Off to College? Great! Now what do you need to know?  Mark your calendar for Thursday evening, May 23 at 6:30 PM and join guest speaker Sharon Harris, MBA Independent Educational Consultant as she helps students and parents prepare to go to college. So much effort goes into being accepted to a college of choice that students often don't think beyond acceptance. This workshop will explain how to plan during those few remaining months before students actually leave home and "strike out to find fame and fortune.." Topics will include:

• Keeping up with the accepted student 'Checklist'.
• Managing your money and building a budget.
• Finding campus resources that can help you navigate to success and manage daily life challenges.

One week later on Thursday, May 30th at 6:30 PM, Sharon Harris will again be here to present a College Admissions Workshop.  Joined by James Gatto of Seacoast Tutors,  they will lead students and parents through the college admissions process. Find out how to jump start college admissions during your summer vacation by answering these important questions:

• Have you created a list of schools to investigate?
• What criteria should you use for narrowing the list?
• Have you scheduled campus visitations? --- Should you?
• Should your visit include a meeting with an admissions representative?
• Which admissions test is a better fit for you, the SAT or the ACT?
• What are the pros and cons of test optional schools?
• What’s the difference between Score Choice and Superscoring?
• What’s the difference between early admissions & early acceptance?
• When should I request letters of recommendation? Whom should I ask?

This show is a collaboration between local artists Nicole Ellis and Tony Nicholls. Nicole is a painter and Tony is a photographer. This show was first created last October for Main Street Art in Newfields, NH. Prior to that show neither artist had met. They were brought together and found that their work complimented each other, having in some cases produced images that mirrored each other or was of a similar vehicle.

For this exhibit, Tony and Nicole have produced works that emphasize the colours, textures and lines of vehicles in various states of repair or disrepair. They encompass a wide variety of automobiles from both the USA and UK, some old, some restored, some battered, some bruised.

We invite our patrons to attend a reception for both artists on the evening of Monday, April 8th from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in the Weston Gallery.  Light refreshments will be provided.

Tony Nicholls

Tony Nicholls is an English photographer living and working in both New England and the UK. He has been involved in photography since college, but recently began developing those early skills and techniques to communicate a more mature vision.

"I take photographs in order to capture the world as I see it. I tend to concentrate on scenes and objects that have strong lines, contrast and textures, sometimes in black and white to emphasize these. Many of my photographs are panoramic to capture the world as I see it, the breadth of the scene, the sweep of the countryside. I apply a similar approach to portraits, trying to find the lines, shapes and colours that make 'the person'.

In this exhibition I am trying to portray details of the subjects, to abstract patterns on a simple surface, discovering the elements that make up the shapes, textures and contrasts. I try to enhance these to bring out the elements that I wish to reveal. Some of my work seeks to force the viewer to look deeper into the image so that they find otherwise hidden details in it."

Further examples of Tony's work can be found at https://500px.com/tony110

Nicole Ellis

...when I grow up I want to live by the ocean and be a painter.... ~ Nicole Ellis, age 6, in upstate New York.

Fast forward through many years of retail jobs, side painting projects scattered here and there and welcome to my new reality. I have now been able to paint full time for a year and a half. With the support of my husband, I launched my own painting business, NicoleEllisArtist in 2018 and started my lifelong dream of painting unique images from quiet New England towns and the surrounding landscapes. With the realization that "none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow " and a passion for the process of painting to capture the unsung moments I see in rural New England areas, I set off to pursue my dream. My first year I curated or attended 19 events and sold 36 paintings total, pinching myself at every sale and being encouraged by friends and family.

2019 takes me into the second year of my endeavor and I look forward to a fun full summer of outdoor events: this year I've added farmers markets to my venue list as it blends my love of old barns, rusty trucks and mottled fields with other local makers and consumers who appreciate hand crafted goods to support a local economy.

The encouraging words I receive at outdoor art shows or gallery openings propels me forward to keep painting images that I love, be it an abandoned old truck, a collection of maple buckets looking like blue bonnets, the peeling paint on a time worn barn or craggily rocks of a seascape with a weary fishing shack. I look for the character present in each of these images and use paint to celebrate the life found within them.

It's by far the most rewarding chapter of my life so far and finally celebrates the life within me, found at age 6; waiting to be expressed

Would you like to learn something new in a new way? Learn with a Librarian is a lightly facilitated study group where participants can meet with a group of like-minded people to take an online course together with our free-to-patrons Universal Class.

Our first session will be facilitated by technical services librarian Kevin Robbitts, who will be leading Bird Watching 101.  The group will meet on Wednesdays April 10th, 24th, & May 8th from 1:30 - 2:30 pm in the library study room just off of the Teen area.

Course Description

Who do you think benefits the most from feeding and observing wild birds - the birds or us?  People of all ages, from all walks of life, study birds with interests that range from occasional pleasure viewing to an outright passion resulting in lengthy trips and major investments.  But one thing all bird watchers share is the excitement generated when a particular bird of interest or rarity is spotted -- similar to the thrill of the hunt, it satisfies our need to discover. Unlike traditional hunting, however, bird watching is about admiring the beauty of the birds in their natural habitats.

Bird watching is such an exciting world to explore.  Amazing birds can even be found in your own backyard! There is a great deal of joy derived from an afternoon spent watching these beautiful creatures. Many families participate in bird watching across generations, with grandparents and grandchildren often finding a shared interest when they are bird watching together.

This self-paced online course covers bird identification and location, feeding, types of birdhouses, equipment, emergency care and behavior and habitats. Whether you are a casual backyard bird watcher or a serious enthusiast, you'll soon discover that the more you watch birds the more you will want to learn about them.

The class is 11 Lessons & will take about 5 Hours to complete at a pace chosen by each patron.

While we encourage anyone to enjoy the course online, we ask that those interested in attending the study group register at the front desk.

The locally published coffee table book Ten Piscataqua Photographers features the portfolios of 10 regional fine art photographers.  Prints from these portfolios will be on display in the downstairs Weston Gallery throughout the month of March.  An opening reception and book signing will be held on Thursday, March 14th from 5 to 7 PM, and offer a time for patrons to talk to the photographers, buy a first edition of the book, and have it signed by the artist(s).

Ten Piscataqua is envisioned as a series of coffee table books to bring artists and their community together. Each title is a collection of portfolios for the community to discover, explore, and celebrate the local genius in our midst. Ten Piscataqua Photographers is the first in the series. The intent is to build more intimate connections between artists and art lovers sharing the same geography. The book is edited by Phillip Augusta with introductions by Laura Pope.

The Photographers

Carol Van Loon is a black and white photographer from Dover, NH. Her intimate portfolio All About Me, is an evocative exploration of her body at age 60—fearlessly taking the selfie to another level.

Philip Case Cohen‘s portfolio features a selection of architectural and scenic landscapes from his popular photoblog, The Daily Portsmouth.

Gary Samson is a fine art photographer, photography educator, and New Hampshire’s 7th Artist Laureate. His portfolio Unburdened Beauty samples a decade of portrait and figurative work with women.

Peripatetic and prolific, Rich Beauchesne is chief photojournalist for Seacoast Media Group. His portfolio Motorcycle Week tours the spectators and spectacles of Laconia’s annual bike rally.

Frog eggs, nests, tricks of light, and all manner of creepy-crawlies populate Cheryle St. Onge’s portfolio titled Natural Findings. These images evoke a powerful nostalgia—discovering, or rather rediscovering, the wonders of nature through the curious eyes of children.

In The Old Ones, Bear Kirkpatrick's portraits of men and women are multilayered wonders. The subject is first decorated in fantastic costume, often made from natural props (eg: mud, feathers, and insects) and then layered within a contextual background drawn from the old masters. The results are portraits like you’ve never seen before.

The work of Rob Karosis exhibits a consistent aesthetic, no matter what the subject. His choices are guileless, authentic, and without gimmick. His portfolio The Texture of Light draws from the natural world with images in both b&w and color.

Digital innovator Douglas Prince juxtaposes diverse visual elements to conjure up a surprisingly new photographic world, not unlike a visual poem. Images from his portfolio Panaesthetic explore the numberless possibilities offered by digital image making tools and processes.

Charter Weeks has been documenting America for nearly five decades. His portfolio of that name introduces you to people and places around the country you might think you know, but then you’re surprised with a gritty revelation or a powerful juxtaposition you didn’t notice at first.

In her photo essay The Organic Year, Karrah Kwasnik captures both the romance and the hard labor of clean sustainable agriculture. She takes us beyond the produce label for a taste of what organic really means in terms of farm life at Tuckaway and Sheltering Rock Farms in Lee, NH.