Three Painters to Watch at Higher Art Gallery

Discover Northern Michigan's Emerging Artists

By Hanna Lee-Kleb | Nov. 16, 2024

Northern Michigan is known for its natural beauty—rolling dunes, expansive lakes, and towering forests. The region also nurtures a creative spirit that runs as deep as its landscapes. This artistic essence is captured at Higher Art Gallery, owned by Shanny Brooke, a dedicated painter and advocate for local talent.

For Brooke, art was an unexpected calling. “I’ve been painting for about 12 years, and I’m entirely self-taught,” Brooke shares. Initially drawn to figures and narratives, her journey has led her to explore deeper themes centered around women and symbolic imagery.

Despite the challenges of balancing her time between running Higher Art Gallery and her personal creative pursuits, Brooke finds ways to keep her artistic spirit alive. “I often bring a canvas and paints to the gallery so I can work between visitors,” she explains. “It’s not ideal, but as a working artist, I don’t have the luxury of waiting for free days to paint.”

Brooke’s chosen medium, oil and cold wax, provides her with the layering and texture she loves. The addition of cold wax, an emulsified beeswax mixed with oil, gives her paintings a distinctive depth and dimensionality.

“It allows me to layer and scrape, revealing what’s underneath, which creates a quality that people often find hard to pinpoint,” she says.

This medium has become part of Brooke’s unique voice—a voice she also uses to uplift emerging artists in the community. We asked Brooke to highlight several up-and-coming artists Up North that local art lovers should have on their radar.

April South Olson

April South Olson works with encaustic—a technique involving molten, pigmented beeswax—bringing a unique, tactile element to her work. The medium is ancient, first used by the Greeks and Egyptians, yet Olson’s approach is fresh and modern.

“The texture of the beeswax fascinated me,” Olson says. “I remember as a kid blowing out candles and dipping my fingers in the melted wax. Encaustic offers that same tactile quality, but with endless creative possibilities.”

Olson’s pieces often explore themes inspired by northern Michigan’s landscapes. “When I started painting with encaustic, I lived close to Lake Michigan, and my work was filled with big, cloud-filled skies and low horizon lines,” she says.

Since moving to a wooded area, her attention has shifted to the trees, particularly the vibrant colors of fall. “Nature has always been a metaphor for life’s adventures, and as my surroundings change, so does my palette,” she adds.

Her journey into art was a gradual realization rather than a dramatic pivot. Olson had always loved art but initially considered more practical careers.

“In college, I realized that painting was my true passion,” she says. Since then, her encaustic pieces have gained traction, earning her spots in several galleries across Michigan.

“My work is like a journal, capturing moments when nature’s beauty leaves me in awe,” Olson says. “I find peace and sanctuary here, and I think that resonates in my paintings.”

Looking forward, Olson is focused on refining her technique, incorporating more sophisticated color palettes and intricate knife work.

Melonie Steffes

Melonie Steffes calls her art a “lifelong endeavor,” whether she’s painting in oils or watercolors or writing a song.

“I’m a really visual person, so I like expressing my thoughts and feelings … through visual art and music,” she says.

The natural world and the scenes of northern Michigan play a big part in Steffes’ work, but she points out that she almost always includes a “fantastical element” that sets her apart from the typical painter.

“I'm inspired by magical ideas that go hand in hand with the natural world. A lot of fun times, the writing and the visual stuff play off of each other. I’ll think of a phrase or a line that is a metaphor, but then I might see it literally and think, ‘That should be a painting.’”

Steffes’ inspiration may be fantastic, but her technique is more realistic, and she prefers to work with oils for their textural aspect. For example, she tells us of a recently completed painting that came about through a failed meditation session. When she couldn’t get her mind to quiet, she got an image in her head where “I was eating my own brain with chopsticks, and it totally made me laugh.” She then worked to translate that image into a tangible piece.

“I want to evoke something,” she stresses. “I don’t want someone to look at [a piece] and just kind of be like, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ … The feelings might not always be comfortable, and I’m okay with that. I want people to be moved in some way. And I want them to provoke maybe a little deeper level of thought.”

That deeper level may mean reading into a piece in a whole new way.

“There’s a story there, and I leave this story up to the viewer that they should fill in and choose their own adventure,” Steffes says. “I want them to feel something—and maybe be a little transported.”

Mara Manning

Like Steffes, art has always been part of Mara Manning’s language.

“I come from a family of theater people, artists, etc., and my mom was an art teacher,” she tells us. “[Art] has been my path always.”

Manning says she’s long held a love for oil painting, and she’s found her medium in oil and cold wax on wood panels. (The panels are custom made for her from clear Russian birch.)

“I really like the physicality of it and the fact that you can create actual texture on the surface of the panel,” she says. “I’m drawn to the fact that my body’s kind of involved in the painting process.”

When she starts a new piece, Manning doesn’t sit down with an exact plan but lets the process guide her. Eventually, as she builds up layers on the panel, she says she starts to “look for clues” to pull forward and “get some control over the surface.” Landscapes and cityscapes make up a lot of her work, but she says the starting point of inspiration is often Lake Michigan.

“I have a studio that looks right at Lake Michigan. … There’s a great big pine out there, and the lake is there, and the wind, and it’s different every day.”

Her pieces often have an abstract feel, with patterns repeating throughout the work to create a cohesive, multidimensional feel. Manning calls this an “overall rhythm,” which is part of the experience she wants to bring to the people who interact with her art.

“I hope that they’re finding their own journey in the work, not necessarily having to see what I specifically was after,” she explains. “[My paintings] are open ended. All the answers aren’t necessary. It’s not a realistic picture of a place, a thing, and so there's a lot of room for personal wandering through it.”

 

The Challenges and Opportunities of the NoMi Art Scene

While there’s plenty of natural beauty to inspire artists, operating in northern Michigan presents its own set of challenges.

“In a larger city, there’s more competition and exposure, but here, we’re a smaller, seasonal community,” Brooke says. “It can be hard to find spaces for art that doesn’t conform to regional styles.”

Many galleries in the area showcase landscapes, often featuring iconic places like Sleeping Bear Dunes. Brooke aims to broaden this representation, allowing for diverse artistic voices that go beyond familiar scenery.

One of Brooke’s recent initiatives is a small works exhibit featuring original pieces under $75. “This is our way of making art accessible and encouraging people to consider original art as holiday gifts,” Brooke notes, explaining that the gallery’s annual show draws over 65 artists each year.

Brooke adds that she has exciting plans for the gallery, hinting at future collaborations with other local art spaces. “There’s a lot on the horizon, and I can’t wait to see how we can foster more collaboration and growth,” she shares.

See more from each of these artists at higherartgallery.com, aprilsoutholson.com, meloniesteffes.com, and maramanningstudio.com.