Instructor of Painting

Steven Assael was born in New York, New York in 1957.  He attended Pratt Institute and presently teaches at The School of Visual Arts in New York.  Assael balances naturalism with a romanticism that permeates the figures and surroundings of his paintings and drawings.  The focus of his work is the human figure, either individually or in a group, rendered in glowing relief by gentle beams of warm and cool light.  Steven Assael’s classical talents are as rare as they are essential to the diverse art world of the 21st Century.

Steven Assael’s work was the subject of a one-person exhibition at the Naples (FL) Museum of Art from October, 2010 to January, 2011.  Assael’s paintings were also included in the exhibition “New Old Masters”, curated by Donald Kuspit, at the National Museum in Gdansk, Poland in 2006. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle (WA) in 1999.  Single-person exhibitions of works by Steven Assael have also been featured at the Cress Gallery of Art at the University of Tennessee, Lowe Gallery (Atlanta, GA) and Ann Nathan Gallery (Chicago, IL).  His work has been exhibited at The Arkansas Arts Center, The New York Academy of Art and The Arnot Art Museum (Elmira, NY), and is in the permanent collections of The Hunter Museum of Art (Chattanooga, TN), The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art & Design (Kansas City, MO), The Columbus Museum of Art (OH) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY).

Steven Assael is currently represented by Forum Gallery, New York, NY.

Instructor of Painting

Artist Statement: I am inspired by my surroundings and from memories. Wooded lots, expansive farmlands, and city scenes all generate the same response in me; finding the balance. I love the way shapes and forms relate to one another and how colors interact. I use color and the handling of the medium to try and capture the essence of what is before me. These aspects are an expression of me in my art, even more than the subject. I want my art to impart a sense of awareness, have a sense of place, a feeling of atmosphere. I am interested in aspects of unity, of how everything comes together to create a grounded feeling.

Instructor of Painting

Zufar, a Russian native, started taking drawing and painting classes at age nine. He was eleven when he painted his first few plein air works; depicting nearby village cottages and a horse resting next to a carriage delivering pies to the local market. He fell in love with landscape painting and started exploring the language of direct expression of what just in front of him.

Zufar’s town and landscape style leans towards Russian and Soviet-era impressionism. For him, art is a continuous experimentation and growth. After more than a decade of traveling and painting in the US, he changed his painting palette to a higher key.

A spur of interest to plein air painting in the United States, brought the artist to national level competitions, where he won a number of awards. Among others, Zufar treasures his several Artist Choice awards at Plein Air Easton (Maryland). Another memorable achievement was receiving "The Medal of Honor and Merit Awards" from the Kent Art Association, the first U.S. art organization he had joined. Recently, he was honored to receive the Irvine Museum Award at the Laguna Plein Air national competition in Laguna Beach, California.  His works are widely present in private collections across the United States, in the UK, Spain, and of course in Russia.

Instructor of Photography

William has spent his entire career as a commercial photographer in NYC and later in Westchester County, NY. He’s worked in the field of marketing and advertising photography shooting products, food and beverage, architecture and portraits. Clients included Nestle Waters, Capital One, UPS, IBM, P&G, NFL Properties, Duracell, Friendly’s, Maille & Diageo Liquors.  He was an early adopter of digital imaging and began using one of the first professional model digital cameras in 1996. He currently resides in Old Saybrook, CT and continues to take on commercial assignments.

Instructor of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat

Since 1999, Bill Carberry, an Adobe Certified Instructor for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat has been providing online and onsite training/consulting for students at all learning levels. With a career path that includes pre-press, technical equipment sales and project management, Bill understands the workflow of the Adobe Suite and has worked with a variety of creatives to help them better master toolbars for the best possible outcomes. Bill is honored to be the inaugural instructor of the Innovation Classes at Lyme Academy and resides in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge (NYC) when not enjoying the Fall season in New England.

Learn more about Bill on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/bcarberry

Instructor of Printmaking

Nancy Friese received an M.F.A. in printmaking from Yale University School of Art and studied in the graduate painting program at the University of California, Berkeley. She studied painting and printmaking at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and was a recipient of a Yale University Summer School of Music and Art at Norfolk fellowship. She has a B.S. from the University of North Dakota. Her paintings and prints are represented by Cade Tompkins Projects in Providence. A member of ArtTable, she resides in Rhode Island and North Dakota and teaches at Rhode Island School of Design.

Instructor of Adobe Premiere

Karl Hill, one of the first Adobe Certified Training Providers has been the on-site, online or contract educator for a variety of industries including defense, medical, manufacturing and educational. Karl is honored to bring to the Lyme Academy his expertise in total Adobe workflows for best use of this powerful creative tools. 

Karl currently resides in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts and can be found teaching classes though "Cape Space" — a contemporary co-working space for that region. To learn more about Karl and his team visit http://klhpublishing.com

Instructor of Drawing

Melissa Imossi is an award-winning contemporary realist artist.  She was born on Long Island, NY where she acquired a passion for the natural world and the desire to capture the essence of that beauty through art. She is known for her close-up studies of nature, where she examines the graphic quality of a single subject, emphasizing symmetry, repetition and rhythm.

 Melissa’s unique style has been honed through years of study and discipline.  After taking classes at the Art Students League in NYC, Melissa realized that she wanted to focus on art full-time and traveled to Florence, Italy where she studied Old Master techniques at the prestigious Angel Academy.  In 2005, after only 2 years at the Academy, Melissa won “First Place” in The Artist Magazine’s student competition.  In 2006, she was a “Finalist” in the Artist Magazine Annual Competition, competing against 10,000 entries.  She continued to hone her skills and develop her style at two other studios in Florence before returning to the Northeast.

While back in the States in 2010, she won an “Award of Merit” from Joan Young, curator of the Guggenheim Museum.  Recently, she won “Best in Show” in the American Art Awards juried by 25 of the leading galleries in the U.S.  In 2014 she won a “Williams Prize for Drawing Award” and the “Graphic Arts Award” at the “Academic Artists Association 68^th Annual National Exhibit” in 2018.

Instructor of Drawing

Originally from Evergreen, Colorado, Rick has spent most of his life living in Lyme, Connecticut. He graduated from Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in 2011, with a BFA in painting. He is a recipient of the American Visions Award as well as the John Stobart Fellowship Award. Rick has taught observational drawing, figure drawing, portrait painting, and horse drawing. Rick has been featured in both American Artist and Art of the West magazine.  His work is primarily figurative, he strives to create timeless contemporary American portraits.

Instructor of Painting

Barbara is the author of the book Artist’s Projects You Can Paint, 10 Watercolor Tablescapes Loose and Light and a contributing artist for the book How Did You Paint That? 100 Ways to Paint Still Life and Florals. Both books were published by International Artist Publishing and distributed worldwide. In addition to teaching art classes privately, Barbara has taught at the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London and the Lyme Art Association in Old Lyme.

Extensive classes at The Lyme Academy of Fine Art provided Barbara with a solid art education and she now enjoys elected artist membership in the Salmagundi Club of NYC, the Connecticut Watercolor Society and the Lyme Art Association.

Awards Barbara has earned have come from the International America’s Parks Through the Beauty of Art Competition, the International Marine Art Exhibition, the Salmagundi Club and the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society among others. Her paintings are in private collections worldwide as well as in the permanent collection of the New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT.

Instructor of Social Media

Maria Miranda is the Creative Director and Founder of Miranda Creative, Inc. She received undergraduate degrees in Marketing and Design at the University of Connecticut, and has completed post-graduate coursework in Interactive Technology, Communications and Trademark Law.

For 30 years, Maria has served the strategic communications needs of clients from Maine to Florida, winning national recognition for effective, creative and compelling pieces. A community-focused leader, she is a member of many service organizations, regional chambers and non-profit boards. In 2014, The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut named Maria “Citizen of Year.”

Instructor of Sculpture, Anatomy and Drawing

Kimberly received a BFA from the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts and a MFA from the New York Academy of Figurative Art, Cum Laude. Kimberly Monson taught with Lyme Academy Founder Elisabeth Gordon Chandler 2001¬2003 and was a Visiting Instructor of sculpture and drawing. She was responsible for launching the sculpture program at Amagansett Applied Arts in Long Island, NY and created a unique teaching program housed in East Hampton, NY.Ms. Monson won the National Sculpture Competition in 1999 and was presented the Walter and Michael Lantz Prize. She was awarded The National Sculpture Society Merit Scholarship and received Honorable Mentions in the Society’s publications, as well as being a two-time recipient of the Reutershan Trust Sculptor in Residence in Sag Harbor, NY. Noteworthy commissions include author John Steinbeck, philanthropist Margaret Russel Sage and Katharine Hepburn for the “Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award” given annually by The Kate theater in Old Saybrook, CT. Represented by Peter Marcelle in Southampton, NY.

Instructor of Sculpture

John O’Reilly born in Columbus, Ohio. He received his B.F.A. from the Columbus College of Art and Design and his M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art. O’Reilly’s work has been shown alongside artists including Eric Fischl, April Gornik, Rona Pondik, Dasiy Youngblood and Arlene Shechet, Jeff Koons and Ai Weiwei.

O’Reilly has participated in numerous group exhibitions in New York; Baltimore, MD; Columbus, OH; and Leipzig, Germany. He is the recipient of several awards including the Post Graduate Fellowship from the New York Academy of Art and residencies at the Leipzig International Artist Residency as well as the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center Residency West Rutland, Vermont. O’Reilly’s work has been reviewed in publications such as Art in America, Cool Hunting, ArtSpace, DesignBoom, and The Huffington Post.

Instructor of Sculpture

Kellie Pereira is a Brooklyn-based sculptor whose practice includes diverse media such as stone, wood, clay, foam, and concrete. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Lyme Academy College, where she was awarded the Wardlaw Prize for Three Dimensional Art.  She has designed and helped sculpt three public monuments in marble for the city of Rutland, Vermont.  She maintains a studio in New York, where she is also co-director of design for Greenpoint Stone, Inc.

Instructor of Sculpture

Steve Shaheen is an artist who resides and works in New York City. He has worked and trained extensively in Italy, earning his degree as a stone sculptor in Siena, and his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. He is the recipient of a Ludwig Volgestein Foundation Grant, the Italian Cultural Institute/La Fortuna Foundation Fellowship and a 2009-2010 Residency at the Digital Stone Project. Shaheen’s indoor and outdoor installations are in public and private collections in Europe and the United States. His 100-ton marble and granite monument to 9/11 victims, "Memoria," was covered by over fifty print and televised reports, including The New York Times and CBS/48 Hours. He currently teaches at the City University of New York in Manhattan, the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts and the New York Academy of Art, and is the director of Tuscany Study, an intensive summer art program in Italy.

Instructor of Photography

Joe Standart is an internationally recognized, award-winning photographer who is widely published and exhibited. He is currently creating a series of public art exhibits entitled, “WE ARE.” His websites are www.PortraitofAmerica.org and www.JoeStandart.com .

Instructor of Drawing and Painting

Developed the painting program At Amagansett Applied Arts in Long Island, NY Michael Viera has awards from the National Arts Club, New York and The New Haven Paint and Clay Club, where his work is part of their permanent collection. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is part of numerous private collections.

Michael’s latest solo show was at Peter Marcelle Project, Southampton, NY. He was recently selected to show in Masters of Realism at Rafael Gallery, New York, NY. Michael is represented by Peter Marcelle, Southampton, NY and MM Fine Art, New York, NY.

Instructor of Sculpture

Bruce is an Alumnus of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts with a BFA in Sculpture and holds an MFA from the New York Academy of Art.

Instructor of Painting

Jerry Weiss has had numerous one-man exhibitions in museums and galleries, and his paintings are represented in public, private and corporate collections. Jerry teaches figure drawing and painting year-round at the Art Students League of New York, as well as intensive workshops there and in other venues around the country. He has taught and lectured at art schools and art associations in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, and Washington, and was an instructor at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts for fifteen years. Weiss has written features for The Drawing Magazine, and contributes to The Artist’s Magazine, Watercolor Artist and Pastel Journal.

He is represented by Elizabeth Moss Gallery, Chester Gallery, Cooper & Smith Gallery and Portraits Inc.