Students of local sculptor to exhibit works at Guild

Jackson

Mira Welnowska and her students Larry Brustein, Annette Gurman, Mike Rubin, Deven Stacy and Merelee Syron will present bronze and plaster sculptures and oil and watercolor paintings during an exhibition at the Guild of Creative Art, Shrewsbury.

Show dates are Feb. 3-28 at the Guild of Creative Art, 620 Broad St. (Route 35), Shrewsbury, just opposite the Grove retail center. For more information, call (732) 741-1441 or visit the Internet Web Site www.guildofcreativeart.com.

A "Meet the Artists" reception will be held from 3-5 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Guild of Creative Art.

Welnowska teaches sculpture modeling class in her studio in Jackson. Her sculpture modeling class offers instruction in modeling human form for students at all levels. She provides demonstrations and individual instruction, references to anatomy and proportion, illustrations from classical text, and composition of the figure, as the students work from a model.

Additional works by Welnowska and her students can be viewed at www.mirawelnowskasculpture.com.

Welnowska has studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, the New York Academy of Figurative Art and the Art Student League of New York. She is a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York, the Art Student League in New York, the New Jersey Chapter of the American Artist Professional League, and the Ocean County Artists' Guild.

She is a colleague of the National Sculpture Society, an exhibiting artist at the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury and a member of Sculptors Association of New Jersey and the Freehold Art Society.

Brustein began sculpting two years ago in Welnowska's studio. He has completed six figurative pieces and is currently working on his seventh piece.

Brustein's sculptures have been accepted at juried exhibitions, at the Guild of Creative Art in Shrewsbury and at the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City.

He received the distinguished merit award for his self-portrait called "Contemplation" from the New Jersey chapter of the American Artists Professional League in July 2006.

Brustein is a certified public accountant and formerly the chief financial officer of Modell's Sporting Goods.

Gurman's paintings have been exhibited in the Nassau County Executive's Office, Long Island, N.Y., the Ocean County art exhibits, in the Noyes Museum of Art, Oceanville, and she has had a one-woman show at the Manchester Library.

Gurman received the first prize award at the New York State Fair for her painting "Tranquility." She has studied with Joseph D'Tucci, Elaine Sgambati and Elizabeth Case.

Gurman has been a sculpture student of Welnowska since 2004.

Rubin has studied sculpture in the past using wet clay as a medium. He moved to Jackson in 2003 and joined a small community sculpture group. In 2004, Rubin enrolled in Welnowska's sculpture class, where he began using Plasteline as a sculpture medium.

Rubin completed the four pieces that will be on display in the upcoming show at the Guild of Creative Art. They are representations of realistic visions of the human body, cast in bonded bronze. He is currently working on two additional pieces, a realistic portrait sculpture and a figure in motion.

Rubin is a graduate of Long Island University. He has earned a certificate in Fine Art Appraisal at New York University.

Stacy has shown a marked creative aptitude over a considerable period of time. In his youth, he had extensive skilled trade experience and earned a reputation as a construction crew leader.

In a more artistic view, his museum-quality works, redolent of impressionism, were hung in the New Jersey Governor's rotunda and in a national show at Caesar's Palace, Atlantic City. He is ostensibly an expressionist for current work in architectural sculpture and pastels.

Syron has a bachelor of arts degree from Georgian Court University, Lakewood. She was a sculpture student under Nicholas Caivano. She has participated in shows at the Ocean County Guild and Artscap.

Syron has attended seminars with Smooth-On, Doylestown Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She works in various mediums, such as plastelina, ceramic clay, plaster and wire.