Dexter Artists Exhibit at Chelsea Painters' Fair

Several Dexter artists will take part in the Chelsea Painters' 38th annual Art Fair on June 4-5 at Chelsea Community Hospital, 775 S. Main St. in Chelsea.

Lois Lovejoy and Barbara MacKellar of Scio Township, Teresa Freed of Lima Township and Dexter-area artist Gwyn McKay will be among the 25 award-winning artists displaying and selling original fine art and cards in watercolor, acrylic, oil, pastel, gouache, encaustic, monotype and mixed media.

MacKellar, an experimental artist with a background in commercial design and technical illustration, works in mixed media, tiles and encaustics. Her work is exhibited in numerous private and corporate collections. In addition to the Chelsea Painters, she belongs to the Ann Arbor Women Artists and the Ann Arbor Art Center.

Lovejoy is a landscape artist who uses watercolors or pastels to portray the color, texture and spirit of places she encounters. Her watercolors involve multiple washes or use of salt, crayon or collage to suggest the layered details found in nature. Her painting evolved from a career as a graphic designer and book illustrator of horticultural and ornithological subjects, she said.

The Pennsylvania native has had a lifelong interest in gardens and became involved with landscape painting while living in France 10 years ago. A member of the Ann Arbor Women Artists and the Michigan Watercolor Society, her work is in private collections and appears in Michigan juried exhibitions.

Freed, an alumna of , has exhibited in numerous juried shows and is a member of the Ann Arbor Women Painters and the Great Lakes Pastel Society. She is represented by the Chelsea Gallery and the River Street Gallery in Manistee. Her work is featured in the book In Drought Time: Scenes From Rural and Small Town Life, a collection of poetry and art.

McKay, another DHS graduate, now calls Freedom Township her home. In her art, she said she aims to express the many visual ideas that permeate her mind, from nature, people and experimenting with different media. She has painted in oil, watercolor, acrylic and mixed media.

McKay, who has exhibited in Chelsea, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Dexter, Birmingham and Detroit, is well-known in Chelsea for creating floor cloths – painted canvas art rugs.

“Making art is a continuous, joyful, mesmerizing and challenging journey,” she said.

The Chelsea Painters will pay tribute, in the form of an art fair exhibit, to longtime member and former president Jane Farrell, who died in April. Farrell’s work is included in the new book Chelsea Painters, Celebrating Their Art, which will be available for sale at the fair. It features more than 120 full-color images by 28 club members, a brief history of the group and artist biographies.

The fair will take place from 10 a.m-5 p.m. June 4-5 and is free and open to the public. Artists accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express for purchases. Children can enjoy free hands-on art activities provided by staff and volunteers from the Chelsea Center for the Arts (CCA).

A percentage of proceeds will be donated to the CCA and to the Chelsea Community Hospital Auxiliary Scholarship Fund. For more information, visit www.ChelseaPainters.com.