Members
and Friends Team up at Middle St. Gallery
by Gary
Anthes
This
month and next, the Middle Street Gallery in Sperryville will put on its annual
Artists and Friends exhibition, in which members of the artists' cooperative
show their works alongside those of selected guest artists.
The
public is invited to come and see a broad array of styles and media from some
30 artists, many of them from Rappahannock County. The show will run from
January 11 through March 2. There will be an artists’ reception, open to the
public, on January 25 from 3pm to 5pm, with guest artists introduced at 4pm.
Gallery
member Jo Levine is showing finely detailed, backlit photos of tropical leaves.
Her friend, Colleen Henderson, a well-known Maryland fine-art photographer and
photography instructor, will show an atmospheric still life of cherries on a
plate and a landscape with a tree set against a dramatic sky. Kathleen Willingham, a new gallery member, will be joined by
her friend, Jan Settle of Castleton. in a showing of soft pastels. Current
gallery member Thomas Spande will show a small, nuanced pen and pencil drawing
of two camels, framed in an Italian frame, and he is teamed with local artist
Pam Pittinger with a large, colorful and energetic painting of playful,
biomorphic shapes.
Meanwhile
Wayne Paige returns to the gallery after a leave of absence with his trademark
pen and ink drawings of clothespin-like figures. The figures, Paige says, “observe
unnamed events and populate imaginary landscapes of mountains, waterways and
forest. All takes place under the moonlight with a celestial version of the
inhabitants saturating the blackened sky.” Paige is paired with gallery member
Ann Currie with recent pen and ink and mixed media drawings.
New
member Ruthie Windsor-Mann is exhibiting two photographs from travels to Paris
and Rome. “Each photograph elicits alternative feelings when visiting two of
the most well traveled cities in the world,” she
says. She is joined by friend Ruth Anna Stolk showing some of her
favorite ink and watercolor images. “These vignettes in vivid colors, like
panels of a stained glass window, invite the viewer to imagine stories that
they evoke,” she says.
The
gallery is located adjacent to River District Arts, 3 River Lane, in
Sperryville, Va. Hours in Jan. and Feb. are Saturday and Sunday from 10am to
5pm. Call 540/987-9330 or visit www.middlestreetgallery.org for more information.
