Storytellers January 27 2017, 0 Comments

The focus for our gallery shows for the 2017 year, which happens to be The Bay School’s 20^th year of operation, is community. The relationships, stories and passions that we each have that are brought together to make our local community a vibrant and inspiring place to be. The “Storytellers” show is now on display in the Art Speaks Gallery, with work from eleven of our Teaching Artists. They have shared their journey both visually and with the written word.

As Kathleen Noffsinger, one of the artists on display, put it, “Come for the art, stay for the stories.”

Here are a few snippets from the stories of a few artists that will inspire you to come out and see what it’s all about:

“This envelope of negatives was intriguing because it was family, plus the compositions were interesting, as were the subjects. Although black and white images, I imagined the colors of the 40’s in the wall paper patterns, upholstery and clothing. I thought it would be fun to interpret these paintings, trying to reverse them just as computers were becoming a household item. The instructor of the painting class showed me how to scan and reverse the negatives on a computer. However, I enjoyed the challenge of using the negatives. All of this was to later influence my decision to work with black and white references for my color paintings.” –Adele Castillo

“My story will never end…it will continue in my art that is displayed in homes and galleries and handed down to future generations… and in my students’ work that is displayed in homes and galleries and handed down to their future generations and so on and so on.” –Kathleen Noffsinger

“I became fascinated with Persian miniatures, and particularly a tiny little angel (whose Persian name was Sorush) in the corner of one illustration. This resulted in 14 angels in colored pencils, cut out and placed on gold backgrounds with spacers to look as if they were floating over the paper. Eventually, I also did acrylic paintings of them.” –Linda Hollett-Bazouzi

“We finally settled in Hampton Va with our two children. This is where I found the art store down the road, “Pauls’ Arts & Crafts”. I wanted some paints and art supplies, so we managed to find a little money somehow and went shopping. I bought an easel, oil paints and supplies, some drawing pencils and books…I quickly found out that I do not like oil paints. The smell and mess was too much trouble, but I continued to draw and sketch.” –Virginia Coyle

Thank you to everyone who came out for the show this evening. We’ve received rave reviews and many have spoken about how the show has inspired them to share their own stories through their work. If you attended the show, we’d love to hear your thoughts both in the comments section and on Facebook.

Thank you for your support of the artists, their work and for your support of the Bay School as a whole. We truly appreciate each and every one of you!

New Year, New Look January 20 2017, 0 Comments

New year, new look and a brand new schedule for the 2017 show season! We here at Art Speaks Gallery are incredibly excited to share with you all the many changes that we’ve made over the two weeks that we were closed. The most noticeable change would be the color we’ve added to the gallery. The goldenrod color has been changed to a breezy, beautiful “Kentucky Haze” by Benjamin Moore and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the impact it has made. We updated the color of the front doors to “Smokey Mountain” by Benjamin Moore, which is easy on the eyes and makes the brass fixtures “pop”. We’re in the process of revamping our jewelry cases with updating the exteriors and installing some driftwood displays. The built-in benches in the front windows have been stripped down to the natural wood and will, eventually, be stained to match the benches in the gallery and some of the aluminum and glass displays have become copper and glass displays.

 Our two work weeks certainly went by quickly and we’ve still got some gallery improvements tucked away for the future, but things are really coming together and, already, we’ve received several compliments on our new look. We hope you’ll stop in to the gallery to take a look at all of the changes and stay a while to look at some of the new artwork we’ve got up on the walls.

Speaking of artwork in the gallery, next Friday (27^th), you’ll want to join us from 5-7pm as we celebrate the opening of our “Storytellers” show, which you can find out more about here.  Drinks and light refreshments will be served, several artists participating in the show will be here and Dale Peterson (gallery/teaching artist) will be reading from one of his books. It’s the perfect pre-dinner event! The next day, teaching artist, Doris Hackworth, will be giving a demo on the potter’s wheel beginning around 11:30.

Just a brief note: we’ll be posting gallery updates, articles about the art world, Art Speaks show & event information and interviews with gallery artists every Friday. So be sure to check back with us!