Cooley Gallery Artist and Instructor, Elaine Nunnally will be exhibiting her work through February 28, 2018. Elaine's exhibit is entitled "Painting the Interstate" and the exhibit captures what the beltway looks like through the eyes if an artist. The paintings are a calm and realistic rendition of what we see as day-to-day. 

For the past few years,  I have been working on a series which I call the Highway Series, or Interstate Series.    It came about while traveling on the interstate and finding the scenery so much like an abstract painting.  The elements of design are right there:  the landscape, the sky, the curve of the highway, the geometric signs, the overpasses, and the colorful cars that speed by.  We spend an enormous amount of time behind the wheel of a car, so this is a common experience to all Americans.  I often call my paintings “tributes to Eisenhower”, since it was Dwight D. Eisenhower who started the interstate system in the U.S. back in the 1950’s.    I use heavy applications of watercolor paint, sometimes directly from the tube.  The blending of bright color is done with a stiff brush (thank you Skip Lawrence) and the results are always a surprise, since I never know exactly how a painting will come out.  It’s great fun and I hope when people see my work that they will think, “Wow, I never thought about highways like that!”
~Elaine Nunnally
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Elaine has been doing art in some form or another for all of her life.   It was as natural as breathing, and, although there were no other artists in her immediate family, her parents were very supportive and encouraging.  
Although she has an undergraduate and graduate degrees in art education, she gained  knowledge of watercolor from the many workshop instructors she has worked with over the years, including Linda Baker, Skip Lawrence, Mark Mahaffey, Judi Betts, and Pat Dews, to name a few.  If you want to learn, then learn from the best! EIaine retired from teaching over 5 years ago and has finally been able to pursue her passion for painting. 
Recently, Elaine has been honored to have her work juried into some of the most prestigious national and international watercolor exhibits in the country, including the American Watercolor Society, the Northwest Watercolor Society, the San Diego Watercolor Society, and the Missouri Watercolor Society, to name a few.  A signature member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society, the Illinois Watercolor Society, the San Diego Watercolor Society, the Virginia Watercolor Society, the Missouri Watercolor Society, and the Potomac Valley Watercolor Society.

Join us at, The Cooley Gallery, for an opening reception on Friday, November 3, 2017
​from 6-9 pm.

I employ repeating and overlapping shapes to build luscious color, rich texture, and dynamic movement in my acrylic paintings.  Imperfect, organic ovals, orderly grids of rectangles, or jagged geometric forms pile atop each other, teetering between control and chaos.  These layers create unexpectedly rich moments where they intersect, producing mysterious colors, anticipated, but not mixed on my palette. Crisp, deliberate white space serves both as a pathway through the painting and as a resting place from potential overload.

I create large hand-cut templates as a way of repeating forms and patterns, rolling on fluid acrylic paint with rubber brayers rather than paintbrushes. The brayers lend a faceted, jewel-like quality to the pigment, backlit by the white of the paper.  I work in both positive shapes and negative space (the space between shapes) delighting in the complex colors created where layers overlap.  Some pieces are deconstructed by physically separating the layers into a series of mylar templates that allow only a partial view of what lies below.  Works on paper are mounted on cradled wood panels or canvas, sealed & varnished, allowing the forms to float visually beyond the edge, unconfined by conventional mat & frame.

Artist Bio

A native of Northern Virginia with an engineering background, Andrea Cybyk worked in the software industry for 15 years, studied printmaking and painting along the way, and finally abandoned the techie world to paint full-time. Having grown up in the contemporary home her parents designed and built themselves, she comes from a family of technical creatives and fiercely stubborn DIYers.

Andrea has exhibited at BlackRock Arts Center, The Cooley Gallery, Chasen Galleries, Greater Reston Art Center, ArtSpace Herndon, The Art League Gallery, Vale Arts, HNTB Architecture, Artomatic and the Workhouse Arts Center.  Her work has been in countless juried and group shows.  She has won multiple honors including two purchase awards from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.   Andrea is currently an Artist-In-Residence at Palette 22 Restaurant in Shirlington and runs an exhibit program for 868 Estate Vineyards in Loudoun County.  

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Artist Statement

Ceramics have been a constant in my life and heritage.   The shapes, finishes, and colors in my one-of-a-kind pieces reflect my experiences, environment, and what I find moving and beautiful.  Art is found in the linkages formed between the earth, the artist, and the user through the shape and functionality of each piece.  The shaping, glazing, and firing of each piece lead to endless possibilities, challenges, and new ways of self-expression as an artist.

Crystalline Glazes
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Crystalline glazes are one of the most difficult and challenging glazes to produce.This is because they are unusually difficult and time-consuming to formulate and fire.They require meticulous attention to every detail.I fire one-of-a-kind porcelain pieces to over 2350 °F in the kiln, quickly dropping the temperature several hundred degrees to the range where crystals will grow.  The crystals form in the glaze in a chemical reaction during cooling and grow from small nuclei created during the melting process when silica and zinc come together to form zinc-silicate. Each glaze composition, together with the firing and cooling schedule, and glaze thickness, makes different forms and colors of crystals. I love producing and sharing beauty from such a challenging and complex process.
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Lauren has painted her entire life. This innate creativity later translated into formal training and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from James Madison University, as well as continued development at the Art School of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, Italy. Lauren has called Virginia home all her life, moving from Lynchburg to Old Town Alexandria and now settled in Western Loudoun. She is drawn to the quiet beauty of her environment as she travels locally and abroad, using these scenes as the basis for her lush and energetic paintings.
Upon graduation, Lauren opened her own storefront in Old Town Alexandria, where she sold her art successfully for 6 years and developed a strong clientele. Many of these clients were intrigued with the hand-painted refurbished furniture Lauren sold along with her paintings and antiques, and she began helping customers with furnishing and wall treatments in their homes. This experience working on clients’ interiors naturally led Lauren to integrate her home and design skills with her fine artwork.

BIO: Denise Rosile is a painter who lives in Northern Virginia. Her current focus is on expressive representations of emotional content, which include symbols and words. She holds a BFA from the Columbus College of Art & Design, has taught expressive art, and is currently a visual art instructor at the high school level.   
PROCESS: Thematic Imagery meets intuitive mark making.

ARTIST STATEMENT: I am experimenting with the contrast between representational elements and symbolic imagery in order to express personal content and engage the viewer in a visual dialog around unspoken truths.

WORD SERIES: Personal Truths. The cage functions as the structure onto which orbs in varying stages of illumination and/or intensity exist in either a caught or freed state.  With this model I am exploring emotional currents which flow unbidden through the individual, and the words which emerge from this dynamic process. 

​FIGURATIVE SERIES: Trapped. The imagery represents the struggle for personal freedom, specifically when an individual feels powerless over her/his circumstances. The figure of a woman trapped in a box is life size, painted on a 24” x 24” canvas, replicating a 24” x 24” box in which the woman “sits” within its boundaries. 

Rebecca Grace Jones was born and raised in Hagerstown, Maryland into a family of artists where creativity was encouraged and nurtured. She studied art at Towson University, receiving an MFA, and taught commercial art at her alma mater for twelve years. 
Rebecca’s career as an artist has morphed over the decades from freelance illustrator to fine craftsperson to painter. She now focuses on painting in mixed media at her home/studio, just outside of Shepherdstown, WV, which gives her great happiness.  
Artist Statement 
When I start a mixed media painting I rarely know what it is going to turn out to be. I work intuitively and without reference. I am interested in building up textures with my materials and creating a series of layers that reveal the history of each one’s application. Often a collage is painted over, scraped off and reapplied in a new form. The repeated constructing and destroying and recreating builds a rich surface. The pieces are often finished with details, sometimes whimsical, always with attention to the subtle beauty of the mark. I paint mostly with acrylics on watercolor paper and wood panels and add Thai and Yupo papers, tissue and rice paper with inks, chalk and oil pastels, charcoal and colored pencil. 
Rebecca Grace Jones

Rebecca's work can be found in the gallery or you may view online by simply clicking on the images below to be taken to her page at our online store.

 "Wasatch II" by Laura Edwards
Original Painting
Oil on Yupo
27" x 34"

We have but one artist that uses "Yupo" for their works and it has raised quite a stir among those who attended our artist exhibition last week. "What is Yupo"....has been the equivalent of "Where's Waldo" and we enjoy nothing more than questions concerning art.

What is Yupo - Yupo is 100% recyclable, waterproof, tree-free Synthetic Paper that is extruded from polypropylene pellets. (cool right?)

What are its attributes - Super-smooth, durable, wipes clean, waterproof,  and it will not tear.

Which mediums can use Yupo - You can paint on it with watercolour, colored pencils, water soluble crayon, inks or acrylics.

As you can see, this is a somewhat new material for artists to create on, yet still unfamiliar to most. Laura's paintings may be created differently being that they are on board, canvas or yupo. It does not go without saying they are all equally impressive. If you have not yet been to, The Cooley Gallery, to view Laura's works; she is here through the end on November. 

You can view all of Laura's available work here: the-cooley-gallery.myshopify.com/collections/laura-edwards-abstract-artist

There are many reasons we enjoy having a gallery in a small town. I had the pleasure of assisting an adorable couple one day while they were in town visiting their son. They glossed over several pieces of pottery until Jennifer laid eyes on "Maria" and fell in love. "Maria" is an impasto painting in a deep mahogany colored frame with a ballet leotard and tutu adorned in rich colors of wine and blush and a stance of a young woman who can do anything on her toes. The elegance and confidence of this painting is something that does not go unrecognized. In "artistic" terms...it spoke to Jennifer.

In working at the gallery, we meeting interesting people daily. Dave and Jennifer shared where they lived and how they loved art, small talk but, still familiar. If one thing was certain, it was that they were a couple that have been through many happy years together. It was just a pleasure to speak with them as they had so many genuine words to share. Dave and Jennifer left may have empty handed but had left a warm spot in my heart.

It was about a week that had passed and Dave, not short for David - just Dave - called to ask me about "Maria".  If I could articulate sufficiently enough to put into words the tone of absolute love and excitement in his voice I would. Dave and I had several conversations over a few days in which he lovingly told me that Jennifer's birthday is coming up and she loved "Maria" so much that he wanted to surprise her by purchasing. Dave asked if "Maria" would incur any damage if she were shipped, would it still arrive as beautiful as she hung on our gallery walls. I assured Dave that I would package her up with as much care as he has for his Jennifer.  We exchanged several phone calls and text messages before we boxed Maria up and sent her to her forever home.

Dave has this husband thing to a science as Jennifer had no idea this had even happened, this is Jennifer's story:

Last month my husband, Dave, and I were strolling the streets of Leesburg, VA and walked into The Cooley Gallery.  This might seem like an average thing to do for DC folks but not for us.  We are from the Reno, NV area (northern Nevada, close to Lake Tahoe - we just had our first dusting of snow a few days ago!) and were visiting our son and his family who recently moved to Ashburn, VA. We both enjoyed The Cooley Gallery very much.  When we walked through I saw your painting, Maria, and said to Dave, “I could look at that painting every day – she is so beautiful!”  Dave and I left the gallery, had a wonderful dinner in Leesburg and headed back home a few days later.
 
Fast forward three weeks and a huge box is sitting at our front door.  Once I looked at the return address on the package I knew immediately what it was.  I kept saying to Dave as we unpacked Maria from the box, I can’t believe you bought this!  Why?  Do you love it too?  He said he bought it for me for my birthday, which isn’t until November.  He said to me, “You said you could look at that beautiful painting every day so I thought you should have something you could enjoy looking at every day.”  Dave assured me that he loved the painting also.  What a fantastic surprise it was!  Yes…Dave is a gem, I am lucky to have shared our lives together for 35 years.
 
After much discussion on where to place Maria in our home, we agreed that our dining room was the right spot.  As you can tell by the pictures I’ve attached, she fits in perfectly with the antique furniture in the room.
 
Thank you so much for sharing your talent through your paintings.(Meredith Hannon)  You truly are a gifted artist.  We will enjoy Maria forever!
 
Sincerely, 
Jennifer

We so enjoy hearing that our art is something you will forever cherish, it is the backbone of why we have a gallery. It is why we love what we do because it is so much more than "just art".