Creative and artistic staff members will reveal their talents during the unique exhibition Find ART: Staff Style which opens June 2 and runs through June 13 at the Lighthouse Center for the Arts. Featuring the diverse offerings of all twelve of the staff, the show will include painting, ceramics, and drawing as well as poetry and music.

Among the talent highlighted during this exhibition will be the works of watercolorist, summer camp instructor and administrative assistant Peggy Strathdee Kirkwood. After high school studies emphasizing commercial art, she then studied graphic design, advertising and illustration at Elizabeth Seton College, Manhattanville College and SUNY Purchase. Following her collegiate experience, she worked as an art director for ad agencies in Westport, Connecticut; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and Rye, New York.

In the early 1990's, Kirkwood studied watercolor with world renowned watercolorists Jeanne Dobie and Barbara Nechis. She continues to study with Garri Katz at the Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta as well as previously having studied with instructors at the Armory Art Center. Her watercolor paintings have been purchased by corporations such as Community Savings Bank and by private collectors.

Kirkwood maximizes the interplay between pigment, water and paper to create detailed works of nature. Capturing the essence of her subject with an airy, translucent stroke, she brings life to her images.

"I am inspired by the color and glory of nature," stated Kirkwood. "My family loves to be outside, on the water, and I constantly see new ways to look at familiar things. Watercolor allows me the flexibility to enhance and embellish while staying true to the beauty of the world."

Residing in Jupiter with her husband and three sons, Kirkwood continues to paint the beauty of the tropics in watercolor along with portraits in oil. She also enjoys making jewelry. She has taught at Jupiter Christian School along with teaching summer camp at the Lighthouse Center. In June and July, Peggy will teach the beginning level watercolor class.

Heidi Mayfield, known in the art community as Heidi, studied art and ceramics at Piedmont Virginia Community College and at the Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale, Florida where she received her degree in advertising graphic arts and design. Heidi is an administrative assistant and also teaches multi-media and portfolio instruction at the School of Art.

An artist all of her life, Heidi has explored different media and techniques, and her style has meandered from graphic to realism to impressionism and now primarily to abstract with a Cubist influence. A dominant and recurring theme in her work is the female form and the aura of energy.

"I have always been intrigued by the spatial interplay of shapes and shadows in their environment and the designs that they create," explained Heidi. "My attraction to and curiosity about the designs in nature and how they effect me personally has been the inspiration for my art work."

The rich colors Heidi works with are influenced by the radiant fall colors of her native Virginia and the cool ocean colors of her Jupiter residence, both juxtaposed in unexpected and compelling ways.

Working in thin transparent layers of color and encaustic wax along with a mark making process of scratching and scraping into the painting's surfaces creates depth and intrigue in her work. Heidi's paintings are a visual fragment, a "snap shot" of the seemingly chaotic, abundant energy that is ever-moving, ever-changing and that creates all of life. Her work is a visual language that stirs the viewer and piques the same curiosity that originally compelled the artist.

Shannon Scott, the Curatorial Assistant and Assistant to the Director at the Center, has her Associate's Degree in Fine Art from Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida and her Bachelor's Degree in Fine Art from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

"I believe a composition is more interesting and exotic when I zoom in very close to my subject," explained Scott. "My love of vibrant colors leads me to exaggerate what I see in nature in the creation of my pallet."

Scott's works stir up passionate sensations with her use of brilliant colors which burst off the canvas. She enjoys expanding the traditional tropical oil painting into graphic images which generate new geometric shapes. Scott also experiments with digital and graphic designs to alter color in her same exhilarating style.

These three artists are among the twelve Lighthouse Center staff members who will present work during Find ART: Staff Style. The exhibition runs from June 2 to June13 th in the gallery at 373 Tequesta Drive, Tequesta, FL; open Monday-Friday 10 a.m. - 4:30 pm. The public is invited and admission is free. For more information call 561-746-3101 or visit online at www.lighthousearts.org.