Michalak Fine Art will open for its fifth summer season on Madfish Wharf beginning May 2026. The gallery, located at 77 Rocky Neck Ave is open Saturdays 12 to 5 May-October or by chance and by appointment. Artist, Vanessa Michalak, is a Maine native who spent many years in Boston before moving to Gloucester in 2017. Primarily a studio painter before moving to Cape Ann Vanessa quickly fell in love with painting outdoors, and the plein air process. She often laments not having had the opportunity to meet the late Charles Movalli whose work continues to be an inspiration. She divides her work between inventive, contemporary style landscapes created in the studio and more traditional processes involving plein air and painting still life from observation. She graduated with her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2017. She has attended numerous residency programs most notably the Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, Colorado. Her work was included in new American paintings issue 110. In 2024 she was a Cape Ann Plein Air juried artist and received an honorable mention for one of her paintings. She continues to draw inspiration from the Cape Ann landscape as well as the Maine coast. She is currently open to enrolling students in private lessons and teaches weekly classes at the Whale Rock Art Studio in Magnolia.