Arts on Main

Community Arts Center in Gloucester, Virginia

Ballerina Painting Class for Children Ages 5-12: Collaborative Event with Bayside Youth Ballet

Ballerina Painting Class for Children Ages 5-12: Collaborative Event with Bayside Youth Ballet
Saturday, April 22
10:00am-12:00pm

Join us April 22nd, for a fun morning of ballerinas and painting with Bayside Youth Ballet, at Gloucester Arts On Main!

Come ready to be inspired by the dancers of Bayside Youth Ballet, as they put on a performance for us in the gallery! Following the ballet, the young artists will create their very own ballerina, using paint and paper collage with Christina Micket. This class is for ages 5-12. Registration is required.

This art class supports Bayside Youth Ballet and Arts On Main. Thank you for supporting the arts in our community!

Class is $25 per student.




March 2023 First Friday: “Between Layers” by Rose Nygaard & Aprille Zammit

March 2023 First Friday: “Between Layers” by Rose Nygaard & Aprille Zammit

Friday, March 3

6:00pm – 8:00pm

Sponsored by  Dr. Lourdes & Don Parker
and
Dr. Maricel Quintana Baker & Professor Kenneth Baker

 

During the month of March, Arts on Main will host a collaborative exhibit, “Between Layers,” featuring artwork by grandmother and granddaughter duo, Rose Nygaard & Aprille Zammit. The opening of the exhibit will take place at our First Friday event on Friday, March 3rd from 6:00pm-8:00pm. The show will run from March 3rd thru April 2nd.

Between Layers

The potent smell of acrylics and oils swirls together in a light-drenched studio, scattered with all colours imaginable…… Mexican music envelopes the room creating the lightness of a dance floor……… A space where it felt possible to create anything your imagination dreamt up…… Every summer Aprille got to step into that space of endless possibilities with her grandmother Rose.

“Between Layers” is the first time the two artists are showing a collection of work together. Rose is an abstract expressionist painter and printmaker. Inspired by colour, she builds layers upon layers of it in her paintings, monoprints, and collages. Rose graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from The American University in Washington, DC. Aprille is a multidisciplinary creative, with her two main mediums being film photography and screen printing. Inspired by nature, with reverence to the sea and capturing unnoticed moments of light. Aprille graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

For this collaboration, Aprille travelled from her studio in Malta, Europe, to Gloucester, Virginia in 2022 to spend three weeks creating work together with Rose. “Between Layers” is a body of work in which the two artists played off each other’s different styles and backgrounds of working. Rose begins with colour, and Aprille begins with composition. Both artists layer the two to make their work. Rose and Aprille hope the work will ignite joy and lightness in the viewer.

 

Rose Nygaard
“I always begin my work with one colour which I then react to with the next colour and continue in this way. I have been using Acrylic paints for the last thirty years. I use Golden and Liquitex most of the time. I love the Transparent colors.  Mixing some of these colors make very beautiful unusual colors, adding black or white will make the colors opaque.
I began my work without preparation; not knowing the outcome. It becomes a challenge to make it become a painting that I have not seen before. It is a challenge that I love. Creating a piece of Art, for me, is a way open for self-expression, and learning more about my likes and dislikes. It gives me visual language.”

 

Aprille Zammit
“The collaboration is the result of a bond created throughout the past 25 years. From a young age, I have always been an observer in my grandmother’s studio. Through film photography I began capturing moments in her process of making, watching her getting lost in a world of colour. This inspired me to do the same. Together with my grandmother we would critique her works, highlight areas that worked and others that didn’t. Pieces were cropped from within the painting to create other compositions, which at times required starting afresh over a “clean canvas” and often resulting in a multi-layered application. In this collaboration, I layered my work on top of her paintings to represent a continuum of her approach. I extracted elements forming the composition or the landscape of Rose’s art pieces and formed a symbiotic expression by layering the extractions in the form of lines and shapes onto the original art piece. Acrylic pens as well as the screen printing process were utilized to produce the work.”

 

Live music will be provided by Something Different Duo (Brad Sindle & Ashley Wenner). This father/daughter duo who have been performing together since 2013 at public and private events. Check out their website to learn more about them: Somethingdifferntduo.com

 

First Friday is on March 3rd  from 6:00pm-8:00pm. This event is free and open to the public.  Light refreshments will be provided. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Thank you to our Monthly Exhibit Sponsors, Dr. Lourdes & Don Parker and Dr. Maricel Quintana Baker & Professor Kenneth Baker!

Kelly’s Kids: Winter Owls

Kelly’s Kids: Winter Owls
Wednesday, January 18
 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Ages:6+

Kelly Richards will be teaching a children’s paint class on Wednesday, January 18 from 5:30pm-6:30pm. Children will be using acrylic paint to create a winter owl painting on canvas. Image above will be used for inspiration. Kelly will provide all materials.

Cost is $25 per child.




 

May 2023 First Friday featuring Mel Neale, Winner of the 2022 Annual Juried Show + Collaborative Botanical Show

May 2023 First Friday featuring Mel Neale, Winner of the 2022 Annual Juried Show + Collaborative Botanical Show

Friday, May 5

6:00pm-8:00pm

Sponsored by Ware Neck Produce

During the month of May, Arts on Main will be exhibiting works by the winner of the 2022 Annual Juried Show, Mel Neale and a Collaborative Botanical Show. The opening of the show will take place on Friday, May 5 from 6pm-8pm and will run through May 27th.

About Mel Neale

   

“Making art all my life, I have done and redone pastels, oils, graphite, watercolor, acrylics, illustration and photography. Recently I have returned to my first love, pastels, especially the luscious soft ones. Many consider pastel painting to be the purest form of making art because there is nothing between the pure pigment applied directly by hand and the support (special archival paper or board). There is no brush, no pen, no medium, and very little binder. With soft pastels, I can combine my love for drawing with the richness of pure pigment producing a painterly effect like no other medium. I approach a pastel painting much like an oil, building the layers outwards, with special attention to surface texture and subtle nuances of color. I especially enjoy painting people, landscape, and the slightly quirky or symbolic.” – Mel Neale

Mel (Mary Ellen) Neale was an art major in college and taught art in public schools in Virginia, primarily at the secondary level, for 14 years. After leaving teaching, she and her husband Tom cruised aboard a 47 foot motorsailer full-time on the east coast and in the Bahamas with their two young daughters.  They home-schooled the girls (K-12) aboard the boat, while cruising around 5,000 miles a year. The daughters now have families of their own and Mel and Tom live on land in Lancaster County.

Mel has painted since childhood. While cruising, she painted local scenery as well as numerous commissioned paintings of yachts, homes, islands and other scenes, mostly in acrylics and watercolor.  She is also a photographer and illustrator for boating publications.

Mel is a member and exhibiting artist at the Rappahannock Art League (RAL) Art Center in Kilmarnock, VA, a member of the St. Augustine Art Association, the Mid-Atlantic Pastel Society, American Impressionist Society, Pastel Society of North Carolina, and a Signature Member of the Virginia Watercolor Society. In 2021 she was honored to be juried into the Pastel Society of America as an Associate Member, one of around 2,000 pastel artists world-wide.

Group Botanical Show

A collaborative botanical show will feature artwork by Ronda Bowden, Tomoko Hamada, Trotter Hardy, Patrice Hobbs, Sue Maida, and Mary Jane Zander. This exhibit will be a combination of paintings, drawings, photographs, and 3D sculpture pieces.

Live music will be provided by Lane Rice.

Lane Rice is a seasoned songwriter, musician, and artist from Newport News, Virginia. Lane has been an active part of the music community of Hampton Roads since 2018 performing in cities like Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Gloucester, and Richmond. Lane pursues having a unique sound that is mixture of his favorite genres to perform which are Rock, Country, Pop, Soul, and Blues. These genres come out in his live performances as well as in his songwriting. You can listen to his original music everywhere music is streamed and watch him perform live acoustic or with his band Lane Rice & Co. in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

First Friday is on May 5th from 6:00pm-8:00pm. This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Thank you to our Monthly Exhibit Sponsor, Ware Neck Produce!

Opening for 2022 Annual Juried Exhibition

2022 Annual Juried Show
Friday, October 7th
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Sponsored by Will & Tish Grant

 

Join us for our Annual Juried Exhibition! The opening for the exhibit will take place on October 7th from 6pm-8pm. The show will be on display until October 29th.

The following artists will be featured in the

2022 Annual Juried Show Exhibit:

Gulay Berryman

Joy Black

Anne Brooks

Bob Carlson

George Cramer

Ellen DeMaria

Carolyn Thompson Dudley

Mary Ellis

Holland Wentz Etheridge

Dolores M. Flessner

Elizabeth Flint

Michele Garrigan

Karyn Gallion

Rebecca Grow

Patrice Hobbs

William Hoffman

Mary Ellen Huennekens

James Warwick Jones

Joann Sybil Lawson

Gayle Barbara Merrill

Mel Neale

Ian Pearce

Peg Poole

Juli Schuszler

Karen Schwartz

Mary-Montague Sikes

Janet Southard

E. Sue Sprague

Georgia Sprague

Theresa Wells Stifel

Brenda M. Sylvia

Sarah Wicker

Winners will be announced at the opening. The following prizes will be awarded:

First Place: $800 and a future solo show at Arts on Main
 Second Place: $500

 Third Place: $250

 

Matt Lively

Matt Lively is this year’s Juror and Judge. Lively is a sculptor, painter, and muralist living in Richmond, Virginia. He has designed installations, worked on films, and illustrated books. Lively tries to let his work be defined more by an openness to new ideas and opportunities than by working solely in one particular medium. His success over 25 years is a result of learning through mistakes combined with the collective wisdom of others. Collaborating with other passionate people always presents new avenues to explore that Lively believes he would never be able to experience working on his own. Lively makes images that suggest a story without a beginning or end. Learning to stop before the piece reveals too much is the most delicate aspect of his process. When not in his studio, Lively can be found teaching at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Studio School.

 

Live music will be provided by the Clan MacCool Band. 

Clan MacCool is a highly interactive band that specializes in Irish/Scottish traditional music. They offer an array of Celtic traditional (and not so traditional) songs, tunes, and reels. Pulling from old Celtic music, sea chanties and our own music over the course of nearly two decades, Clan MacCool continues to entertain, educate and enthrall!

 

The opening will take place on Friday, October 7th from 6:00pm-8:00pm. This event is free and open to the public. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Thank you to our sponsors, Will & Tish Grant!

September First Friday: Sugar and Spice- Celebrating Women Artists

Sugar and Spice
featuring
Pam Doss, Hanah Hailey, Tomoko Hamada, Kate Horne, Amie Oliver, Kristin Polich, Katie Shaw, & Blair Waters
Friday, September 2
6:00pm-8:00pm
Sponsored by Theresa and Troy Stavens

Arts on Main will be celebrating women artists with an all-female exhibit, Sugar and Spice, during the month of September. The show will feature regional and local artists. Sugar and Spice will be on display from September 2- October 1. The exhibit opening will take place at First Friday on September 2 from 6:00pm-8:00pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Pam Doss

   

Pam has always experienced the world through her hands as much as through her other senses. This is especially true of her artmaking, where process and experimentation are as important as the final product. Working with clay, especially raku firing, is a balance of control and chaos that appeals to Pam’s need for both order and freedom. Pam’s day job as Executive Director at the Bay School Community Arts Center provides an environment which nurtures her creativity, as she spends her days nurturing others’.

Hanah Hailey

Hanah Hailey was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia and has been creating paintings ever since she could hold a paintbrush. Hanah currently lives on Gwynns Island and finds inspiration all around her; especially through the ocean and the colors of the sunrises and sunsets. She believes that art can heal people and the whole purpose in creating art is to relax and cope with life’s struggles.

Tomoko Hamada

   

Tomoko Hamada is a native Japanese anthropologist and professor emerita of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.  She has been painting flowers and plants in watercolor for several decades. She received botanical art training at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and Royal Botanic Gardens Kews in England. Tomoko is a member of American Society of Botanical Artists, and also a Master Naturalist in the Middle Peninsula Chapter of Virginia.

In recent years, she became interested in painting ancient plants of Japan, such as Ohga Lotus, which is included in this Exhibit.  While not so well known in the US, lotus has played a significant role in Asian culinary, medicinal, cultural, and religious histories.   During the 1920s, Japanese botanist, Prof. Ichiro Ohga of Tokyo retrieved ancient lotus seeds from a muddy pond in Chiba, that proved to be more than 2,000 years old. He successfully germinated some seeds and distributed them. Today hundreds of nelumbo nucifera “Ohga” bloom in famous Japanese ponds. Lotus symbolizes beauty and longevity.

Japanese water iris called Kakitsubata or Iris laevigata grows in shallow waters. Kakitsubata has been cultivated in Japan for more than a thousand years and has been the subject of many famous poems and paintings. For example, Ogata Korin (1658-1716) created elegant folding screens of blue-purple irises blooming in golden pond.

Amie Oliver
   

Amie Oliver balances her full time studio practice with teaching and mentorship to artists of all ages.  Her experience teaching painting, drawing and mixed media for the MIS Degree and Studio Arts Foundation Program of Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts , as a lecturer  at  John Tyler Community College and an Associate Professor at Longwood College and Mississippi State University has helped many artists find their way pre and post degree.  She currently offers art workshops and short courses for adults and teens at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond and other non-profit art centers. Her private studio consultations for artists of every level are rewarding for both the artist and mentor. Amie’s experience teaching in higher education includes summer courses overseas for Tyler School of Art of Temple University and for Mississippi State University at The Glasgow School of Art as well as weekend courses for The Richard Bland College of William and Mary.

Kristin Polich

   

Kristin Polich is a fiber artist and passionate art educator living and working in Richmond, VA.  She creates delicate fiber pieces that walk the line between drawing and installation.  Polich studied art at Hollins University and has continued her education at Penland School of Crafts during her summers off from teaching.  She is currently teaching art at Saint Gertrude High School.  She has participated in multiple artist residencies and last year had her first solo exhibitions at Artspace Gallery in Richmond and The Petersburg Art League in Petersburg.

Katie Shaw

     

Katie Shaw was born in Asheville, NC in 1974. She began her studies at the University North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, NC. Shaw received a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and a M.F.A. in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Over the past twenty years, she has worked as a practicing artist, educator, and curator. Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally. She currently resides in Richmond, VA.

Blair Waters

   

From a young age, Blair always knew she wanted a paintbrush in her hand and bright, bold colors in her paintings. Blair graduated from Winthrop University in South Carolina with a B.F.A. in Art with K-12 certification. She is a Coast Guard spouse and a mother of 3. Moving every few years has allowed Blair to explore different climates, terrains, and cultures across the country. Blair grew up in “the country,” surrounded by family who loved the land they lived on and the God who created it; they passed all along to her. Her work is influenced by where she grew up, the people who have influenced her life, the places she has lived, and in recent years, her role as a mother. Blair has always been fascinated with color and loves using as many as she can in her artwork.

“Arranging to Art”
Sogetsu School of the Middle Peninsula

Join us at our September First Friday for this wonderful display of floral arrangements interpreted by the students of the Sogetsu School of the Middle Peninsula.

Live music will be provided by Jerry Sowers.

Jerry Sowers is an acoustic singer-songwriter from Newport News, VA. Singing and playing music from the age of 14, he continues to sing traditional as well as original folk music. Audiences enjoy not only his music, but his ability in keeping them both engaged and entertained with song subjects that range from humorous to serious social concerns.
Throughout his career, Jerry has performed in coffee house venues as well as larger auditoriums in several states up and down the East Coast, Ohio and in Michigan. His first CD, ‘Simple and Free’, was recorded and published in 2009 with a balanced mix of original songs and covers.

Jerry’s full-time occupation is teaching music in the Hampton City Schools system, where he has worked with children of all ages to inspire music and creativity in our youth. He also leads the music program in a local Methodist Church in Hampton, VA. Jerry’s two sons and three grandchildren are the pride and joy in his life.

 

First Friday will be held on Friday, September 2 from 6:00pm-8:00pm. This event is free and open to the public. Beer and wine will be available for purchase.

Thank you, Theresa and Troy Stavens, for being our First Friday Sponsors!