Bajo El Sol Gallery - Artist's Introductions

	Livy Hitchcock is known for her intimate portraits and dramatic landscape paintings in both pastels and oils. Her fresh use of color captures the scenes of St. John in a memorable way. She is availabe for local portraits and wedding portraits and montauges. click here for more sample portrait art.

	Aimee Trayser says that her paintings and collages are defined not so much by what we see but by the mystical quality of our dreams. Through the playful use of color and simplicity of form, she hopes to create a primitive and ethereal atmosphere in each piece.

	Deborah St. Clair, a long time resident of St. John, is an intriguing painter who loves to explore different mediums. Her skill of technique is matched by her very personal exploration of new subjects. Her current work celebrates this dual talent. "It was time to trust the technical knowledge I have acquired," explains Deborah. "After several years of studying a technique and visual laws, I had the desire to use that acquired knowledge at a less conscious level; I put it on the back burner to use a more subliminal level."

	Gail Van de Bogurt's clay sculpture and functional work explores the interface between human and nature. The human body, and especially the female body, has become part of her iconography to pose questions about the human journey: "How do we affect each other and what is our relationship to the natural world? We are both creators and destroyers. What is our intent?" Gail sometimes uses the written word to bring another layer of meaning into dialog with the viewer of her art.

	Mandy Thody draws in a gestural style, so that all the elements of a painting are there before color is applied, and the paint is used mainly for depth and the appeal of bright colors. Using that style also for her sculpture, Mandy "likes the bare clay to say what [she] intends." Each sculpture has developed from a two-dimensional drawing or at least a mental concept of one view (as in a plan view of a house) - the challenge is to develop the third dimension!
	Pat Whitehead's oils and pastels capture the beauty and drama of St. John's scenic beauty. Her work focuses on the mood and light of her surroundings and the elements of nature we see here every day. "Each time you turn a corner on this island you see another breathtaking image. I find unlimited inspiration here."

	John Holub's paintings, distinguished by their varied brush stroke and rich color, appeal to those who enjoy the tradition of open-air painting. To John, the essence of the painting begins on the scene. "I will use either oil, watercolor, gouache, or pencil, as long as I record what excited me about the scene. I like to focus on surprises, the unexpected, and an object of beauty that has been overlooked. Sometimes it's commonplace, sometimes the unusual."

	Avelino Samuel , a native of St. John, enjoys refining his skills through his constant pursuit for knowledge in his art of woodturning. The artist showcases his natural materials in the graceful vases and bowls which are made from local woods such as mahogany, seagrape and white pickle. The finished pieces celebrate a real communication between artist and nature.

	Ayn Baldwin Riehle is a St. Johnian who spends 6 months of each year living on a sailboat. Her work explores underwater discovery, a realm hidden below the surface...beautiful, colorful, mysterious.

	Karen Samuel is a St. Johnian whose work, at the age of 14, showed such promise that she was awarded a month-long scholarship from the VI Council on the Arts to South Hampton College in New York. She graduated from Ivanna Eudora Kean High School in St. Thomas and received a degree in Secondary Art Education from George Washington University in Washington DC.

	Larry Lipsky is a 20-year denizen of the West End of St. Croix who migrated with the millennium to St. John. He continues to create stuff that "involves the viewer in the movement of both the art piece and the viewers' changing perspective." He calls his stuff geo-kinetic sculpture, and is currently exploring random pendjulic movement. Future explorations envision faces and figures pursuing random pendjulic movement in models of deterministic chaos.

	Kimberly Boulon is well known on St. John for her visually beautiful landscape and figure paintings. Working in oil or pastels, her work explores the relationship of value and color to composition and movement, connecting drawing and painting and abstraction and representation.