Harrison Public Library Presents \”Informed by Nature\” by Suzanne Montresor, Helen Schiliro, and Virginia Richards Zelman

Exhibition is on display April 3 to May 6, 2022
Gallery is open to the public during regular library hours.

About the Artists:

Suzanne Montresor has been a watercolor artist for the past 35 years. She has exhibited her work in many galleries over her career and her paintings are in many corporate collections, the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, Aetna Insurance Headquarters in Hartford Ct. and McGraw Hill Building in Manhattan to name a few. Her work is also in many private collections around the country. She continues to do commissions for individual clients.
She is a former member of Silvermine Guild, National Association of Women Artists, and Pindar Gallery, a cooperative previously in Manhattan. She exhibits regularly in Westchester County, particularly the Mamaroneck Artists Guild, and the New Rochelle Artists Association where she received First Place in the 100th Annual Juried competition sponsored by the New Rochelle Artists Association, and Best in Show for the 2016 and 2021 MAG Annual Juried Exhibition. She has served as a juror for membership and for exhibition awards for both organizations.
Suzanne was the Director of the Mamaroneck Artist Guild, an artist’s cooperative and gallery in Larchmont, NY for ten years until her retirement in 2016, working with the artists members on exhibitions and running the day to day operations of the gallery.
She lives in New Rochelle, NY with her husband Frank.

Helen Schiliro, after studying art through high school, majored in Graphic Arts and Illustration at Pratt Institute. She later became art assistant to a freelance advertising director. From 1978 – 1986 she was product designer and assistant art director for Charlie McGee Collectibles in Tuckahoe. It was in nearby “Gallery 10” that she had her first solo show.
After working as a fine art framer for six years, Helen served as art director and events planner at The Clear View School in Briarcliff Manor for over 20 years. During this period she was also a member of The Mamaroneck Artists Guild where she served in many capacities: President, Vice-President, Publicity Chairman and Membership Juror. Her artwork has been exhibited in many juried, invitational, and solo shows.
Helen works in a variety of mediums, including watercolor, pastels, pencil, oils and acrylics. Her most recent focus is in oils and acrylics depicting nature themes along waterways from ponds to rivers and seascapes. Images range from detailed renderings to atmospheric dream works.

Virginia Richards Zelman was born in Foxboro, Massachusetts. She received degrees from Brandeis University and Stanford University where she studied psychology and education. After years of quilt making and design while raising 3 sons in Rye, N.Y. she studied painting and drawing at SUNY Purchase . and Silvermine School of Art in Ct. From portraits to oversized still life to landscapes she has shown work in Connecticut, Westchester, and N.Y. City including a National Juried exhibition at Westchester Community College, a Juried Exhibition at Lever House, NYC, and the Northern Westchester Council for the Arts in White Plains. In 1987 she was chosen to exhibit in a group show which included Richard Diebenkorn and Robert Motherwell at the Charles Cowles Annex Gallery in NYC. She continues to show her work in juried shows, solo shows, and workshops. She was co-president of Mamaroneck Artist’s Guild from 2004 to 2010. She is currently a member and exhibitor at New Rochelle Art Society and Mamaroneck Artist’s Guild Gallery in Larchmont, N.Y.

Artist’s Statements:

The three artists in this show rely on the beauty of nature for their inspiration.  Suzanne Montresor is exhibiting her graphite and watercolor drawings, Helen Schiliro is exhibiting her recent oil and acrylic paintings, and Virginia Zelman is exhibiting her recent oil paintings.

“Creating this body of work, I tried to capture a fleeting moment in my memory. I often mix the hard edges of squares against the soft flow of curves to create a painting within a painting.  I think the absence of color and the use of shading, and details, enhance the sculptural aspects of my paintings and drawings.” – Suzanne Montresor

“My images are taken directly from life, from sketches or photos I’ve taken, or very often from memories or imagined places.  I have always been particularly drawn to seascapes and areas along the Sound, ponds, rivers, streams and inlets.  I never tire of trying to capture the currents and effects of light and the transitions between sky, sea and earth” – Helen Schiliro

“My paintings are inspired by nature as recorded in the many and varied photos I take. One photo may become the basis for many paintings or one painting may include aspects of different photos.  My objective is to make an interpretation of nature not a representation. This requires invention as well as observation. Painting is exciting for me when I explore the paint to find a result which satisfies me.” – Virginia Zelman