Artists' Biographies

Ann Hayes

While most people may picture warm summer days when they think of the beach, Ann Hayes' paintings capture the off-season beauty as well. "I think the snow on the dunes, tan and white and painted with the long blue shadows of afternoon, is one of the most inspiring views of the coast. The beach has a different color scheme for each season and those who live here know the ocean looks different every day" says Hayes.

Stressing technique in her work, Hayes strives for "natural realism." Her paintings are collected for both their skill and their subjects. Working in transparent watercolor, the vibrant colors are created by building multiple layers of paint. The complicated compositions are built in stages and require careful planning and execution. Glazing, washes, masking, and wet and dry brush technique are combined to create realistic paintings filled with light and color. The paintings typically take from two weeks to two months to complete. "I have to be in love with my subject to begin a painting -it's a big commitment of time and concentration. When I see a scene that I want to paint I get energized by it. If I can't sleep that night because I'm restless from picturing that scene in my mind, then I know I have a painting."

Hayes holds a B.A. in Fine Art from Douglas College. She began her studies as a teenager at the Bay Head studio of renown painter Earl Tyler. She has also studied portraiture with Daniel Greene and Nelson Shanks. Her work has been featured in books and magazines by Jersey Shore Publishing including "Down the Shore Once More, Volume Two" a compendium of poetry and paintings of the Jersey Shore and "Long Beach Island Rhapsody."

Yvonne Yaar

Yvonne Yaar is a graduate of Indiana University with a BS in Interior Design. She has studied Flame working and Sculpture at Salem Community College, Carney's Point, NJ and at Urban Glass Studios, Brooklyn, NY. She currently resides in Toms River, NJ with her husband and children. From early childhood, Yvonne has been exposed to different cultures, having lived outside the United States for several years. She also moved several times within the United States' own Melting Pot- these adventures have added to her rich experiences. She feels that these life experiences have affected her a great deal.

Her love of glass first became apparent on a vacation with her family to Williamsburg, VA. There at the age of 8, she saw the manipulation of molten glass for the very first time. She was mesmerized. It didn't occur to her until much later, that she could be a vehicle to this amazing process and not just an admirer. In the years in between, Yvonne collected glass, from art glass to simple wine bottles. "Glass is beautiful in every shape and form. Glass is full of dichotomies. It is both strong and fragile. Transparent and full of color. It transforms from a liquid to a solid." In the class setting, she was inspired and influenced by her teachers, Anna Boothe and Paul DeMarco.

Yvonne is heavily involved in her community and other art business related activities. She is a member of the local Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Women Business Owners. She is the Treasurer for the local chapter of International Society of Glass Beadmakers, a member of the Gallery Committee for Ocean County Artists' Guild, a volunteer for Downtown Toms River and the founding member of Toms River Artist's Co-operative Exit 81, A NJ Non Profit Corporation.

Catherine Clark-Boyd

Catherine Clark-Boyd is a native of New Jersey, born in 1968 in Point Pleasant and currently living in Toms River with her two children. Ms. Clark-Boyd grew up in Howell immersed in art being the daughter of a painter and artist Harold H. Clark. Her deceased father was an exceptional nautical painter basing his work on his many years at sea. The walls of her childhood home were covered in his murals inspiring her natural talent and imagination while her fathers lessons refined her artistic gifts.

As a child and teenager, Catherine studied under and was influenced by Michael Lepmoninoff a Russian Artist influential in the Russian Communities of Howell and Jackson NJ. Lepmoninoff instilled in her the respect and admiration Russian Culture holds for the creation, technique, honor, love and tradition in the arts. As a young woman at pookdale Community College she studied under and was influenced by Painter Lillian Frantin where she learned an appreciation for painting the human form and to stretch just beyond the point when you feel an artwork is completed to get the true completed piece.

Most recently Ms Clark Boyd gives credit to NY Abstract Artist Wes Sherman, whom she has studied under, for taking her growth as an artist to a new level by opening her eyes and mind to developing art into more than just mere rendering of reality. Ms Clark-Boyd has taken all of this knowledge, education, and influences and created her own exciting style and artistic interpretation of the human experience. As an artist she has been on an exploration to ignite a personal passion into her artwork that transcends and speaks to the viewer.

Her current ongoing series Emotive Figures explores that passion and honesty. This collection of work is a series of oil paintings on large canvases. While the human figure is the starting point each painting evokes the thought and emotion placed upon it by the artist. Design elements such as texture and color interpretations interplay with the figure offering the viewers mind follow a story or create one in their own mind. She is inspired by the human figure but does not limit her work to just the realities of what is seen or should be rendered. She states, The figure itself is my starting point: what is felt and perceived is the essence of my work.

Catherine Clark-Boyd currently is a Board and Gallery Committee Member of the Ocean County Artist Guild and teaches art classes for Teens and Adults at the Guild.

Leigha Cohen

Leigha Cohen holds multiple degrees, including a degree in Electrical Engineering.  She studied Photography at Queens College and the New School, in NYC and also attended the MFA graduate program in Photography at Pratt Institute. Her formal training is in black and white photography, but she has recently switched over to digital and color photography.  Leigha is a single mother and presently lives in central NJ with her two teenagers.

“The majority of my work is landscape scenes taken mainly in NJ. I truly enjoy nature and interacting with it. Most often you will find me rising to an early fog lit morning or standing in the summer corn fields watching a sunset or walking along one of the many canals you might find in NJ. Recently I have been experimenting more with digital abstraction in trying to create both sculpture and form”. Leigha also does portraiture.

Leigha has shown her work in several galleries and locations in NJ and NY, including the Staten Island Museum. She is a member of TRACx81 (Toms River Artist Co-operative Exit 81, A NJ Non Profit Corporation).

Jean M. Le Baron

Jean M. Le Baron is a representational artist working in diverse media, with a strength in oils and acrylics on canvas. Her subjects are varied, and refuse to be categorized.

Beginning at age three, with a larger-than-life bunny drawn on her bedroom wall, the artist emerged; self-taught through the early years, and refined as she grew.

Her artistic ability deepened through the emotional and physical turmoil in her life created by numerous major surgeries on her right arm and shoulder, causing permanent impairment. The emotions experienced in those years filled a well to be drawn from, and reflects in the moods expressed. Art pulled her through the pain and despair, forging a strength within her that could be bent, but never broken.

Her work can be found in private collections and galleries on the East Coast. Non-commissioned pieces are found locally at Erickson’s Custom Framing and Art Supplies in Toms River, NJ, and When Pigs Fly Gallery in Asbury Park, NJ.

Katie Stacy

As a child, I was certain that art would be a career in some way. Although I drew and painted daily, I lived close to an abandoned brick factory, and regularly mined its old clay pits, firing my “work” into oblivion in primitive outdoor fireplaces. I also designed and outfitted my own cardboard models with outrageous costumes, using scraps of fabric, yarn, old beads and leather, as well as anything else that caught my eye.

Many years later, I continue to be drawn to the richness and variety in fiber arts, monoprints, ceramics and painting, and explore varied media and surfaces in my work.