Thomas Spande: Artist Speak Dec. 28th

Thomas Spande will give a talk entitled "The Art of Revision", on Dec. 28th as part of 4th Friday in Sperryville. Using examples of his own art and original music he will highlight some of the possibilities for enhanced expression, and some of the pitfalls too, involved in revising an original idea in the quest for the perfect artwork. The talk will include a demonstration of principles of multitrack recording and editing, as well as a look at some of his recent drawings and paintings he'll have along to illustrate his talk. Cookies and cider will be served. Cheers!

The talk will be loosely arranged and will welcome comments from the audience. It will not be an art history or music theory lecture but rather Thomas Spande's own studio experience and philosophy in a nutshell. Be prepared to be entertained with some classic French pop music, some Schubert perhaps, and to glean a bit of music theory, art theory, and ideas about digital recording technique along the way!

GARY ANTHES AND JO LEVINE SHOW NEW PHOTOS AT MIDDLE STREET GALLERY: PRESS RELEASE

Middle Street Gallery will feature the photography of Jo Levine of and Gary Anthes during the month of October. Their show, called “East and West,” will offer photographs from Virginia and Utah.

 Levine’s photos encompass the woodlands of the Virginia Piedmont, mostly Rappahannock County, and the rugged red-rock country of Utah. “When choosing pictures for this show, I was torn between the two very different kinds of scenery, until I decided that including both would provide an interesting study in contrasts.” Levine's Rappahannock pictures capture the beauty of autumn colors as well as the subtler views of winter and spring. The wilderness areas of southern Utah, with their multi-hued rocks and soil, are best seen in the first light of dawn, Levine says. “When I saw the warm light adding its own color to the rock, I grabbed my camera and tripod and started shooting. Although I am not a morning person, the resulting pictures were well worth the lost sleep.”

Anthes's photos are recent views of the Eastern Shore of Virginia (from the Chesapeake Bay to the Atlantic) and the western shore of the Bay, from the Northern Neck down toward Norfolk. “One tends to think of these areas as havens for weekenders and retirees with fancy waterfront homes, sailboats and beach umbrellas,” he says. “There is that, of course, but there is much more of what these photos capture—abandoned houses, churches and seafood plants; decrepit old fishing villages and the remains of villages; and towns that look like they have not changed since the 1950s.” There are, as well, some nature shots from the region, mostly from Assateague Island National Seashore.

“East and West” will run from Oct. 5-28. There will be a public reception, with refreshments, on Sat. Oct. 6 from 2 pm until 5 pm. at the gallery at Rappahannock Central, 3 River Lane, in Sperryville. Additionally, there will be a reception from 6pm to 9 pm on Oct. 26 as part of Sperryville’s “Fourth Friday” events.

FOURTH FRIDAYS IN SPERRYVILLE

The Merchants of Sperryville are proud to announce the first of what they 
hope will become a cherished Rappahannock tradition... "4^th Friday” of the month, from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.  ~ Shop Sperryville ~ begins this September 28th. Art galleries, antique shops, restaurants, gift shops and other small businesses in the town of Sperryville have joined together to create a special shopping experience offered each fourth Friday on the month. Some businesses will be featuring demonstrations, “meet the artists” opportunities, along with special shopping discounts during this event. A Welcome Tent will be available at the Old School House in Sperryville on Route 211/522. The Welcome Tent will have a town map available to guide visitors to the different participating businesses, along with details of what each business is offering, and examples of what they sell. Come share the fun event, and help establish the 4th Friday tradition in Rappahannock County.  

Some of the festivities and special offers at this event:

*Middle Street Gallery will feature a "meet the artist"  in which Patricia Underwood will speak about her current work @ 7:00PM

*Sperryville Pottery will offer a 20% discount

*Haley Fine Art will offer 20% off for custom framing

*Old Way Art Center will offer a 15% discount

*Central Coffee will have a sample bag of coffee

*Triple Oak Bakery is offering samples and free hot cider along with a 10% discount

*Knit Wit is offering 50% off summer clothing and 10% store wide.

*Coterie will have a 15% sales table

*River District Arts is offering a 20% of the gift shop items

Shop Local, Shop Sperryville!

Line Shape Color: New Show Opens 31 August

Line Shape Color: Patricia Underwood and Kevin H. Adams

opens at Middle Street Gallery in Sperryville, VA from August 31 to September 30

Opening Reception: September 15, 2:00 to 5:00 PM

Two powerful and contrasting yet complementary interpretations of color and form are presented in this exhibit of recent works by Patricia Underwood and Kevin Adams. 

Patricia Underwood is a Washington-based artist with a studio in Castleton, VA who employs printmaking, novel materials and her own language of symbols to create evocative, complex and richly textured mixed media works.  This show combines two of her unique visual calligraphies – one inspired by a visual language of music, and the other sourced from pictographs, found in a cave in Aruba, of the near-extinct Arawak tribe. Ms. Underwood has executed these in pieces that combine linocuts with mixed media and encaustic on fine wood veneers, and in a series of monoprints called “Etudes”. The Etudes series was created as part of “In Unison: 20 Washington, D.C. Artists” organized by the Kreeger Museum and Millennium Art Salon and printed at George Mason University’s print studio, that is returning from New York’s Wilmer Jennings Gallery to be shown concurrently at the adjacent Confluent Gallery in Sperryville. 

Kevin H. Adams is a print-maker and painter who lives and works in “Little” Washington, VA. His current work, principally executed in oils, focuses on the effects of sunlight, with an emphasis on color and form, to convey an intimate knowledge of the places and scenes he sees around him, with a particular focus on the rich visual landscapes in his beloved Rappahannock County. Employing evocative color and bold forms, Mr. Adams draws the viewer to experience a specific moment in a specific place with him, to see what he saw, to know how it moved him.  Mr. Adams’ works have been commissioned by the U.S. Department of the Interior to commemorate the anniversaries of several National Parks, including recently Shenandoah National Park, and the U.S. Department of State has included his paintings in exhibitions at several American embassies around the world. 

About Patricia Underwood

Patricia Underwood obtained her BFA from Miami University, Oxford, OH, and her MFA from Washington University, St Louis, MO.  She has taught drawing, printmaking, visual foundations and color theory at several schools, including the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, MD. After studying the Japanese language, she began to interpret music as a universal language through her own visual calligraphy, which finds its way into almost all of her work.

The content of Ms. Underwood’s art encompasses nature, human spirituality and healing.  Bodies of work have included a series of symbolic lullabies, pictographic portraits and “Bimbos and Goddesses”, a series of etchings pairing Neolithic and contemporary images of women, “Healing Shields”, a series of icons representing social issues in need of curing and “Nine Children” addressing the price going to war exacts upon innocent victims.  The Arawak series studies the only visual traces left of the near extinct America tribe for which it is named.“Etudes”, her newest body of work incorporates her own visual calligraphy with classical violin scores.

She is represented by the Middle St. Gallery, Sperryville, VA and Parish Gallery in Washington, DC. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, at venues including the Corcoran Museum and two solo shows in Warsaw in 2007. Her work is included in numerous private collections as well as the Artist's Book Collection of the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC. and several other institutional collections.

For more info see: http://www.punderwood.com/    http://www.parishgallery.com/

About Kevin H. Adams

Having studied in Minneapolis and at the Institute for American Universities in Southern France, Kevin was singled out for his artistic ability while serving as an officer in the United States Marine Corps and was assigned as a Combat Artist.  In 1992 and 1994, the U.S. Department of the Interior commissioned two significant collections of work from Kevin, who painted the backcountry and remote areas of the Grand Canyons National Park and Glacier National Park for their respective 75th and 85th anniversaries.  In connection with Shenandoah National Park’s recent 75th Anniversary, the park’s foundation commissioned a limited edition giclée print of Kevin’s iconic “Old Rag and the Piedmont.”  And many of his paintings have been chosen by the U.S. Department of State to hang in American embassies around the world through its “Art In Embassies Program."

Kevin currently lives and has a studio in Little Washington, Virginia, where he and his partner also own and run the Gay Street Inn.   In “Big Washington,” D.C., Kevin is represented by Gallery Plan B, and in New York by MDH Fine Arts.

For more info: http://www.middlestreetgallery.org/artists/adams.html     www.galleryplanb.com 

www.mdhfinearts.com

Middle Street Gallery

3 River Lane

Sperryville, VA 22740

540-987-9330

http://www.middlestreetgallery.org/index.html

Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Contact:  

Patricia Underwood  punderwd@rcn.com ;  301.580.1377

Kevin Adams  kevin@gaystreetinn.com ; 540-522-9688

Alexia Scott ajsscott@aol.com (gallery contact)

    Rockport, Maine

Tech-head vs. Artist:

I have just returned from a photography workshop in Maine, and observing the photographers there  reinforced a belief that I have had for some time. Now that nearly all photographers have gone digital, it's tempting to think that the latest techno-gadgets will make us better photographers. A certain contingent, mostly men, buy desktop

supercomputers, a dazzling array of software and camera equipment that would make the National Geographic green with envy.  They try to buy their way and hack their way to photographic excellence. Another group, often women, worries more about art, which they practice in the field, before the shutter button is pressed. Both groups get excellent images at times. But the people who worry about subject, light and composition in the long run outstrip those who brag about the price of their latest lens and the power of their latest Photoshop add-on. I'm talking about aesthetic quality, quality that will hold up in a print on your wall for 20 years. So if you really want to improve your photography, take the $1,000 you had earmarked for a new camera and spend it instead on a photography trip. 

-Gary Anthes

Thomas Spande's Cover Art on Merritt Turner's CD


I'd like to let you know about Merritt Turner's 2010 CD with my cover art on it! This is a great CD of original music by Merritt Turner, a singer and musician in Maine, and the cover art is a quick sketch I did of him. More info about the music, and a cover image / how to purchase the CD   


-Thomas Spande