Ann Marenakos Establishes Adelaide Fine Art

After a rewarding 20-year career specializing in marine art at Quester Gallery, a leading source for exceptional Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Century marine art and antiques, Ann Marenakos has established Adelaide Fine Art, specializing in American paintings. Her new office is on Water Street in the charming seaside village Stonington, CT, and is open by appointment year round as well as for special shows and events.

Adelaide Fine Art will focus on landscape, seascape, marine, sporting, figurative, and floral paintings. "I offer a wide range of major and lesser-known artists, most of whom were active from 1875-1950," said Marenakos. She assembles collections of post-Impressionistic paintings, women painters, Cape Ann School, Boston School, Monhegan Island painters, and searches for items of specific interest to collectors – keeping an active "wish list" for clients. "I have always been known for art that is excellent in quality and fair in price, and I stand behind everything I sell," said Marenakos.

Marenakos's interest in fine art began as a young child. She commented, "From an early age my parents encouraged my creativity, and I took art classes in the Maxwell studio in Noank, CT and later at the DeCordova Museum, in Lincoln, Mass."

Marenakos also developed an appreciation for antiques. "I regularly accompanied my mother to her favorite antiques shop, The Red Shed in Old Mystic, Conn. There, Mrs. Gill would allow me to search the antique chests' drawers, stuffed with silver and wonderful starched linens."

Under the tutelage of James Marenakos, her father and founder of Quester Gallery, he first-hand knowledge of art was furthered. "In the 1970's, my father took me on spontaneous antique buying trips in Litchfield and Farmington counties. These road trips have become favorite memories of great times we spent together. My exposure to vast collections of wonderful American art and antiques at this time honed my eye and taught me to examine and rank pieces by quality and condition. The thrill of finding a treasure developed a life-long desire in me to one day become a buyer and seller of art and antiques myself."

After graduating from the Ethel Walker School and Lewis and Clark College, where she majored in art history, Ann began to work for her father at Quester Gallery where she sold paintings numerous important private and corporate art collections, worked with several artists' estates and their collections, planned and installed exhibitions and won several awards for her catalog designs. She became a partner at Quester Gallery, participating in more than 100 prestigious antiques shows and art exhibitions in Boston; Nantucket; Martha's Vineyard; New York City; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Washington, D.C., Chicago; San Francisco; and Naples, Fla.

Marenakos welcomes and devotes herself equally to new buyers and seasoned collectors alike. "I have had the privilege of sharing my knowledge, enthusiasm, creativity and standard for excellence with many wonderful collectors for more than 20 years. Many have made me a trusted advisor in their collecting pursuits. These relationships have been a real source of joy in my life. I look forward to continuing those relationships and forming new ones in the same tradition."

Printed in “The Gallery,” page 34, April 27, 2007 – Antiques and The Arts Weekly