Meet Your Instructor

Sharing a passion for the arts.


Tomaso Albertini

Medium: Oil Painting

  • Tomaso Albertini, a Milan, Italy native, obtained his B.A. from The Academy of Fine Arts and Illustration, Milano. His artistic achievements have been recognized by Sotheby's, which selected him as the face for the "Old Masters Meet the Street" project. His work is prominently featured in private collections and has been exhibited by esteemed galleries in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Dubai, Milan, Venice, and Turin. Tomaso has participated in prominent art fairs including Art Basel, Scope Miami, and Urban Art Fair NYC.

    In 2015, he relocated to New York City, where the urban landscape and energy became a primary source of inspiration. The contrast of wealth and poverty in the city profoundly influences his choice of mediums and color palettes. Tomaso Albertini adapts a distinctive and unique artistic technique, creating three-dimensional art through the assembly of cardboard sculptures on canvas, which are then complemented by his painting. This approach injects a dynamic quality into his artworks, transforming everyday materials like cardboard into potent artistic mediums.

    After eight years spent in New York City, Tomaso currently resides and works in Naples, Florida. Beyond his artistic pursuits, he is a vocal proponent of art's potential to drive meaningful change, using his artwork to collaborate with and support nonprofit organizations such as Rainforest Alliance, Mission Blue, and Fabien Cousteau's Ocean Learning Center.


Angela Anderson

Medium: Oil Painting

  • Angela Anderson currently creates paintings in her studios in both Maine and Florida. She is a trained figurative artist with a BFA in Fine Arts from the University of New Hampshire.

    Angela is very prolific, working on several series of paintings simultaneously. She specializes in narrative paintings of the circus and tents, WW1 pilots and their living spaces, and she is an accomplished portrait painter. Her Florida paintings of palm trees, beach scenes, and figures of the Gulf done on site at the beach, are the only group of landscapes to enter her portfolio. Highwire, of her circus paintings, was recently featured in Non-Profit Quarterly in the winter of 2016. Once again, returning to an earlier series of Romantic paintings, based on 18th century French paintings, a new body of her works will be on view in Maine.

    Angela teaches painting to students of all levels, after exhibiting widely in NYC and Europe, with a solo exhibition in Munich, Germany. Anderson’s works were included in Martin Kippenbergers shows at the Museum of Modern Art Paris, Cassel, Germany, Museum Beuyman’s von Beuningen, in Rotterdam Holland, and Metro Pictures Gallery, NY, NY. Her video Love, Boys and Food was shown at the New Museum in New York City, and the Queens Museum, Queens, NY. A resident of NYC for 13 years, she worked for artist Philip Pearlstein as a model and framer for BL Frames, while making her own work and exhibiting her work.

    Angela participates at Naples Art, The Art Center of Bonita Springs, and the Arts Council of Southwest Florida

    Artworks are available online at her Etsy Shop: AngelaAndersonArts, www.angelaandersonpaintings.com, www.saatchiart.com, www.xanadugallery.com, www.facebook.com/AngelaAnderson.


Jack Barnhill

Mediums: Oil, Pastel

  • Jack Vincent Barnhill is a professional artist skilled in multiple medias. He currently teaches at Naples Art and provides private classes. Although largely self-taught, Jack has studied at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles under Linda Jo Russell, Chris Warner, Franklyn Liegel, and Laddie John Dill. He creates full-scale realistic paintings in both oil and acrylics, and on canvas and panel.

    For 6-years Jack taught Trompe O'eil and Realism at Otis College of Art and Design. He has also lectured and taught both private and public classes in Advanced Drawing, History of Pigments, Abstract Painting, Art for Children, Advances in 3-D Art, Paint Making, Pastel Painting and Drawing, Color Mixing and Theory. Jack has been in 16 national and international shows and has been reviewed in three magazines. In 2015, his Self Portrait won first place in the California Open competition sponsored by the TAG Gallery. In 2019, he was invited to show at the National Art Center in Tokyo, Japan.

    He is a member of the Oil Painters of America, Portrait Society of America, National Oil and Acrylic Painter's Society and the Pasadena Society of Artist. He is also a founding board member of Warrior Theatre, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing innovative art therapy to survivors of child abuse.

    Jack lives in Naples, Florida USA.


Donna Berk

Mediums: Watercolor, Youth Art

  • As an undergraduate of Simmons College, Boston, and a graduate student of Boston College and beyond, Donna has directed much of her attention to advancing creative curriculum and methods of instruction in schools. It was an honor for her to be invited to some of the more than fifty-one countries involved in advancing a philosophy for children's programs to speak about and train teachers in this special method. Preceding her scholarly endeavors, she enjoyed designing and manufacturing handbags and accessories, curating art exhibitions, and writing editing, and translating foreign language artist’s texts for publication. She also studied sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston and watercolor privately with an inspiring teacher, Alexi Neyman. In 2017, she moved to Naples, Florida and re-focused her attention once again to her true passion, creating art. She began doing outreach for NAI and has enjoyed engaging students of all ages and abilities to express joy through creating art. Donna remains privileged to share this truly rewarding experience.


Tori Bethea

Mediums: Ceramics

  • Tori Bethea is a local Naples artist with a Bachelor’s degree in Art from Florida Gulf Coast University. Her medium of choice is ceramics, with which she builds slab-based sculptures. Her art finds inspiration from the expressionist and pop art movements.


Louis Cristo

Mediums: Ceramics

  • Louis Cristo is the owner and operator of Royal Palm Pottery, a ceramic arts studio and gallery in Naples, Florida. Louis developed his passion for ceramic arts over 25 years ago and has been wheel-throwing and creating handmade stoneware pottery pieces ever since. He has studied under some wonderful teachers in upstate New York where pottery masters from Alfred University Ceramic Arts and regional artists share their talents. Louis enjoys making functional pieces but also honors the artistic elements of the form through use of creative glaze treatment, alteration and texturing of his work.


Tammy DeCaro

Medium: Pour Painting, Resin

  • Self-taught artist from SW Florida, Tammy has been formally trained in clay arts including wheel throwing, hand building and sculpture. Over the years, her art experience has expanded to include fused glass, jewelry, and painting. Tammy’s degrees are in business, and she recently resigned from 25 years of healthcare leadership to focus on art and healthcare consulting for long term care providers.

    Tammy uses mixed media techniques to create abstract art on canvas, wood panels, tiles, glass, and functional art pieces. Mediums include acrylic paint, acrylic ink, acrylic skins, alcohol ink, resin, and texture gels. Methods encompass fluid art styles, brushwork, and the use of palette knives and tools for texture. Her inspiration comes from nature, emotions, or an emotion she wants the viewer to feel when looking at the art. Her new series focuses on tactile art for public and healthcare spaces so that the viewer can both see and touch the art safely. Combining her expertise in Dementia education with art has provided unique insight into how art is seen and appreciated by the viewer.


Rich Faber

Mediums: Ballpoint Pen, Pencil

  • Rich Faber is an award-winning illustrator who has been working for over 20 years. Rich is a versatile artist who began his career as a Comic Book Inker. Known for his keen attention to detail, his specialties include, but are not limited to, photo-realistic pencil Illustrations, brush, pen, and ink Illustrations as well as logo design illustrations. Illustration subjects of particular interest include baseball, automobiles, and portraits.

    Rich's clients include Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, USA Networks, Scholastic, New Line Cinema, Watson-Guptill Publications, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Westfield Shoppingtowns, Noodlesoup Productions, WWE (World Wrestling and Entertainment), LEGO, Centocor, and The Washington Speakers' Bureau, among many others. He is a frequent contributor to Christopher Hart's popular "How To Draw..." series, which is one of Watson-Guptill Publications’ top-sellers. His illustrations have appeared in several of the company's publications. Rich's animation work includes a stint serving as an illustrator on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim series, "MinoriTeam."

    As the Art Director for Flatt World Figures, a company that produced collectible character figures, Rich was responsible for co-designing the company logo, creating and designing a “character card” insert and layout art for product packaging, as well as recruiting and coordinating freelance artists and sculptors. Flatt World’s "Bela Lugosi as Dracula"was awarded Best Packaging by ToyFare Magazine in their "Best of the Best of 1999," February 2000 issue.

    In the Comic Book industry, Rich has worked on such well-known characters as Superman, Green Lantern, Steel, and The Titans, as well as on Todd Dezago and Mike Wieringo’s critically acclaimed Comic Book, Tellos. He was one of the many contributors to “9-11: The World’s Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories To Remember, Volume 2”, a Graphic Novel whose profits all go to 9-11 charities.


Holly Jones

Mediums: Ceramics

  • A scientist and artist, Holly’s works draw from her experiences immersed in Florida’s wildest settings. She combines elements of Florida’s rich natural history (going back millions of years) to our current events (clay from Hurricane Ian). Jones’ ceramic works combine fossils, indigenous clays that she collects here in south Florida, and frequent interactions with our diverse wildlife. Her functional wares are beautiful moments preserved on high fire stoneware.

    A fine art major in college, Holly Jones fell in love with geology and became a research scientist and adjunct professor at Indiana University and FGCU in Fort Myers. She earned a Bachelor of Art in Geology and a master’s in public Affairs. She’s a trained naturalist, an arborist, a master gardener & a chef. A farm kid at heart, her skills range from things like working with dogs and horses, growing, and preserving delicious food, welding, baking bread, hunting fossils & making things.

    In summer, she enjoys traveling to see her daughter and sailing on Lake Michigan.

    She has a passion for learning and loves to see people (and things) thrive. Working in clay combines her true loves: earth minerals, creating forms, playing in the mud, growing community, and fires.


Genie Kell

Medium: Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic, Collage, Mixed Media

  • Genie’s Master of Arts degree from New York University and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from John Herron Art Institute are complemented by undergraduate study at Yale and Columbia Universities and training at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Genie has lived and exhibited her art in Athens, Greece, and on the Aegean islands of Mykonos and Santorini, and, in Venice, Italy, while completing her master’s degree there.

    In addition to classes and workshops in watercolor, mixed-media, composition, oil and acrylic painting, art appreciation and art history offered throughout the U.S., since 1998, Genie has offered immersion workshops in France, Italy, Greece, and Belize through her ART ADVENTURE WORKSHOPS. Genie’s upcoming workshop, Venice: The Veneto & the 2024 Biennale, is scheduled for that autumn and will include Venice in addition to excursions to Ravenna, Padua, Palladian palazzi and other historic sites along Italy’s east coast as well as in-depth study of the international, contemporary art featured in Venice’s renown biennial exhibition.

    In all her classes and workshops, while Genie is introducing new ways of thinking about art, encouraging the use of new techniques, and serving as a conduit for art methods and information, her focus is on encouraging each artist to pursue and embrace these four elements that ensure success as an artist:

    • Confidence in the artist’s own acquired skills and innate talents.

    • Connection with other artists and with all forms of artistic expression.

    • Passion for the materials and processes of art making.

    • Concept reflecting the artist’s own unique perspective.


Richard Kirk

Medium: Oil, Acrylic

  • Richard Kirk is an oil painter living and teaching in Naples and Bonita Springs, Florida. His current paintings are figurative and photorealistic, but he has worked extensively as an illustrator, portrait painter and still life painter.

    He teaches classes in Advanced Oil/Acrylic Painting, Figure Drawing and Portrait Painting at both Naples Art and the Center for the Arts of Bonita Springs.

    Richard studied illustration at Palomar College in San Marcos, California and established his illustration business from Boston, Massachusetts. His illustration clients included Hoods Milk, Dexter Shoes, Fidelity Investment, RGA Publishing and Harvard Magazine, to name a few.

    In addition, Richard has written and self-published four books designed to help his students learn the basics of drawing, painting, portrait painting and color theory. His fundamental belief about painting shapes his work and his teaching: “Creating a painting does not make one an artist. Artists create something extraordinary from their experience, knowledge and ability. Until a painter has discovered and is able to pull instantly from these three primary conditions, he or she is a student. Still, taking pride in being a student moves you closer to creating art.”


Tracy Kuzminsky

Medium: Watercolor

  • Tracy V. Kuzminsky is native to New England, but her path has brought her throughout the nation. Currently, she resides in Florida and Georgia.

    Tracy's undergraduate work was completed at Rhode Island College. Her studies were multifaceted, with pottery and three dimensional clay form as the cornerstone. The nucleus of her later graduate studies at Georgia State University was painting and mixed media work.

    Tracy's love of the artistic process led her to become a visual arts educator, which she has enjoyed for the past twenty years with great accomplishment. She has often been recognized in her field and was even awarded Georgia Art Teacher of the Year in 2012 by the Georgia Art Education Association. Tracy is now focusing more of her time and energy into her own art but she continues to enjoy teaching both youth and adult classes at Naples Art in Naples, Florida.

    Tracy's diverse studies, commitment to excellence, and exposure to multiple regions inspire exciting collections that explore varied media and subjects.


Sebastian Melendez

Mediums: Youth Art


Monique Olsen

Mediums: Acrylic, Mixed Media

  • Monique Olsen is a visual artist based in Southwest Florida, raised abroad in Central America, and born in Chicago, Illinois, and profoundly influenced her understanding of art, culture, and color. Monique is well known for her figurative works, landscapes, and people, among diverse themes. In addition, to painting, she is accomplished in other mediums, such as ceramics and illustration. She obtained her formal education in Fine Arts, Teaching Arts with a concentration in Visual Arts at the Licentiate level, and Educational Leadership with distinction. In addition, her art has received copious accolades and the opportunity to exhibit in many venues. Growing up surrounded by different cultures has broadened her overall view of life, and she continuously is pursuing success in personal, professional, and artistic endeavors and the cultural experience itself.


Christine Otis

Mediums: Acrylic, Alcohol Ink, Acrylic Ink, Pour Painting

  • Christine Otis is a freelance artist, writer and teacher. She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. She is constantly tinkering with ideas, searching for ways to express and communicate an image or narrative. She encourages and inspires others to pursue their creative outlets. A true creative at heart, she is often heard saying, “I cannot not create.”

    www.christineotis.com


Sharon Pearsall

Mediums: Oil

  • Sharon Pearsall studied art history and painting at CW Post in Greenvale, NY. She also studied at The Art Students’ League of New York, The National Academy of Art and Grand Central School of Art in New York City. Sharon had the privilege of studying with many master artists, including Gregg Kreutz, Frank Mason, Nelson Shanks, Max Ginsburg and Harvey Dinnerstein.

    Sharon has won numerous awards such as the Sylvia Maria Glesmann Award for Floral and Still Life from the prestigious Salmagundi Art Club in NYC as well as awards from Audubon Artists, The Art Guild, The Art Students’ League of New York and Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Oakdale, NY. She has been selected to judge numerous art shows, and her paintings hang in many private collections.

    Sharon owned “Chelsea: A Place for Artists” – a gallery and studio in Huntington, NY where she exhibited, instructed and hosted numerous workshops taught by world-class artists.

    Sharon is a resident artist member of Salmagundi since 2007, she is an elected member of American Artists Professional League, the Oil Painters’ of America, The Art Students’ League of New York, and Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club.


Rose Pellicano

Mediums: Watercolor

  • Nature has always been a focal point in Rose Pellicano’s work. As a teacher of Botanical painting for over 20 years, she has inspired many students to love this discipline. She has taught at the New York Botanical Gardens, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Old Westbury Gardens, New York , The Southampton Cultural Center, The Community Club as well as in many private workshops.

    She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and has served on its Board .

    As a member of The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society she has contributed several paintings of the special plants in their collection.

    Her work has been included in many juried exhibitions with the ASBA, at the United States Botanic Gardens, Washington D.C., The Smithsonian, The Weisman Museum of Art, Minneapolis , The New York Horticultural Society. She has also exhibited at The Royal Horticultural Society, London, Kew Gardens , Kobe, Japan and many other venues in the United States both in group and solo exhibitions. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation , Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh.

    Her published work is in the publications Todays Botanical Artists, Native Plants of the

    Mid-Atlantic and Botanical Art Techniques as well as in many exhibition catalogues and journals. Commissioned commercial art work has been published in Ad Campaigns , Company Logos and magazines.


Marjorie Pesek

Medium: Collage

  • Marjorie Pesek created and perfected her unique technique of Layered Imagery for over 28 years. Throughout her career, she has created inspirational works for collectors in Europe and throughout the United States, as well as for Disney World and Warner Brothers.

    Layered Imagery is Marjorie’s technique where she hand-assembles hundreds of photographic images into a single detailed work of art. Each piece takes several intensive weeks to create, a passionate process of making sense out of chaos. At first glance the portrait appears to be an oil painting until one gets closer to discover hidden images, often those of the subject itself or other beloved pets or family members. The interaction brings a sense of joy and pride to the collector and viewer.

    The majority of Marjorie’s work are commissioned portraits of people, dogs, cats, horses and landscapes. “Many of my collectors say that to live with an original art piece of mine is to see something different in it each time they look at it.”


Susan Reynolds

Medium: Ceramics

  • Growing up with midwestern roots, Susan Reynolds remembers being surrounded by the influence of the Arts & Crafts movement. From art to architecture, color to design, the impressions stayed with her and ultimately showed up in what she collected and created. Brief summers lakeside in northern Wisconsin provided the connections to nature that are revealed in her current work.

    Reynolds’ work is primarily wheel-thrown but recently she branched out into hand-building. She begins with perfectly symmetrical pieces that provide the blank canvas on which to work. The rims, edges and surfaces are then altered with tools and brushes but mostly, with her hands. The “manipulated edge” pieces end up like her; imperfectly perfect.

    Reynolds received a BS in Art at UW Madison but spent 25 years in e-Commerce. After leaving the corporate world in 2019 she rediscovered her love of clay. She opened Longford Road Ceramics in 2020 as a full-time working artist.


Ana B. Roca

Medium: Oil, Acrylic

  • Ana B Roca is a native of Colombia, she is also an educator, an artist, and a mother. After graduating from Brooklyn College, New York, with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Fine Arts she moved to Italy to study Art. She obtained a BA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence Italy in painting. While in Italy she won several prizes for her art paintings. Ana is passionate about sharing her knowledge of art history and painting techniques of the old and modern masters. She teaches English to non-English speaking students in a public middle-grade school here in Naples where she lives and enjoys its beauty and weather.


Dawn Smith

Mediums: Youth Art

  • Dawn’s LEGO Art Studio is an original approach to exposing students to concepts in art, math, engineering, and science in a way that is enjoyable and meaningful to them. The program was first realized 8 years ago while Dawn was working as a volunteer at a Title 1 school in Southern California. Her original goal was to start a LEGO Robotics program at the school, but she quickly realized that such a program would exclude most students due to cost. Utilizing her formal training in Early Childhood Education, she planned a LEGO based afterschool enrichment program for elementary students. After selling the idea to the school’s principal and wrangling a few other parent volunteers, LEGO club was launched. Every student that wanted to participate was accepted. “LEGO” met three times per week for 2 hours, 30-35 students per meeting, accommodating over 100 students.

    Dawn holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from California State University, Northridge and an Associate of Science in Early Childhood Education from Cerro Coso Community College. She has four children and four grandchildren. She relocated with her family to Southwest Florida 5 years ago and currently works full-time in the hospitality industry.


Ted Streppa

Mediums: Stained Glass

  • Ted Streppa is a native of Rochester, New York and a graduate of Colgate University and Cornell Law School. After his retirement, he took up mosaics as a hobby and later stained glass art. Bitten by the glass bug, Ted devoted his free time to classes, allowing him to expand his knowledge of the medium and refine his techniques. Ted and his wife moved to Naples in 2015 where he continued his glass art work and has since taken up making jewelry. Teaching classes at local art centers and outreach workshops for Naples Art’s community partners has brought Ted great joy in providing one-on-one instruction to students. His unique glass creations are sold at local art fairs and the Naples Art gift shop, Originals, for which Ted designed and crafted the colorful stained glass sign that hangs above its door.


Ann Sullivan

Mediums:

  • Ann Sullivan was born and reared in New York City where she taught Biology at Andrew Jackson High School after graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Except for a few classes at Pratt Institute, while she was still in high school, Ann is a self-taught artist who has drawn and painted since childhood. In the late 70’s she and her husband moved to Cape Cod where they raised their 4 children. She opened the Ann Sullivan Gallery in 1983 and has sold her work through other galleries as well from New York to North Carolina to Florida.

    Today she and her husband reside in Naples, FL most of the year where she teaches oil painting. They return to the beloved Cape Cod home and the gallery for the summer months.

    In addition to one-man shows, her work has been included in Museum Exhibitions and has won numerous awards in National and juried shows. In 2022, at the request of our Ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, Ann's paintings will soon hang in the American Embassy in Dublin, Ireland.

    She has taught painting at the various Art Associations across the Cape as well as in Naples and her work has been widely published in regional and national publications, including American Artist magazine.

Vicky Tesmer

Mediums: Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic, Charcoal

  • Celebrated American artist, Vicky Tesmer, is a practicing professional artist from Chicago. Her work can be seen in collections throughout America, Paris, Egypt and Germany. She is represented by Artfully Walls, Anthropologie and has exhibited throughout Chicago. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied in Versallies, France where she learned techniques of the Renaissance Masters and was classically trained. Her murals and interiors can be seen in countless interiors.

    www.vickytesmer.com