artist bios

C.F. Payne

C.F. Payne is an artist-illustrator whose artwork has graced the covers of Time Magazine, Readers Digest, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Book Review and Sunday Magazine, MAD Magazine, der Spiegel, U.S. News and World Report, The Atlantic Monthly, Texas Monthly, Boys Life and more. He has been commissioned to paint countless politicians, authors and entertainers. He has illustrated ten children’s picture books, including The Remarkable Farkle McBride and Micawber, written by John Lithgow.

His artwork has been exhibited at The Cincinnati Art Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration, The Selby Gallery at Ringling College of Art and Design and numerous college and university galleries.

Julie Riley

Julie is a full-time contemporary artist whose art studio is based in beautiful downtown Dayton, OH. She is represented by art galleries and has successfully sold her art nationally and internationally.

Julie’s preferred method of expression is to capture the sights, textures, and values of her subjects. She regularly experiments with colors that not only complement one another, but show emotion, movement, and shape while using a palette knife or purposeful brushstrokes.

Julie says, “I experiment with different styles, mediums, and materials constantly, although oil and acrylic are a large subset of my work. It’s part of my personality to take on new adventures, both in art and in my daily life.”

Community involvement is important to Julie. She is vice-president of the executive board at the Dayton Society of Artists, and a member-at-large on the board of Friends of the Dayton Living Arts Center.

Julie’s Front Street artist studio is open to the public First Friday (5 to 9pm) and Third Sunday (11am to 4pm) of each month. She would love for you to stop by her studio to see her artwork or just talk about art. If you’d like to stop by at your convenience please contact her to arrange a time.

Lynette McCormack

I love to design and hold sacred space for creativity. What I know for certain is that each conscious creative act in our minds immerses our hearts and connects deeply to our souls—leading us into our most meaningful life. I enjoy a great story, laughing loudly, painting BIG, creating mandalas, installing labyrinths, and traveling the world to jam with other evolutionary creative souls.

During 2022, I shared a lotus painting every month. There’s a saying “No mud, no lotus” and collectively, well, we’ve been experiencing a bit of mud. So I thought what better way to take a deep breath and grow from our shared experience than to sit with lotus flower energy?

Ronnie Doyal

Ronnie was raised in the American Southwest. Her artwork, mostly quilts, are often themed around the colors and shapes of that culture.

She is a self-taught artist who is willing to explore new medias to see how they can be incorporated into a quilt. However, it is the texture brought out by the quilting process that brings the art to life.

All Ronnie’s art on Giclee 42 are prints of quilts that she has made.

Jodi Kessler

Jodi Kessler is an art educator for the Lakota Local School District in West Chester, Ohio. Her art has been exhibited locally in the Evendale Juried Photography Exhibit and the Evendale Fine Art Exhibit where she earned awards for her photographs by jurors, Kent Krugh, Dave Klocke and Christopher Walden.  Jodi has also had photography exhibited in the Clifton Cultural Arts Center's Golden Ticket art show and the Kennedy Heights Arts Center's What's Left Behind art show. In addition, Jodi worked closely with artist-illustrator, C.F. Payne, on a project in conjunction with ArtWorks to produce 2 murals on the Evendale Cultural Arts Center's Reading Road Building.

Jodi has also displayed art in performance event venues such as the Kennedy Heights Parade, the Art of Food at the Carnegie, and the 21c Art Museum.

Jodi’s students have won national awards from Scholastic, the Getty Foundation, the White House Christmas Tree Exhibit, and the US Congressional Exhibit as well as state awards at the Governor's Youth Art Exhibition.  Jodi's students have had art on display in the Wexner Art Gallery, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Contemporary Art Center.

In addition to teaching high school visual art, Jodi is an Adjunct Professor of Art Education for Xavier University and serves on the School Board for Princeton City Schools.

Ann Geise

As an artist from the Midwest (Cincinnati, Ohio) much of my work represents the landscapes and wildlife that can be found in southern Ohio. I like to paint subjects I know and see everyday — rural landscapes, backyard birds, local fauna and flora. Different seasons and changing light conditions keep familiar subjects fresh and new.  

 I also love travelling and experiencing new places. Observing things that are different and unfamiliar can generate a lot of inspirational energy. While travelling I do so with an artist’s eye, noting interesting compositions, light, shadow and color details, while mentally composing paintings.

 I’ve been interested in drawing and natural history for as long as I can remember, learning the local plants, animals and geology and how everything is interconnected. After completing a biology BS degree from Northern Kentucky University, I worked in pharmaceutical research for several years. Eventually my nature and art interests converged at Cincinnati Nature Center in Milford, Ohio where I worked as Artist & Exhibits Manager for 19 years, designing and illustrating the Center’s publications and interpretive exhibits. It was during that time I really honed my art and naturalist skills.  

Mediums I usually work with are watercolors and oils. Watercolors (and with color pencil) work best for rendering the fine details of nature illustrations and field sketches. Oil paint is my choice for landscapes and subjects  best portrayed impressionistically, where not every detail is defined but implied. 

I am currently involved with a number of nature conservation groups and create art pieces to help educate people about the importance of biodiversity in nature. I work from my home studio in Batavia, Ohio.

Mark Freytag

For more than three decades, I have expressed myself through my commercial graphic design work. I studied graphic design and fine art at the Dayton Art Institute and Wright State University.

Dayton has been my home base while designing ads, annual reports, brochures, corporate branding & websites. My commercial portfolio spans a virtual “Who’s Who” of Fortune 1000 companies in the U.S.A., Mexico, Israel and Germany. My design work has appeared in design publications, including Graphis Poster, Creativity, Best of Print, Print Regional Design Annual, and has been recognized at local and international design exhibitions.
I continue to do some commercial work, but my main focus now is fine art. I have sold my artwork to private collectors. I have sold Giclée/digital prints and original mixed media/paintings.

Painting/Mixed Media Artwork

For years I had dreamed of getting back to painting. My design career took precedence until 2010 when I decided to stop dreaming and start producing. My paintings are mixed media abstract art usually on Arches Watercolor Paper, and also canvas. The paintings also use cardboard, acrylic paint, acrylic metallic paint, fabric, glass beads, gloss and dull latex paint and gloss and dull varnishes. The artwork is inspired by diverse influences such as 20th century art, modern hard-edged painting, The Bauhaus movement, Chinese furniture, calligraphy, Roger Sayre and John Emery (two local artists), Jackson Pollock paintings ,and José Parlá paintings. A blending of structure and disorder inside defined shapes with striking and subtle color usage. These paintings occasionally use gloss contrasting with dull paint and sometimes, metallic and iridescent paint for sheen and brilliance.

My work reflects my love of order and beauty. My work is designed and has a purpose. At
the same time, I want the viewer to be esthetically, emotionally, and maybe even spiritually engaged. I want my artwork to be balanced, layered, sometimes complex and always
(I hope) in harmony with what our Creator (the Master Designer) intended for us in this world to enjoy.