Painting of Mount Prospect is on a Billboard!!!

Stephanie Amato’s Painting of
Mount Prospect School
Named Winner in Statewide Competition to

Help Beautify NJ’s Highways

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ – August 19, 2009 – Congratulations to Stephanie Amato of Basking Ridge, whose NJ-inspired landscape entitled “Mount Prospect Elementary School” was announced as one of 13 winning pieces in the Palisades Highway Art Gallery competition. Her painting will be displayed on Rt. 202 at Old York Rd. in Somerset County beginning the week of August 17, making passersby smile every time they drive by.

"There are so many talented artists in New Jersey, and this is a wonderful venue to exhibit work," said Amato. "I have received so much support from the Bernards School District, as well as the people of Basking Ridge."

For more than 15 years, Amato has been honing her craft through study and practice. She pursued an education in visual and graphic arts at the Parsons School of Design and at the Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts before earning an associate’s degree from Raritan Valley Community College. Amato’s work has generally been inspired by New Jersey views and landscapes and has been shown at more than 40 juried exhibitions. She is a charter member of the Pastel Society of New Jersey and coordinator for the New Jersey Society of En Plein Air Painters. Most recently, Amato received an honorable mention from New Jersey Center for the Visual Arts for her “John on the Mountain” piece, in addition to having won second place honors at the Tuckerton Paintout and Bayonet Arts Festival. She is represented by Design Domain Gallery, Bernardsville and lives in Basking Ridge with her family.

The Palisades Highway Art Gallery is the state’s first-ever highway art gallery, using prominent billboards to display the work of local artists throughout New Jersey. The initiative was officially launched on July 13 with the unveiling of two billboards by renowned New Jersey artists Tim Daly of Hoboken and Gary Godbee of Westfield. The contest inspired state artists to submit over 940 original paintings, drawings, photography and mixed media interpretations of the state’s beautiful landscapes to the Palisades Drive With a Smile Web site. Visitors to the site viewed the submissions and voted for their favorite pieces over four weeks this summer. In the end, Amato’s “Mount Prospect Elementary School” was one of the public’s top favorites and was selected to be one of the featured works of art of the Palisades Highway Art Gallery. All submissions to the Highway Art Gallery are on display on the Palisades Drive With a Smile Web site.

The Palisades Highway Art Gallery is the first initiative of the Palisades Drive With a Smile campaign, with the goal to remind drivers about the best the Garden State has to offer and create nicer New Jersey driving moments and more smiles all around. For more information about the Drive with a Smile campaign or the Palisades Highway Art Gallery, visit Palisades.com/DriveWithaSmile.

For information about Palisades or any of its more than 300 independent agents across the state, visit Palisades.com.

About Palisades

Palisades is the nice New Jersey car insurance company that gives you more. Drivers and agents get more reasons to smile with more value, friendly New Jersey expertise, and service done right. Palisades sells exclusively through over 300 independent agents and is a leader in the fast settlement of claims. Palisades Safety and Insurance Management Corporation is a Plymouth Rock managed company. The Plymouth Rock Companies write and manage more than $1 billion in personal and commercial auto and homeowner’s insurance across the Northeast. Palisades Safety and Insurance Management Corporation is the Attorney-in-Fact of Palisades Safety and Insurance Association (PSIA). Insurance is written by PSIA and its two wholly-owned insurers, Palisades Insurance Company and Palisades Property and Casualty Insurance Company (collectively “Palisades”).