Hawkfield Gallery Fine Arts Consultants: About the Owner

Sally Caverly is an art lover, researcher and conservationist. Born in 1962, she grew up in Massachusetts and on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Sally holds a Masters of Education, a Bachelors of Arts in marketing from Simmons College and a diploma from Phillips Academy, Andover. After serving as Market Research Department Head at Houghton Mifflin Company, she operated an online retail store. Sally currently serves as a Director at the North and South Rivers Watershed Association.

Sally developed a love for the wildlife and the mountains of New Hampshire's Lakes Region early in life. Her taste in art is an extension of these loves. Her passion for art collecting and her interest in research were acquired through family environment, formal education and work experience.

Sally's grandfather was a carver and painter. Her father dabbled in painting until her mother displayed an eye for a well-composed painting. The youngest of five children, she was in tow in the 70's and 80's when her parents amassed an important collection of American impressionist paintings and sculpture. They visited New England antique shops, galleries, auction houses and private homes. The auction paddle was sometimes passed to Sally, beginning in her teens.

In her twenties, Sally began her own collection by purchasing a pastel of ducks by William Henry Chandler. She became a regular at art and antique haunts, often with a baby on her hip and a toddler in hand. While following the artists she grew up with, others also caught her eye.

Since 2008, Sally has added to her early foundation in classic art forms. She has studied American decoys and other folk art. Attending and exhibiting at most of the major decoy and sporting art shows and sales, Sally has visited folk art shows and museums, as well as the homes of private collectors. Specializing in East Coast carvers of decoys and decorative songbird miniatures, Sally also has an interest in American sporting art painters Frank Benson, John Whorf and A. L. Ripley.

When not researching or pursuing art, Sally tutors special needs students. She also enjoys vegetable gardening and spending time with her family and the dogs, cats and chickens she keeps on Hawkfield Farm. She enjoys kayaking on the North River, bird watching on the North River and on Duxbury Beach, and downhill and cross-country skiing. Sally is most proud of nurturing three adult daughters: a geologist who is an environmental consultant, a science teacher, and a ceramicist who is employed by the Pucker Gallery in Boston. The family tradition continues!

"There is no such thing as teaching a person anything. You may be helped toward learning by a hint someone has given you, but anything you really learn has got to be learned by experience."

Frank Benson