Get to know us

Laurie McGowan is the founder of La Collina Artist Residency, and former Director of the Conant Gallery, Lawrence Academy, Groton, MA. Her love of Italy started many years ago as an art student in Pisa, Italy. She now loves bringing artists to marvel at and be inspired by the wonders of this dynamic culture, that calls us to observe and appreciate the dolce vita.

Having taught photography at art museums and art centers as well as Lawrence Academy, she has led workshops in Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Ireland, New Mexico, Maine and Colorado. She is a member of Monadnock Art, and New Hampshire Art Association, exhibits her work throughout New England and abroad and has won many awards.

She lives in beautiful Peterborough, NH, a haven for creatives with her husband and pets, now that her 3 grown sons are living their own adventures!

Nora Kersh, Owner of Galleria Irtus, Sutri, Italy

Thank you Kandinsky, Klee, Joan Mitchel, Conrad Marca-Relli and all my artist friends for the inspiration that has kept me doing what I love best, well into the eighth decade of my stay on this amazing planet. No small thanks to the pediatrician who discovered my heart murmur and told my parents “It’s not serious, but she will become an artist because…these children…they feel more.” This resulted in their wholehearted support for my artistic inclinations and kept me supplied with paper and Crayolas throughout my childhood. My current medium of choice, however, is a combination of watercolor, gouache and colored pencils, and my work is loosely based on landscape, flora, fauna, mythic and historical subjects.The results are meant to be evocative instead of explanatory, as I continue to explore the relationship between order and chaos that make up our natural surroundings.

Nora Kersh attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, NY State University, where she received the Halsey B. Knapp award, Boston University where she had a teaching scholarship and the Boston Museum School where she received the Boit Prize. She continued post graduate work in Rome at the Calcografia Nazionale and privately with printmaker Atilio Giuliani. She was a MacDowell Colony fellow in 1964,65 and wrote columns and feature stories for the Brattleboro Reformer, The Monadnock Ledger and the Keene Sentinel. She also did PR work for Monadnock Music. In the l970’s she was a founding member of The Monadnock Group which included Gregorio Prestopino, Blanche Dombek, Paul Pollaro, Pat Adams, Larry Calcagno, JoAnn Stover and Bebi Spina. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums in both the United States and Europe and she now divides her time between Harrisville and Italy.