Meet the Instructors
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Kim Arthurs is a Providence-based artist and writer specializing in Cyanotype since 2021. Cyanotype merges chemistry with art and feels like magic, which Kim shares by making education part of their art practice. An eco-friendly, affordable, and elemental blueprint-making process combining UV-sensitive iron salts with fire, air, earth and water, cyanotype creates art in its earliest photographic form, using the sun to print and water to develop stunning Prussian blue prints.
Kim's art installations include a solo exhibition "Garden as Body" at Pawtucket Arts Collaborative (2025); a curated group exhibition "In-Between" (2025), and a curated open call group exhibition "Resilire" at Farm Fresh RI (2026). Their artwork and writing has been featured in various literary magazines, and they designed the May 2025 cover for Motif Magazine. Kim has also designed album covers, play posters, and book covers. View their complete portfolio and upcoming events at: www.moonersmakes.com or follow @moonersmakes |
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Elwood Donnelly is a traditional folk singer and musician whose musical career with his wife, Aubrey Atwater, spans over 40 years. Together, they have produced 15 recordings which receive international display, eight books, and have also been part of multiple compilations. Their travels have taken them to 38 states in the US, as well as Ireland, England, and Canada.
Throughout the years, Elwood has also studied traditional crafts including basket weaving. Since his first weeklong workshop at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC in 1998 with Mary St. Pierre, renowned basket weaver from Hayesville, NC, and soon after at Kentucky Music Week with Mary Carty from Mount Holly, NJ, Elwood has continued to learn and create baskets at his home in Rhode Island. He has apprenticed students from age 11 to adult, and continues to produce beautiful and functional baskets in Warren, Rhode Island. |
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Kendra Ferreira holds a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and is a signature member of the Colored Pencil Society of America as well as holding a second signature status (CPX) in exploratory media with colored pencil. Kendra is also a Fellow Member of American Artists' Professional League, artist member of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Providence Art Club and 19 on Paper.
Kendra's work has been included in many national and international art exhibitions and she is a recipient of numerous awards for her work. Kendra enjoys sharing what she has learned and has taught adult art classes and workshops in watercolor and colored pencil at various art associations throughout New England. She recently authored Coloured Pencil Drawing Techniques and Tutorials for the Complete Beginner for GMC Publications and is a collaborating author of Painting & Drawing: Techniques and Tutorials for the Complete Beginner. |
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Emily Johnson is an illustrator, animator and arts educator based in New England. She earned her BFA at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 2022. Specializing in stop motion animation and children's book illustration, her creative practice explores storytelling through handcrafted imagery, animation, and illustration.
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Maureen Kennedy-Antonellis is an Aquidneck Island, RI-based fine artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and teaching artist. Her paintings are in commercial installations and hanging in private homes across the country, and have been accepted into local galleries and New York City's Gallery Row on Madison Avenue.
With her philosophy that there is an artist in everyone, Maureen teaches classes at art museum schools and art associations around Rhode Island. She also leads corporate "team building" painting events, hosts paint parties, and teaches online art classes to home-schooled students. And who doesn't love their pets? A dog owner, Maureen also loves to paint commissioned pet portraits - from dogs to cats to donkeys to reptiles and everything in between. Maureen holds a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Marymount College (Kansas) and participates in continuing education courses at the renowned Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). |
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Lidia Mikhaylova is an abstract artist inspired by the beauties of everyday life. Her work ranges from florals and still lifes to expressive pieces in silk, oil, watercolor, and pastel. Believing that art is about the process and can be a therapeutic journey, Lidia creates spaces where participants of all ages can tap into their natural creativity. She has led more than 150 workshops in art studios, libraries, educational centers, and at private events.
Lidia's work has been featured in international art festivals, magazines, and galleries from Brooklyn to Laguna Beach. She is the winner of the Billboard Contest 2022, with her work displayed in Sacramento, CA. Lidia's silk painting "Tender is the Night - Sunflower" was recently featured on GBH's Community Canvas digital mural. With a degree in Art Therapy from a Russian university, Lidia has also completed courses in Expressive and Creative Arts at Salve Regina University. |
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Lana Quann is a self-taught watercolorist from New Bedford, MA. She earned her B.A. in Art History from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and has studied a variety of media.
In 2018, after a 30 year hiatus from art, she picked up her brushes again, this time teaching herself the complex yet magical art of watercolor. Through persistence and encouragement she created "The Wandering Brush" method, in which she shares her love for the magic of watercolor art in an everyday, simplified way and experiments with a variety of pigments, papers and brushes. She believes art is for everyone, and puts aside the label of "fine art" to bring fun, exploration, and playfulness to both her work and the classrooms where she teaches. |
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Pamela Seymour Smith Sharp is a visual artist who studied Roman Capitals calligraphy and stonecutting with Edward M. Catich (1906-1978) at Colorado College in 1975 and 1976. Her path as an artist led to experiments beginning in the early '80s mixing graffiti tagstyle and Roman Capitals. In 1996, she studied intaglio printmaking in Italy with Guido Strazza, leading to further experimentation in the etching medium. From 1979 to 1981, she taught calligraphy to inmates at Long Lane School in Middletown, CT. In 2022, Pamela taught a Roman Caps Handstyle workshop at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. She is currently co-editing The Trajan Inscription and Stone Cutting Notes by Edward M. Catich to be published in 2026. Pamela lives in Bristol, RI.
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Kathy Thomas developed an interest in art at an early age, influenced by several family members who were artists. She graduated from Kent State University in 1974 with a degree in Art Education.
Kathy's art has taken many twists and turns over the years. A landscape painter with an impressionist flare, she now leans towards a more abstract expressionist style. She starts every painting from a photo she has taken, using it only as a springboard and never knowing the result until the painting is complete. Starting with bold brush strokes, she then uses palette knives to create texture and color. Kathy has taught at Holliston (MA) High School, and served on the Holliston Cultural Arts Council and Executive Director of the Hopkinton Arts Council. In addition to her work in other media, she has studied watercolor, and been a Master Flower Show judge and instructor. |
