Nigerian printmaker and painter Ojo Olaniyi creates works that reflect his interest in social justice, identity, and community. He often depicts his themes in group portraits and gatherings, especially catching the innocence and curiosity of children in their expressions and interactions. “I highlight social justice,” says Olaniyi, “by showing equality and fairness in my community-focused pieces. Identity is pictured in individuality and self-expression through portraits and everyday scenes and community is showcased in the beauty of human connection and shared experiences.” Olaniyi discovered his love for art during his primary school days (1967-1973) in Nigeria. … Continue reading Prints by Nigerian Artist Ojo Olaniyi→
Watercolors came naturally to artist James Ellis. “The summer I finished elementary school I discovered my mom was taking a watercolor painting class,” he remembers. “I watched her arrange her palette and paints, ready her favorite brushes, set up a tiny watercolor board on a tiny easel, and then paint that morning’s model, a small white vase decorated with a blue printed illustration of a Chinese farmer. The vase held a few black-eyed Susans. My mom worked quickly, and in less than an hour she produced an exquisite rendering. My mom had suddenly transformed … Continue reading Watercolors and Drawings by James Ellis→
Figurative painter Joseph A. Miller freeze-frames telling moments of childhood and beyond. He focuses on the human figure in environments that create a context for psychologically charged open-ended narratives. Many of these narratives explore ideas about power and vulnerability, about enchantment and play. Children at play are often featured. “I remember as a child looking at the edge of the page of my copy of Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. I was mesmerized by how much illusion and meaning was squeezed onto that thin sheet of paper. For me, this … Continue reading Figurative Works by Joseph A. Miller→
Richmond, Va. artist Lizzie Brown paints vivid and dramatic portraits to show the beauty, resilience, and strength of African Americans. Brown remembers her own first portrait at age five. “I was standing with a blue easel before me, a white sheet of paper, crayons in the easel tray, and I wanted to be sure to use EVERY color. I was in the zone, drawing my brown skin, black hair pulled in a ponytail with strands hanging to the left and right. I had red nail polish and chose to put myself in a long blue … Continue reading Lizzie Brown’s Vibrant Portraits→
The first thing Sam Abell entreats his workshop students to do is imagine their photographs without a primary subject. “I cover up the subject with my hand and ask, is there still a photograph under here?” says the celebrated National Geographic photographer, who has lived just west of Charlottesville for going on fifty years. “The answer, almost always, is no.” That can be a tough lesson for eager photographers, but it’s easier to swallow coming from such a calm and sympathetic teacher. It makes a difference, too, that Abell has always practiced what he … Continue reading For Albemarle’s Sam Abell, Photographs Come from Within. By Russell Hart→
At three, Brooke Major picked up a paint brush and rode her first horse. Her path was set. “My grandfather had riding stables and I fell in love with horses as a young child in Clayton, a small town in the North Georgia mountains,” Major remembers. She started riding frequently, and by six, she had her first pony and began jumping lessons in Buckhead, a suburb of Atlanta. “As for painting, the passion started at the age of three when I drew on absolutely everything I could find, most of the time … Continue reading The Sculpted Paintings of Brooke Major→
This mother and son have more than most in common; Leah Oates and son Maximilien St-Jacques share a passion for photography.Oates’s grandfather was an amateur photographer who passed on his interest to her. When she began art school she was a painter and printmaker, but says she always referenced photography in both and eventually realized she was a photographer. She studied at Mass Art, Rhode Island School of Design and at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Oates also studied in Rome on a year abroad program at RISD and at … Continue reading The Photography of Leah Oates and Max St-Jacques→
I have always been interested in visual art. In fact, years ago my wife, Linda, and I owned a small art gallery. But I have long been a writer, and I wondered if personally entering the visual arts might hamper the writing. Wasn’t writing enough for one person? Then my attitude changed. For one thing, my wife and I bought an old farmhouse in the Texas countryside, between Houston and Austin. This transformed our lives. I had always lived in a city, so … Continue reading The Photographs of Christopher Woods→
When tracked down, Aaron Farrington was on a camping trip in the woods of Grayson Highlands State Park. We met soon afterwards in his basement studio in the McGuffey Art Center in Charlottesville. A photographer of many talents and technologies, his subjects include newts, frogs and mushrooms, smoke stacks spewing pollution, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dave Matthews music videos, documentaries, and vintage wet plate portraits. Farrington remembers growing up in Harrisonburg, Va. where, at fifteen, he was given his mother’s Pentax 35 mm camera and he started taking pictures. Around the same time, … Continue reading Photographer Aaron Farrington→
As I Found It: My Mother’s House Sometimes I envy my baby-boomer friends for having lost their parents quickly. Mine left this life piecemeal. It took my father two painful years to die from cancer, and soon after, without her husband to moor her, my mother began her decade-long descent into dementia. When she could no longer live alone it fell to me to empty her house, a rambling, creaky Victorian on Boston’s South Shore that she had inhabited for over forty years. Paperwork piled high on her desk told a sad tale. … Continue reading Photographer Russell Hart→
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