Gaile Snow Gibbs – Past President

Gaile began studying painting at the age of 15 at the Art Students League of New York. Just one year later, while a student of Jean Liberté, she was published for the first time in the Art Students League catalog. The next public appearance of her work was Off-Broadway: two portraits in oil of Dustin Hoffman were commissioned for the production of “Journey of the Fifth Horse” staged at the American Place Theater in New York City. She pursued a Fine Arts Degree at DePauw University, Hunter College and the School of Visual Arts. She has since studied at the Art Students League with master pastellists Americo DeFranza and Richard Pionk, master classical painter Frank Mason and watercolorist Irwin Greenberg.

She served as a Vice President on Board of Control of the Art Students League and served as President of the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club for three years. She is a life member of the Art Students League, an associate of the Pastel Society of America, a Fellow of the American Artist Professional League, and an elected artist member of Allied Artists of America, and the Salmagundi Club.

A recipient of many awards, her work is in private collection in California, Florida, New York and Paris

Eleanor Tyndall Meier—Past President 

Eleanor Tyndall Meier paints still life tableaux in watercolor within the Realist tradition. On a surface saturated with color she endeavors to establish a world of memory and tradition using objects that have passed from generation to generation; objects that possess the potential for significance because of past associations; objects that may be grand or humble, glistening or tarnished, clear or opaque. She includes things associated with life; plants, flowers, fruit, eggs, all solid forms that reflect shifting webs of shadows. Patterned fabrics animate the paintings.

Eleanor Meier is a retired high school art teacher and supervisor. She is a past president of the CLWAC, currently Membership Chair. She is an elected member of NAWA, the Salmagundi Club, and a life member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society. She exhibits at the Long Island Museum, Gallery North, The National Arts Club, and the Salmagundi Club among other venues.

Lucille Paulsen—Past President 

I create my subjects’ visual personality with my work.  My portraits are oil paintings on panel or canvas and works on paper in pastel.  I capture likeness, but also portray the attitude behind the face.  The stories of individual subjects emerge through posture, symbols, props and sometimes humor. I explore the identities of the people I represent before painting them and then establish their identities in my portraits.  Oh, and I love painting dog’s faces.

Jeanette Koumjian—Board Member Emerita

Jeanette has served under ten CLWAC Presidents, as Catalog, Slide, Prospectus Chairs and now as Recording Secretary. She has been called the Club’s “Wordsmith,” helping to edit and proof assorted documents, from the By-Laws to A Chronicle – The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, a published history. Her service to the Club earned her the Creative Hands Award in 2004. A decade later she was named Honored Member.

After a more than thirty-year career in advertising design and communications, Jeanette turned to fine art. Rigorous study under Francis Cunningham developed sound technique to serve her creative aspirations. It was during this time that she assisted Cunningham and sculptor Barney Hodes to found the Brooklyn School of Life Drawing, Painting and Sculpture which later merged with The New York Academy of Art.

Three-months-long Residency Grants took Jeanette to New Mexico where she explored Santa Fe, World Heritage Sites in Taos Pueblo and Carlsbad Caverns. Works created during these periods were presented in Inspiration Near & Far at Mill Fine Art Gallery on Canyon Road. Closer to home the National Historical Landmark, Green-Wood Cemetery, and Red Hook, a rapidly changing industrial waterfront, have both inspired her. These paintings reveal both the graphic and intensely emotional impact of places where nature and we meet.

Jeanette’s work has also been featured in Eye of the Beholder, a one-person exhibition at the Armenian Library and Museum of America ; Art in the Yard hosted and curated by The Norman Rockwell Museum; Exhibition of Works on Paper at The Berkshire Museum; and Artists on the Move, an exhibition marking the centennial of Van Gogh’s death, at the Salle Polyvalente in Auvers-sur-Oise.

She has won many awards for her paintings and graphite drawings, including the Horse’s Head Trophy, the Medal of Honor for her drawing “Pick of the Crop II” and the Leila Gardin Sawyer Award from the CLWAC. “Common Threads Unite Us’ received Honorable Mention in The Artist’s Magazine National Competition and “Cabin – Ghost Ranch” won the Allied Artists of America Silver Medal of Honor.

Jeanette has served as an Instructor at Pratt Institute where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and is sought after for private instruction. Her works are in corporate and private collections nationwide.

Merrilee Sett—Board Member Emerita

Her work has had many group and solo exhibitions both in the US as well as Canada.  She has won several awards and is a Signature member with the Federation of Canadian Artists, NorthWest Watercolor Society, NorthEast Watercolor Society and a Full Member with the Catharine Lorrillard Wolfe Art Club, Audubon Society as well as N.A.W.A.

She is also a board member and painting co-chair for the annual CLWAC Members Exhibition held at the Salmagundi Club in NYC and in 2014 was juried for full membership with the Salmagundi Club.

Nature has always been Merrilee's strongest inspiration.  She is known for her delicate watercolors, but much of her recent work with watermedia is full of texture and vibrant color.

She hopes the viewer sees a more unique, creative and absorbing approach to painting.

Her paintings are in many private and corporate collections worldwide.