LaVerne's first memory of Cape Cod started with a vacation in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It was love at first sight. She recalls a profusion of rambling roses, sparkling water, sunny beaches, and white picket fences. She spent all of her summers there until she completed her formal art education, then married a Provincetown man and settled there where their three children were born.

Although she had been painting most of her adult life, LaVerne began her art career in earnest in 1989 after years as a businesswoman in Orleans, MA. Since then her art talent and art works have been recognized and commemorated by twenty-one First Place awards plus numerous Best in Show awards in prestigious competitions such as those sponsored by the Pastel Society of America, the Leo Diehl Competitions, and the Copley Society of Boston where she is a Signature Member.

It is not often that one finds an artist so extraordinarily proficient in oil, pastel, watercolor, and acrylic. Her fine color sense, composition, simplicity, and loose style, which she consistently demonstrates in her art, are the very qualities jurors and judges alike clearly appreciate.

Her formal education was acquired at Michigan State University, and the Butera School of Art, and Massachusetts College School of Art. Beyond that she studied privately with such renowned artists as Henry Hensche, Claude Croney, Marshall Joyce, Al Brouilette, and Frank Webb. Over the last decade her art talent has been duly recognized and public demand for her work has increased accordingly. This has led to LaVerne teaching her own private courses in composition, oil and watercolor and being invited to demonstrate her painting style to a variety of organizations. On top of that she has been selected to participate as judge or juror of several Cape-wide art competitions. Her professional affiliations include the Copley Society of Boston, Creative Arts Center, and the Cape Museum of Fine Arts.

 Presently, if you'd like to see LaVerne's art up close and personal , it is on display and for sale at:

Addison Art Gallery, Orleans, MA
Chatham Art Gallery, Chatham, MA
J. Todd Gallery, Wellesley, MA
Wilson Gallery, Dennis , MA
Woods Hole Gallery, Woods Hole, MA

The story of the Sailors' Valentine begins in the early ninteenth century, when it was customary for sailors, after returning home from long voyages at sea, to come bearing sentimental gifts for wives, sweethearts, daughters and mothers. Sailors' Valentines, known in their day simply as "shell mosaics," were among the most common gifts.

 There is speculation that the very earliest Sailors' Valentines were the handywork of the sailors themselves, spending the long weeks and months at sea meticulously creating tokens of their affection for shorebound loved ones. However, the vast majority of surviving nineteenth century Sailors' Valentines provide evidence that, by the 1930s, the octagonal shell mosaics were being made almost exclusively by craftsmen of the British West Indies, and sold to sailors whose ships were in port there. 

In particular, the island of Barbados (often a vessel's last port-of-call before returning to America) was a source of great many early Sailors' Valentines. As a major center of trade in the nineteenth century, Barbados typically swarmed with American, English and Dutch sailors, all looking for ways to spend their wages during their precious few hours on land. Many early Sailors' Valentines surviving today carry messages such as "A Gift from Barbados," and a rare few even bear the original Barbadian shopkeeper's label pasted on the back of the wooden case. 

By the end of the nineteenth century, Sailors' Valentines were no longer being produced in great quantities in the West Indies or anywhere else. In the 1930s, collecting of these now antique momentos of the sea became popular, and the name Sailors' Valentines was adopted. Since that time, the intrigue of the octogonal shell mosaics has grown immensely. Today, after a silence of nearly a century, the once-lost art form is being resurrected by a handful of Sailors' Valentines craftsmen. 

“Living near the sea and painting is a lifelong dream… and I’m finally living it”.

Susan Fehlinger had to be content to be an occasional painter during her 30 -year career as a television commercial producer in New York City.   “I used to relish the week I took each year to attend painting workshops in New Hampshire - my annual escape from the pressures of my work.  Having the time to paint was a gift and the hours melted away,” she recalls.  Susan attended a few night classes at The School of Visual Arts in New York, and workshops on the Cape, but for the most part she is a self-taught artist.

In 1997 she quit the advertising business, bought a bed and breakfast on Cape Cod and moved to Sandwich with her ten year old son.  At The Village Inn she created Sandwich Artworks Ltd. - a series of painting, drawing and printmaking workshops taught by 10 different Cape artists.  Remembering her times in New Hampshire: “I wanted to create a haven where people could come to the Cape, relax and paint - escape the demands of their lives and renew their spirit.  Of course, in the back of my mind I thought I could do the same, but that doesn’t happen when you’re running the bed and breakfast and the art workshops at the same time.” 

     In 2001 she sold the bed and breakfast, took some computer courses to update her skills and bought the SummerGuide, a Cape Cod guidebook that she now publishes annually.  “Now I can use what I learned in advertising while having my own business - I was always a frustrated art director.” 

Heidi has studied watercolor painting with various instructors here on the Cape since 1995. She has a diploma in visual design from the School of the Worcester Art Museum/Clark University, where she majored in photography and graphic design. She had studied oil painting in school, but had no experience with watercolor.

Heidi moved to the Cape in 1991. She loved the look of watercolor paintings she had seen in local galleries, so decided to take a class. "I was amazed at how difficult it was at first. Watercolor has a mind of it's own, and the hardest thing to learn, is to leave it alone and let it do it's thing. It constantly fascinates and surprises me in every painting that I do. I strive to capture the simple beauty and colors that surround us here on the Cape. I want to create serene paintings that one never tires of.

She is an artist member of the Creative Arts Center in Chatham, and the Cape Cod Art Association, where her paintings have won awards in juried shows. She is also a member of the Eastham Painters Guild, Cape Cod Museum of Art, and the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.

Heidi and her husband Al are aquaculturists who raise oysters and littleneck clams in Pleasant Bay, Orleans.

"It's wonderful to live and work in such a beautiful place. I feel so fortunate to be able to capture it's beauty, and share it with others."

Mr. Richard Muccini Dick Muccini is a local Cape Cod artist residing in East Sandwich, MA with his wife and daughter. He also has two sons, one living in Stamford CT and one in Newport, RI. .He is a native of Boston, where he graduated from Boston University with a BS/BA degree. He also holds a MBA from Suffolk University.

After his formal studies were completed, Mr. Dick Muccini Richard Muccini established a career in the high tech industry that eventually brought him to New York City.

While living and working in New York, Mr. Muccini began studying at the Art Students League with a number of well-known artists, such as Gregg Kreutz, David Leffel and Sherrie McGraw. The primary focus of his studies at the Art Students League was still life and portraiture.     

Since moving to Cape Cod he has added Cape Cod and New England scenes to his artistic endeavors. “While I still enjoy painting still lifes, I find it is difficult to live on the Cape and not try to capture its natural beauty as well as that of New England”. 

He has continued his studies with Leah Lopez, Joseph McGurl, William Maloney, Janet Gilmore, Arnold Desmarais, Jane Lincoln and Gordon Jones. He served on the board of directors of the Cape Cod Art Association from 2002-2006 and as President from 2004-2006.

His work may be seen at:

The Chatham Art Gallery  - Chatham, MA

Chatham Village Gallery - Chatham, MA

Cape Cod Art Association - Barnstable, MA

Debra Ruddeforth’s formal art education began in 1965 at Vesper George School of Art in Boston, where she studied under a talented faculty that included some of New England’s foremost artists. After art school she continued to study privately with many acclaimed watercolorists and oil painters.

Since 1970 Debra has exhibited her work at juried art shows and galleries throughout New England. In 1986 she moved to Cape Cod, and in 1987 she founded the Ruddeforth Gallery at 3753 Main  St., Brewster. A signature member of Boston’s Copley Society of Art, she has served as a judge for exhibits at the Creative Arts Center at Chatham and the Cape Cod Art Association. Since 2003 Debra has taught “Watercolor - for the Fun of It” at the Creative Arts Center.

Debra has donated her time and works to many charitable causes, including Lower Cape Outreach, Hospice of Cape Cod, Wild Care, the American Cancer Society and the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands, where one of her donated paintings decorates the Eileen M. Ward Rehabilitation Center for Children.

Debra’s paintings are in private and corporate collections worldwide. A partial list of corporate collectors includes Ford Motor Co., McCormick Spice Co., Bay State Medical Center, Mercy Hospital, Cape Cod Hospital, the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands and Oasis Systems.

 
The works of this versatile artist are shown at the Ruddeforth Gallery, 3753 Main St., Brewster, MA and the Chatham Art Gallery, 464 Main St., Chatham, MA.   

Tom Ruddeforth began photographing in the late 1960’s after receiving a camera as a gift. He immediately took to the medium and pursued it as a hobbyist for several years. Tom’s professional photography career began in 1987 when he and his wife, Debra, opened the Ruddeforth Gallery at 3753 Main St., Brewster. Since then he has concentrated on photographing the Cape Cod landscape in color and black and white.

Tom’s photographs have been published in regional and national publications, and his prints are in private and corporate collections world-wide. He has donated works to many local charities, including the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands, Art of Charity, the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History and Lower Cape Outreach.

Tom’s photographs are shown at Ruddeforth Gallery, 3753 Main St., Brewster, MA and Chatham Art Gallery, 464 Main St., Chatham, MA.

“The images captured by this soft spoken photographer resonate with the very essence of Cape Cod. And as such, they speak for themselves”.