Artist of the Month: Jill Swersie

Posted on April 6, 2016 by The Dunmorean

Jill Swersie, a professional oil painter, serves as instructor of the adult art classes at the Dunmore Senior Center.

The April Artist of the Month at the Dunmore Senior Center is a “real artist,” oil painter and instructor Jill Swersie, who has been painting professionally for over 30 years.

Her work has been exhibited in art galleries and at shows in New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Colorado. As part of Project Street Art, her mural “Art of the Dance” can now and forever be seen in downtown Stroudsburg. Jill was one of five artists selected for Adams Outdoor Advertising’s ArtPop Exhibition, and a larger-than-life copy of her oil painting “Man’s Best Friend” can now be seen on a billboard in the Pocono Mountains.

Jill has taught adult art classes at Northampton College’s Tannersville campus and for the past 20 years has been teaching at the Dunmore Senior Center.

To see more of Jill’s work, visit her website at: www.jillswersie.com.

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For more information on the Dunmore Senior Center Activity Hub or its adult art classes, please go to http://www.dunmoreseniorcenter.org/activities/

Dunmore Activity Hub: Artist of the Month

Posted on March 2, 2016 by The Dunmorean

Joe Bartos Birds pic

Joe Bartos of Dunmore is the Dunmore Activity Hub Artist of the Month for March. His featured paintings are “The Colorful Keys” and “Bird of Paradise.”

Joe says his inspiration came during a trip to Key West where he stayed at a Victorian mansion where he could enjoy the natural beauty of the area in the backyard.

Joe starting painting in 2006 and has been painting with the class at the Activity Hub for about eight years.

Joe says he is inspired by warm places and by family vacation photos. “I only paint warm places with sunsets or beaches,” he explains. “Sometimes I am inpsired by our vacation pictures, or photos from magazines or works I’ve seen in a gallery.”

Bartos says he loves the senior center’s art classes. “Everyone is so friendly,” he notes. And Joe says their instructor, Jill Swersie, is “outstanding.”

He also compliments the center’s director, Jeanne Hugenbusch, saying, “She does a good job, and she is always open to new ideas and suggestions.”

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NOTE: For more information on the Activity Hub’s painting classes or other activities, please visit www.dunmoreseniorcenter.org/activities/.

Dunmore Activity Hub: Artist of the Month

Posted on February 3, 2016 by The Dunmorean

Dolly Michalczyk of Dunmore is our featured Artist of the Month from the Dunmore Activity Hub painting class. Featured are two of her paintings, one of Dolly’s husband Joe in Santorini, Greece, and another titled “Meditations: Mykonos, Greece.”

Michalczyk Dunmorean copy

Her inspiration for these paints were, “The beautiful contrasts of white buildings with the blue sky and water in Santorini, and the priest, who was so focused on his meditations and prayers.”

Dolly began painting when she retired in 2009, the same year she began painting at the HUB.

She says, “I paint things and people that are important to me—my family, especially my grandchildren, and friends, and scenes from our travels.”

Commenting about the painting class, Dolly explains, “Our teacher, Jill Swersie, is quite talented and very positive. She works closely with each of us, educating, demonstrating, and encouraging us.”

Dolly says the group has become one big family, supporting each other through illness, deaths and other family crises.

As for the senior center, she points out that Jeanne Hugenbush, the director, is constantly evaluating the programs and adding new and creative choices of activities.

“I love their new Celebration of Life program,” Dolly says. “Most recently, they presented a one-man show entitled ‘John Mitchell: An American Hero,’ featuring local writer and actor Robert Thomas Hughes, and before that they did ‘Barrymore’s Ghost’ by Jason Miller.”

Dolly is now looking forward to the new Mediterranean Cooking series and photography class.

For more information, visit the senior center’s website:
http://www.dunmoresenior center.org/category/programs-and-activities/.