Classes

Melanie Gillis is an artist and art teacher. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from Boston University and a Master of Arts in Teaching Visual Art from Bridgewater State University. She enjoys teaching a variety of mediums that include drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and clay. She has taught at The Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University and currently teaches in public school and at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. Melanie loves to teach students of all ages and to encourage them to explore, take chances and develop their creative voice. When Melanie is not teaching art she is engaged in making artworks in a variety of mediums; photography, printmaking, clay, and fiber art.

I’m a retired educator and business owner and have been painting Fantastic Furniture for 20 years. It all started with a class given by my mentor, Ginny Boylan, at the Marblehead Arts Association. Prior to moving to the Cape, I was the co-owner of Yellow Dog Designs. We created custom work for clients on the Northshore of Boston including painted furniture and floorcloths. Currently I paint for pleasure and for a wonderful non-profit called Painting for a Purpose. They hold an annual auction to benefit the Portland Public Schools. One of my chairs was featured on poster promoting the event. Each year I paint dozens of pieces for the auction.

I’m a retired educator and business owner and have been painting Fantastic Furniture for 20 years. It all started with a class given by my mentor, Ginny Boylan, at the Marblehead Arts Association. Prior to moving to the Cape, I was the co-owner of Yellow Dog Designs. We created custom work for clients on the Northshore of Boston including painted furniture and floorcloths. Currently I paint for pleasure and for a wonderful non-profit called Painting for a Purpose. They hold an annual auction to benefit the Portland Public Schools. One of my chairs was featured on poster promoting the event. Each year I paint dozens of pieces for the auction.

Ana Johnson-Moore is a professional artist originally from Bucharest, Romania, now living and creating on Cape Cod. With watercolors and gouache as her preferred mediums, Ana’s work merges vibrant imagination with influences from vaporwave music, anime, 80s neon, and horror novels. Her artistic themes range from nautical scenes and surreal compositions to whimsical, anime-inspired cats enjoying coffee.

Creating art since she could hold a pencil, Ana continues to explore and experiment, channeling her passion not only into her own creations but also into teaching. By sharing her skills in the classroom, Ana helps build a stronger, more connected creative community.

Her work has been showcased in galleries across the Northeast and featured in international art publications. She deeply values collaborations with local businesses to foster vibrant artistic networks. Through her art, Ana captures the unique soul of the places she explores, blending her love of travel and creativity.

When not painting, Ana enjoys beachside walks, diving into a good book, or relaxing with vinyl records and gourmet coffee.

Ana Johnson-Moore is a professional artist originally from Bucharest, Romania, now living and creating on Cape Cod. With watercolors and gouache as her preferred mediums, Ana’s work merges vibrant imagination with influences from vaporwave music, anime, 80s neon, and horror novels. Her artistic themes range from nautical scenes and surreal compositions to whimsical, anime-inspired cats enjoying coffee.

Creating art since she could hold a pencil, Ana continues to explore and experiment, channeling her passion not only into her own creations but also into teaching. By sharing her skills in the classroom, Ana helps build a stronger, more connected creative community.

Her work has been showcased in galleries across the Northeast and featured in international art publications. She deeply values collaborations with local businesses to foster vibrant artistic networks. Through her art, Ana captures the unique soul of the places she explores, blending her love of travel and creativity.

When not painting, Ana enjoys beachside walks, diving into a good book, or relaxing with vinyl records and gourmet coffee.

Ana Johnson-Moore is a professional artist originally from Bucharest, Romania, now living and creating on Cape Cod. With watercolors and gouache as her preferred mediums, Ana’s work merges vibrant imagination with influences from vaporwave music, anime, 80s neon, and horror novels. Her artistic themes range from nautical scenes and surreal compositions to whimsical, anime-inspired cats enjoying coffee.

Creating art since she could hold a pencil, Ana continues to explore and experiment, channeling her passion not only into her own creations but also into teaching. By sharing her skills in the classroom, Ana helps build a stronger, more connected creative community.

Her work has been showcased in galleries across the Northeast and featured in international art publications. She deeply values collaborations with local businesses to foster vibrant artistic networks. Through her art, Ana captures the unique soul of the places she explores, blending her love of travel and creativity.

When not painting, Ana enjoys beachside walks, diving into a good book, or relaxing with vinyl records and gourmet coffee.

www.lisagorenpaintings.com

Lisa Goren was born in California and raised in NYC. And yet she has dreamed of Polar landscapes since she was in her teens. Her first trip took her to Antarctica where she was inspired and captivated by the landscape. Later travels to Iceland, Alaska, increased her love for the Polar Regions. Her watercolors show an unfamiliar landscape in a new light. By using vibrant colors and taking risks with different surfaces, she makes the viewer reevaluate their understanding of both these landscapes and their beliefs in the potential of the medium. Her works create questions about the nature of abstraction and our planet as many of her pieces are representations of unfamiliar, threatened terrains.

Lisa’s work can be found in personal collections worldwide, from Australia to Iceland, and the United States. Her place on the 2013 Arctic Circle Residency was chronicled in an article she wrote for the New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1PAO5mr) and led her to her next phase of her Polar work. She had two pieces in “Gaia - Les femmes et l'ecologie” in Paris to coincide with the COP21 Climate talks. Recently, her Google Talk (http://bit.ly/lisagorengoogle) gave her a larger platform to discuss her travels, art, and the Polar regions.

Lisa has been working out of Boston, Massachusetts for the past 25 years and is Vice-President of the National Association of Women Artists (Mass. Chapter). During the Pandemic, she has been working on smaller paintings of Animals Taking Over during the Quarantine as well as portraits of health care workers (chosen to be in The Best Art Created by Washington Post Readers During the Pandemic by Washington Post).

Sarah Kahn has studied and taught art for over thirty years. She received an MSW, from NYU, in 1984, after graduating from Bennington College, in applied art and early childhood studies- (BS). She has been on-staff at The New Art Center, in Newton Ma., for the past 10 years, and initiated two community art programs there . Her Sunday art class was designed for young adults with developmental disabilities, and she led a series of classes to women impacted by domestic violence.

She has taught art classes and planned art curricula for children, and currently teaches art students and adults interested in beginning an art practice, at Provincetown Art Assn., and Museum (PAAM), The Falmouth Art Center (FAC), as well as workshops at NAC, in Newton Ma. She was under representation for 15 years, at Soprafina Art Gallery, S.O.W.A. Art district, downtown Boston, and is an exhibiting NOS (Newton Open Studios) artist.

Sarah loves watching students find joy and a sense of connection to personal imagery, by teaching mixed-media collage. The freedom to access and become familiar with an assortment of art supplies offers students the freedom to explore, play, and find comfort without rigidity.

After decades of teaching drawing and painting to children and adults it is her conviction that thinking you have no ability or so-called “talent” can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Creativity can be learned and this is one of the premises of her classes, to dispel all the misconceptions about art. Her focus is to relax, inspire confidence, encourage and minimize inhibitions while enjoying the journey of creating.

Before moving to Cape Cod she taught painting in her home studio in Millis, Ma. Conducted workshops and classes at Boston Public Library, Copley Society of Boston, art guilds, schools and libraries on Cape Cod, in Rhode Island, the North Shore and New Hampshire.

She was the founder/director of the Stoney Brook Arts Guild at the Stoney Brook Nature Center in Norfolk, Ma. Since moving to the Cape she has taught at Falmouth Arts Guild, Sandwich Arts Alliance, Cape Cod Arts Assoc. Upper Cape Tech. H.S. and Cotuit Center for the Arts where she loves being a part of for the past several years.

Award-winning Cape Cod artist Joe Gallant has been a full-time painter and instructor on Cape Cod for 25 years. He has conducted his popular Big Brush painting workshops for beginners and more advanced students at Cotuit Center for the Arts for a number of years. In 2019 and 2021, Joe also conducted all-day painting workshops sponsored by Cape Cod Collaborative for Cape and Islands public and private school arts teachers. He employs a casual and fun approach to painting instruction that his students enjoy.

Joe has an in-home gallery in Sandwich that is open by appointment. His original art, prints, boxed note cards and boxed Christmas cards are also sold in retail stores and on his website at www.capecodwatercolors.com.