“WINTER LIGHT”: This oil on paper work by Nancy Lloyd is part of “Winter’s Hearth,” on view through March 26 at Ficus Above, 235 Nassau Street. The exhibition also includes works by Annelies van Dommelen and Anabel Bouza. Student artist Emily Bechtel is showing her art in the Ficus Café downstairs.

“Winter’s Hearth,” featuring works by Nancy Lloyd, Annelies van Dommelen, and Anabel Bouza, is on view at Ficus Above Restaurant & Gallery, 235 Nassau Street, through March 26. A reception is on Sunday, February 26 from 3 to 5 p.m. with small bites, refreshments, and music.

Lloyd has been painting with oils since 1993 and enjoys all types of subject matter. She also works in encaustics, collagraphs, monoprints, and collages. Lloyd works with oils and translucent mediums to create landscapes and abstract paintings. Her own art studio in Bucks County, Pa., is nestled in the rolling hills of a tranquil setting with nature paths and tall grasses which lend to the gentle, soft nature of her style. You can almost hear the wind as her brushstrokes and trees bend and sway with each intentional brushstroke.

She has received numerous awards, notably the Stamford Pulmonary Associates Award for the oil painting “A Quiet Moment” at the 55th Annual Art of the Northeast USA held by the Silvermine Guild Galleries of New Canaan, Conn., and the New Vision Award of Miniature Prints in Hong Kong for the monoprint “Turtle and Fish” at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Festival. Her work can be found in collections worldwide.

“FLAME”: This clayboard, acrylic, and cold wax work by Annelies van Dommelen is featured in “Winter’s Hearth,” a group exhibition on view through March 26 at Ficus Above, 235 Nassau Street. A reception is on Sunday, February 26 from 3-5 p.m.

Layers, details, and various media comprise each and every art masterpiece created by Annelies van Dommelen. There’s so much dimension, texture, and design in each scene to focus on, and yet there is beauty in the continuity throughout each piece. Van Dommelen is an artist that uses a variety of mediums and techniques. At Ficus Above Restaurant & Gallery, her monoprints demonstrate a surreal quality with a fantasy-like mood and mythology, depicting heroism as well as isolation.

She has studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and privately under the tutelage of specific artists, and also in specialty situations such as the Center for Book Arts and New York Academy of Art Graduate School of Figurative Art, both in NYC, Vermont Studio Center, and Penland. She has received two fellowship grants and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Grant, and her work has been awarded in many juried, invitational, national, and international shows. Her artwork hangs in private residences as well as corporate offices.

Bouza, a paper artist and illustrator with a background in design, plays with nostalgia, fantasy, and nature to create three-dimensional, finely cut, layered paper art designs which can make viewers jump with each movement, remind them of their favorite Grimm fairytale and take them into a modern-day fantasy world. Since moving to the United States from Cuba in 2006, Bouza has shown her work in solo and group shows in Savannah, Chicago, Philadelphia, and more recently around New Jersey.

Bouza says, “A lifelong source of inspiration is the mood and atmosphere of Soviet-era animation and stop-motion, which permeated my Havana childhood. Nighttime, the filigree of roots, and the interplay between branches and their shadow find their way regularly into my scenes.”

Student artist Emily Bechtel is showing her art in the Ficus Café downstairs. Bechtel is a West Windsor-Plainsboro South alumna. She has studied acrylic and watercolor art, and abstract art is her personal favorite. She is currently studying business management and in her spare time continues to learn and practice techniques both in painting and drawing.

For more information, visit ficusbv.com.