FEATURED ARTISTS
First Floor Gallery
Rebecca Padula, paintings
Rebecca Padula is a Vermont-based visual artist. A lifelong musician, Rebecca’s creative journey began as a singer, songwriter, and performer before shifting to visual art in 2020. Her work explores the intersection of memory, landscape, and abstraction, drawing inspiration from New England’s rural environment and the color field and abstract expressionist painters of the 20th century. Working intuitively with layers of color and texture, Rebecca creates compositions that reflect a personal connection to place. She works in oil with cold wax medium as well as mixed media.
Website: www.rebeccapadula.com
Community Room Gallery
Laurel Waters, paintings
From childhood, Laurel Waters developed a deep attentiveness to the stories embedded in landscapes, shaped by long hours immersed in the rural and agricultural environment around her. Encouraged by an art school her mother ran from their hillside home, she learned to trust direct perception and honest expression, guided by the lesson to draw what is truly seen rather than assumed. This intuitive, inner-listening approach remained central to her practice and was later given structure through formal arts education that integrated art and meditation. After moving to Vermont in 2006, her work increasingly focused on the Champlain Valley, gaining public visibility through exhibitions, commissions, and archival prints that strengthened her connection to local communities. Today, working from her studio in Richmond, she primarily creates commissioned pieces that foster meaningful relationships and introduce new perspectives into her work. The synthesis of her own vision with that of others has become the core of her artistic journey and the source of the vibrancy that carries her work beyond herself.
Website: www.laurelwatersart.com
Second Floor Gallery
Jeffrey Trubisz, photographs
Jeffrey Trubisz frames his work around the idea that everyone travels a personal trail, shaped by choice, circumstance, and moments of intersection with others. His own trail, both literal and metaphorical, has unfolded over more than forty years of exploring wild places—mountains, forests, canyons, wetlands, and coastlines. Driven by a desire not simply to see nature but to immerse himself in its deeper spirit, he seeks out environments that reward attentiveness and invite wonder. Influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s reflections on nature, he understands these landscapes as places of restoration, humility, and profound connection. The camera serves as a means of recording this immersion, functioning as a kind of “transparent eyeball” through which the essence of place can be revealed. Through his photographs, he invites viewers to pause, cross his trail for a moment, and experience the quiet presence and resonance of the natural world for themselves.
Website: www.onthetrailphotography.com
Second Floor Gallery
Barbara Murphy, pottery
The works in this exhibition reflect the artist’s ongoing exploration of form as inspired by the natural world. Using clay as a primary medium allows for expansive possibility, with each piece hand built through slabs, coils, and pinching. A wide range of firing techniques is employed, including wood firing, saggar firing, salt and soda ash atmospheres, raku, and gas reduction. These varied processes introduce chance and transformation into the work. The firing methods often produce unexpected surfaces and forms, which are embraced as part of the creative dialogue. Together, the pieces reveal an experimental practice shaped by material, process, and the unpredictability inherent in nature.
Website: shelburnecraftschool.org/staff/barbara-murphy
Children's Room Galleries
Shelburne Community School, mixed media
Night Sky Art was created by Pre-K and First grade students at Shelburne Community School. This artwork is a part of a larger collaborative unit from SCS in which General Ed teachers, art teachers, PE teachers, and music teachers came together to plan and teach an interdisciplinary unit inspired by the night sky. In art, students created stunning galaxy and constellation pieces, while in music they explored sounds that capture the wonder of the cosmos. PE brought the night sky to life through movement activities inspired by orbits and star patterns. In addition, the students were able to take a field trip to Town Hall for a special visit from The Planetarium Lady, where they learned all about the night sky in an immersive planetarium experience. Their artwork is now proudly displayed at the library for the 2026 Winter Art Show, showcasing the creativity and learning that illuminated this cross-curricular adventure.