Susan Pickett

Susan grew up in Connecticut and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, in New York City, where she majored in Advertising Design & Fashion Illustration. She began her 35-year career began as Graphic Designer for a small advertising agency in Connecticut and culminated as Marketing Vice President for a national transportation company in Philadelphia, PA.  Susan began to pursue painting upon moving to Aiken. In 2008, she attended classes at the Aiken Center for the Arts, working with their talented instructors. In 2011, Susan completed the beginning painting class with Professor Al Beyer at USC-Aiken, and for several years continued to attend the advanced painting class and open studio at the University.

Anne Archerd

All of us can have new beginnings.   In my thirties, I developed some chronic health issues. Over time, I grew into a slower-paced individual who began enjoying the pastoral beauty of landscape, nature,  and the pleasure of simple life. At the age of 55, after raising four daughters and no formal art training, I took an intro to painting class at a community college. I had been traveling with my husband in Europe for a few years(particularly southern France) and became enamored with that famous provencale light, bucolic scenery and  impressionistic art.   I desired to paint and create beauty.  After some minimal training and attending a few painting workshops, I just started painting…and kept painting.

Kim Harding

I find that I’m constantly inspired by things around me – a sweet moment in time, a dramatic sunset, a country landscape. I am drawn to nature – the water, mountains, the countryside.  I love the colors of flowers, the majesty of the mountains and the movement of water.

Although I may be very familiar with a place or subject and have my own perspective, I want you to use my work as a starting point to complete your own story.  What type of day is it?  Who left the flowers on the table? Is the place deserted and lost in time? All of my senses influence my work and I hope that your senses are stimulated when you view it.

Karey Santos

As a self-trained artist, Karey has created in watercolor, acrylics, fiber, and stained glass for years. Upon retiring from public education, she focused her recent work in acrylics as her favored medium.  She has achieved success with her creative renditions and has original and commissioned pieces hanging across the country. Her award-winning work has also garnished distinguished recognition nationally and can be viewed via several on-line galleries, linked to her Facebook account. Locally, Karey’s work is exhibited at Aiken Center for the Arts, Arts and Heritage Center of North Augusta, and other local venues. She is active in the local arts community, having served on both the Aiken Artists Guild and Aiken Center for the Arts Boards.

Mrs. Santos describes herself as a visual storyteller, using light, form, and color to interpret snapshots of humanity. Bold colors and brush strokes express the intrinsic mark, or feeling, as it relates to the subject.  “I want my work to challenge viewers to see beyond the painted marks, to the unique story they reveal and the emotions they invoke.”

She and her husband, Joe, have made Aiken, South Carolina their home for over 40 years.