textures and materials. Mixing and blending colors inspires her. She started out as a child drawing animals and nature scenes. As she got older, she sketched portraits, and then started using oil paints, and commissioned hundreds of oil portraits of people, animals and kids.
Ami’s true love is abstract art and subtle impressionistic colourful works full of depth, color and textures. She lived in New Zealand from 2005-2015, and opened her own gallery in Thorndon, Wellington. She now paints from her home studio in Southport, NC and enjoys showing her art in local and regional exhibitions, art shows and festivals. Her work can currently be seen at Franklin Square Gallery, Lantanas in Southport, NC.
Amanda Campbell
Amanda is currently completing her Certificate in Painting & Natural Science Illustration at Rhode Island School of Design. She has completed courses in plein air painting, drawing and color theory. Amanda won the Pender Arts Council Call for Art Competition in 2023. Her winning watercolor painting showcasing the flora and fauna of Moores Creek National Battlefield’s new fish camp was made into a wayside exhibit to be on display for the next 20-30 years.
Carolyn Crutchfield
Art allows Carolyn to share the messages that echo her deep inner world. Some of her greatest sources of inspiration are nature, emotions and relationships. She believes in spreading kindness, knowledge and respect for all life. These values color her interactions with others.
Carolyn has worked as an artist out of her wonderful little at-home studio since November 2019. Many of her pieces have been presented in local shows, both juried and non-juried. The mediums she uses includes graphite, charcoal and chalk, acrylic paint, oil paint, pen, collage and photography. She is an active member of the Wilmington Art Association.
Nicole Draina
Nicole is an educator and amateur artist. Inspired by the natural world and historical architecture, she finds creative ways to tell their stories. Nicole believes both can ground us and provide us with new perspectives. At the heart of it all, she is a storyteller. Her artwork aims for you to be immersed in an experience: to feel the first magnolias of summer blooming, to smell the salt of the ocean, or to hear the rustling of pines come alive.
Nicole grew up in the Adirondack Mountains, and relocated to Wilmington, NC for graduate school. In the past few years, she focused on educating about different art mediums providing unique and powerful narratives. Now, she is working to show her own art to the world, hopefully bringing viewers the peace and joy of the natural world. When not working on this new adventure, you can find her snapping photos of old buildings or her dog at the beach.
Evelyn Fischer
Evelyn grew up in the Piedmont region of North Carolina and studied painting at UNC-Charlotte. After graduating, she pursued a career as a textile artist and designed woven fabrics for the Home Furnishings Industry. She currently lives in the port city of Wilmington, NC.
Evelyn has a lifelong interest in working with diverse artistic media. The result is an eclectic artistic journey and a wide range of skills. The quest to learn and explore sparks her creativity and is a source of inspiration. Her 3D work consists of carved and painted gourds and hand-built ceramics. She also creates oil and acrylic paintings and mixed media pieces. This is Evelyn’s fifth year participating in Airlie’s Annual Art Exhibit.
www.evelynfischer.com
Waverly Hawthorne
Waverly is a North Carolina native, and works primarily in acrylic, creating murals, as well as canvas works. Many of his canvas paintings are landscape and formal garden scenes in a slightly impressionistic style. Figure skaters are a favorite subject of his to paint, and he has presented works to famed skaters Oksana Baiul and Caryn Kadavy. Waverly also enjoys experimenting with pointillism.
Waverly attended Chowan College where he studied Commercial Art, but is largely self-taught. His time spent working as an artist in the silkscreen industry still drives him to create tropical-themed designs, often on textiles. These designs are in part a reflection of his many interests and travel adventures.
Laura Kalina
Originally a photographer from Northern Virginia, Laura moved in June 2017 to Wilmington, North Carolina and decided to set up her own multimedia business. Thus, Mossy Fox Studio was born. Her studio is located at The ArtWorks in the South Front District in downtown Wilmington. Her focus is currently woodburning, also known as pyrography.
To Laura, her love of art is only rivaled by her love of animals. No matter what medium, she strives to capture the character of each animal subject. A firm believer in conservation and rescue efforts, Laura has worked with multiple non-profits with the aim of showing the outcomes of our work to save both wild and domestic animals.
Aiden Kenny
Aiden Kenny is a portrait and scenic artist residing in Wilmington, NC. Her lifelong artistic pursuits have encompassed everything from portrait and fine art commissions, to film & theatre work and drawing & painting instruction. After completing her B.A.in Fine Art, she has periodically continued her education by studying with preeminent portrait artists Nelson Shanks and Robert Liberace. She has work in private and corporate collections.
Brooks Koff
Brooks Koff “paints with glass” creating unique Stained-Glass Mosaics that beg for a sunny window to catch and transform light into brilliant color! Unlike traditional stained-glass work, her pieces are created without the use of patterns, giving her freedom to fully explore color and design. For nearly twenty years, Brooks volunteered as an art teacher at her children’s elementary school, New Horizons. In 2004, she was invited to be one of the contributing artists to the Minnie Evans Sculpture Garden and Bottle Chapel in Airlie Gardens. She helped over 100 local students create the mosaic stepping stones that adorn the foundation and walkway into the chapel. She also created a tribute piece to Minnie Evans–a small mosaic wall around the back of the structure.
Her work has been featured in many local magazines – Encore, WILMA, Wrightsville Beach Magazine, SALT, and Haven (the Bald Head Island Magazine) – as well as highlighted on a nationally syndicated PBS show. She participates yearly in the Heart Art Show at the Cicada Metals Gallery, Art for the Masses, and the Spring Flea at the Brooklyn Arts Center. She’s an army brat and the self-proclaimed “well-adjusted middle child” from a family of eleven children! She and her husband raised their five children here in Wilmington—several of whom have grown up to be artists themselves.
Karen Snave
Karen has been illustrating and designing professionally since 1984. She studied Fine Art at the Chelsea School of Art in London and graduated from the American Academy of Art in Chicago. She excels in both traditional and digital art, and has illustrated for a number of publishers, ad agencies, giftware manufacturers, game developers and corporations, both large and small. She enjoys bringing positivity and joy to others with her art and making magic happen.
www.coroflot.com/ksnave
