Faculty

Amy earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia, a Master of Fine Arts in studio sculpture from the University of Washington, Seattle and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in metal smithing, transferring from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  The pursuit of the relationship between ideas and the arrangement of materials is a fundamental thread throughout Amy’s work, as expressed in the three dimensional space of a garden or site, the two-dimensional space of a drawing and the sequenced patterning of an artist book.  Design awards include an Award for Sustainable Design from the Virginia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and an Award for Visionary Design from the Washington, D.C. Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.  In addition, Amy has books included in the book arts collections of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington and James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Ron is a co-founder of BSSS and teaches drawing and painting classes and workshops, specializing in plein air painting. In addition to BSSS, he teaches painting workshops in Connecticut at the Wethersfield Academy in Hartford, and in Massachusetts at the Springfield Museum of Art. Since coming to Virginia, he has taught art history and studio courses for Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg College, Hollins College, The Lynchburg Fine Arts Center, and the Virginia School of the Arts. Ron’s work is widely exhibited and collected. He has been recipient of over 46 awards in painting and drawing in regional and national juried exhibitions, including more than 18 ”Best in Show” awards. Ron holds an MFA degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art. For more information on Ron, please visit www.frednichols.com/annex/artists/ronboehmer/index.html or contact him at boehmerart@yahoo.com.

Shay was born and raised in Alabama. She now lives at the foot of Walker Mountain near Deerfield, Virginia where she maintains her studio. The mountains and rivers and forests that surround her home in Virginia and the landscape of her family home in the foothills of the Appalachians in northern Alabama are the inspiration for her paintings and drawings. Shay received a BA from Mary Baldwin College with a combined major in studio art and art history and an MFA from James Madison University in drawing and painting. She has taught at James Madison University and since 2000 has taught painting, drawing and design at Mary Baldwin College. Her work has been exhibited extensively and her paintings are included in numerous private and public collections. For more information about Shay please visit shayherringclanton.net.

Nan has taught courses in drawing, painting and art history at Bridgewater College since 1996, and has been chair of the art department since 1997. She has been an artist all her life, but also is fascinated by history. Her bachelor’s degree in history from the College of Charleston was put to good use in her freelance business designing and making Renaissance costumes. Nan earned her MFA at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where she was a lecturer in the university’s art department from 1991-1996.

Dymph conducts printmaking classes and workshops for BSSS, and teaches at James Madison University. She has had several solo and group exhibitions regionally in the past ten years as well as a few international exhibitions, and has won several awards for her work. Dymph received her MFA from James Madison University and is a fine arts graduate of Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. She has a Diploma from the Art of Photography from the Academy for Fine Arts in Belgium and a BA from the College for Personnel Management in the Netherlands. For more information on Dymph, please visit http://dymphdewild.com.

Abigail Dudley is a recent graduate from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, PA. While in the undergraduate program at PAFA, Abigail received numerous awards including The Raymond D. & Estelle Rubens Travel Scholarship for European travel. Abigail has exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the Northeast including in New York City, NY, Baltimore, MD, and Philadelphia, PA. Her primary mode of work is painting. Abigail works between different modes of perceptual painting and invention to explore themes of capturing the small moments in life where nothing and everything seems to coexist. Abigail is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshield Grant. Abigail also was the artist in residence at the Lois and Charles X. Carlson Landscape Residency in 2021.  Please visit AbigailDudleyArt.com for more information.

A native Virginian who works and resides in Forest, VA, David Eakin received degrees in fine art from Ferrum College, VA and graphic arts from Lynchburg College, VA.

He has studied with Don Andrews, Carol Barnes, Karen Bowden, Robert Burridge, Kathleen Conover, Vera Dickerson, and Nancy Stark.  Since 1999 he has been studying oil & gouache with Rosalie Day White of Lynchburg, VA. He paints in oil, gouache and acrylic.

Eakin is a signature member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society, the Southern Watercolor Society and the Virginia Watercolor Society.  He has served as chair and co-chair of the Annual Lynchburg Art Festival in Lynchburg VA for over 20 years.  In 1996, he joined Riverviews Artspace in Lynchburg, VA.   Eakin was a co-chair of the 2014 Virginia Watercolor Society’s 35th Exhibition. His studio is located at Art on 12TH Studios #7 (422 12th Street in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia).

Eakin’s work has been selected for Virginia juried exhibitions in Abingdon, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, Danville, Fredericksburg, Hampton, Richmond and Staunton as well as national and international juried shows in California, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. His work has received awards in regional as well as national and international exhibitions.   

“Beyond the Roost” received a 2022 group award, “The Gossips” received the 2021 Hahnemühle paper Award, “The Turn” received the 2019 M. Graham & Company Award and “The Dance” received the 2018 Philadelphia Water Color Society Award at the Baltimore Watercolor Society Mid-Atlantic Exhibitions. “The Dance” received an Award of Distinction at the 2019 Virginia Watercolor Society Exhibition.  “Walk from the Mirador” received the Best in Show Award at the 37th Annual Lynchburg Art Festival.      

David Eakin exhibits work at The Lynchburg Art Festival & Art Club; The Academy Center of the Arts, Lynchburg, VA; The Alleghany Highlands Arts & Craft Center, Clifton Forge, VA;  and at Studio 7 / Art on 12th at The Art Box in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia.        

You can see more of David’s work at – www.davideakin.com

Philip Geiger was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. After receiving a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA from Yale University, he began his teaching career at Colorado State. Three years later, Philip joined the faculty of the University of Virginia where he taught from 1983-2017. The Geigers moved to Staunton in 2017 and Philip now paints full time. A figurative artist, his long admiration of Vermeer and Degas is evident in his interior paintings populated by models, friends and relatives. He has shown nationally for 40 years, most notably in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and Richmond. Philip’s work can be found in numerous collections and institutions, and his many reviews include the New York Times, Art in America, Art News, the New Criterion and the New Yorker’s “Best 10 Shows of the Year” list. Additionally, Philip has been a visiting artist at PAFA, MICA, NYStudioSchool, Indiana University, and numerous small colleges. More about Philip Geiger can be found here as well as in a short YouTube documentary by ArtPneuma.

Award-winning Martin Geiger is a skilled painter, and an enthusiastic artist who is also a recent graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  Local to Staunton, VA, Martin enjoys painting en plein air, as well as from his studio.  You can see his work displayed throughout the East Coast, including Staunton, Lynchburg, Bath County, Charlottesville, Philadelphia & Oxford PA, and Cincinnati OH.  For more information about Martin, and to see selections of recent works, please visit MartinGeigerArt.com.

Liz teaches still life painting classes and workshops for BSSS. She has painted still life, landscape and figure paintings, showing regularly throughout the east coast from Virginia to Massachusetts. Liz received a BA in painting from the University of Virginia and went on to study at the New York Studio School, and at the Vermont Studio Center. For more information on Liz, please visit http://elizabethgeigerart.com.

Al is Chair of the Painting Department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He received his BA in fine arts and humanities from St. Louis University, a Certificate of Art from PAFA, and an MFA from the University of Delaware. He is a recipient of the Cresson Traveling Fellowship and numerous grants and awards for painting and arts education, and was designated a master teacher by both the University of the Arts in Philadelphia as well as American Artist Magazine. His paintings have been exhibited at museums and galleries across the country. He is contributing editor for Per Contra – The International Journal of Arts, Literature and Ideas, and has written two books on the history of painting: Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Direct Painting and Color: Its Traditions and Practice in Painting. For more information about Al, please visit Al Gury | PAFA – Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Kathleen Hall is a Virginia-based painter working primarily from direct observation. Born in  Ohio to a family of artists, she went on to receive her BA from the University of Virginia and an  MFA from the University of New Hampshire. Kathleen has been a resident at numerous artist  colonies including Yaddo, the Vermont Studio Center, the Alfred and Trafford Klots  International Program, the Cité Internationale des Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative  Arts. She has taught painting and drawing at multiple institutions including St. Mary’s College of  Maryland, the College of William and Mary, UNC Asheville, and Centre College in Kentucky.

John A. Hancock is a professional and studio plein-air artist and an artist-educator with 30+ years teaching both as a college art professor and working with adult students.Besides being a painter (using mostly mixed aqueous media) on panels and paper, John creates large drawings on Mylar. He is also an avid sketcher and has frequently taught sketching workshops in our Shenandoah Valley and Virginia Piedmont region. John is regularly invited to lead sketching events and workshops around the country (San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Chicago, D.C., Richmond, Atlanta, the Carolinas and Alabama, etc.).

To see his work or learn more about John, please visit www.JohnAHancock.com

Lyall Harris holds a BA in Art History from Northwestern University and an MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing (Poetry) from Mills College. Her artwork has been widely exhibited and recognized with numerous awards, including the The George Hitchcock Prize for painting from the National Academy Museum (NY). Lyall has been the recipient of fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, NALL Foundation in Vence, France, and San Francisco’s Grabhorn Institute. Her book art can be found in Special Collection libraries across the United States, including those at Yale, Stanford, UCLA, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her poetry has appeared in The New Guard, The Minnesota Review, The Vincent Brothers Review, The Perch Magazine, The Dewdrop, Prose Online, and elsewhere, and her book-length poem Barrier Island is forthcoming from The Black Spring Press Group. She co-founded and co-edited the literary and art journal The Sigh Press (2014-2019). Themes in Harris’ work include motherhood, family history, relationships, and the everyday. Lyall teaches book art and creative writing workshops and classes, most recently at James Madison University, University of Virginia, and at Virginia Center for the Book. 

For more information about Lyall, please visit www.lyallharris.com.

Emily Rose Hirtle is from Westerville, Ohio. She attended “The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and received her BFA and Certificate in Painting in 2017. In May of 2019 she received her MFA in Drawing from The New York Academy of Art. Her work is part of numerous collections such as the Linda Lee Alter Collection in Philadelphia, PA, actress and model Brooke Shields and actor Aidan Turner. She is a practicing artist and a drawing/painting instructor for numerous institutions in Philadelphia, PA.

https://www.emilyhirtle.com/paintings

Frank Hobbs is Associate Professor of painting and drawing at Ohio Wesleyan University, in Delaware, OH. A native of Virginia, Hobbs studied art at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University and later at American University in Washington, DC, where he earned his Master of Fine Art in 1984. A co-founder of the Beverley Street Studio School in 1992, Hobbs lived and had his studio in Staunton for 15 years. In addition to conducting courses at the BSSS, he also taught at Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute. Hobbs’ paintings have been exhibited both in the U.S. and abroad in Ankara, Turkey, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Bermuda, through the Arts in Embassy Program of the U.S. State Department. His work is in numerous public and private collections internationally. The artist has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Most recently, Hobbs was the recipient of an Individual Excellence in Art Award from the Ohio Arts Council. To see more about Frank, please visit http://frank-hobbsart.com.

Janly instructs several drawing, painting and enameling classes and workshops for BSSS. She has more than forty years of teaching experience and her teaching style is one that anticipates a serious quest on the part of the student who wants to develop a sound foundation of knowledge. She exhibits regionally, nationally and internationally and has participated in several group and solo shows. Janly studied sculptural ceramics as an undergraduate earning a BFA from The West of England College of Art and Design, Bristol, England. Vitreous enamel on copper as a medium for wall work was introduced a few years later and is now central to her practice along with painting. In 2015 Janly was awarded an MA in Fine Art from Norwich University of the Arts, England. For more information on Janly, please visit www.janlyjaggard.com.

Dr. Sara “Sally” Nair James is an independent scholar and lecturer from Staunton, Virginia. She has a Ph.D. in the History of Art from the University of Virginia, as well as an MA in Humanities (Medieval Studies) and a BA in Art. Dr. James spent the majority of her career as a Professor of Art at Mary Baldwin University, and was named Professor Emerita of Art History in 2016. She is currently a Lecturer and Study Leader for Smithsonian Journeys and a member of the Faculty at the University of Virginia’s OLLI Lifelong Learning program. Dr. James is widely published in books, articles, reviews and regional publications. She continues to make presentations at selected professional conferences. Dr. James is a member of several prestigious professional organizations and local community organizations.

Sarah Jones (b 1990) is a self-taught artist, with a studio practice in Virginia. In her youth, she recognized a sense of familiarity with the arts and constantly found ways to cultivate that creative desire. She started her professional career in the culinary field as a pastry chef and obtained a degree in business, all the while continuing to translate those experiences into growing her artistic craft. She uses her knowledge from her culinary training to develop unconventional artistic methods and push the limits. She is drawn to the exploration and manipulation of materials. Texture and culture are weaved into her art through the inspirations of her world travels and the wonders of nature. Sarah is currently a full-time artist and facilitates instructional sessions on painting and sculpting through various platforms. 

Shawn Dell Joyce began her career as an artist’s apprentice in New York’s SoHo area in the 1980’s and worked in the studios of many prestigious artists. She began teaching a series of plein air painting classes in the Hudson Valley in 2000, where she eventually founded a non-profit plein air school with an Arts and Agricultural mission based on the historic Hudson River School. The Wallkill River School of Art has grown considerably and Shawn continues to serve as Executive Director there. Shawn has won many prestigious awards including First in the Quick Draw at the 2017 Hudson Valley Plein Air Festival and People’s Choice in the International Plein Air Paint Out 2005 in Niagara Falls. She is a signature member of New York Plein Air Painters (NYPAP) and International Plein Air Painters (IPAP) and has been featured in many national newspapers and magazines including the New York Times and Plein Air Magazine. Shawn is represented by galleries in NY and Florida. She teaches workshops in pastel and plein air techniques across the country. Her work is included in collections in the Georges Pompidou Museum in France and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. http://www.shawndelljoyce.com

Darren Kingsley is a realist painter currently residing in Philadelphia. His training began at The Atelier in Minneapolis. In 2001 he moved to New York City to study with Nelson Shanks at the Art Students League of New York and shortly thereafter moved to Philadelphia to study at Shanks’ newly opened Studio Incamminati. Darren was a recipient of the American Society of Classical Realism Scholarship and received a fellowship from The Hudson River School for Landscapes. In 2010 he was the winner of Grand Central Academy’s Figure Drawing Competition.  Darren exhibits at The John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, in various group shows around the country, and he teaches at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia. His work has been featured in group and solo exhibitions and is included in many private collections including those of Nelson and Leona Shanks, Larry and Anne Hall and George Lucas. Darren has taught drawing and painting classes and workshops at Studio Incamminati, The Atelier, and Grand Central Academy. www.darrenkingsley.com

“It is important for me to create a painting which is interesting both up close and further away in order to engage the imagination. Inspiration is something which is honest to me and something which I believe makes a universal connection.

Recognized for loose impressionistic paintings rich with color and paint, Lynn Mehta is an award-winning artist living in Virginia. An artist since childhood, Mehta earned her B.A. in Art from San Diego State University, and has studied with internationally acclaimed artists in the US and abroad.

Mehta holds Signature Membership Status in the American Impressionist Society, the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association, and the American Society of Marine Artists. She is a Juried Artist Member of the Salmagundi Club, the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, and Oil Painters of America.

Artwork by Mehta can be found in public and private collections, books, and magazines internationally. She is represented by galleries in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Florida.

Erin Murray, originally of Waynesboro, Virginia, currently lives in Dayton, Virginia. As a National Merit Scholar, she attended the College of William and Mary and earned her BA in Painting and Drawing in 2006. In 2009, with a merit-based full tuition scholarship, she completed her MFA in Painting at the University of New Hampshire. Murray studied plein air painting in Italy in the summer of 2008 and was awarded a graduate fellowship to study and teach painting in Italy in 2009. After completion of her graduate studies, she taught painting and drawing at the University of New Hampshire, Sanctuary Arts (Eliot, Maine), Carroll Community College (Westminster, MD), Blue Ridge Community College (Weyers Cave, VA), Larkin Arts (Harrisonburg, VA), and the Friendly City Clay and Art Center (Harrisonburg, VA).

She currently paints full time at her home studio and has been teaching two-dimensional design, drawing, and figure drawing at James Madison University for six years. Her work has been included in local, regional, and national exhibitions including, most recently, the 13th Annual National Figurative Drawing & Painting Competition at Susquehanna University and annual national juried exhibitions at Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, the Academy Center of the Arts in Lynchburg, VA, and Riverviews Artspace in Lynchburg, VA. She has won numerous awards for her work, both regionally and nationally, including Best in Painting at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art’s Boardwalk Art Show in Virginia Beach, VA and Second Place in the National Juried Art Exhibition at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, Cape Girardeau, MO.

Jan Olsson is a draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout Europe and the United States, and is included in a number of private and public collections.

Jan is a native of the American Southwest and received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Drawing from the University of Arizona in 1980. That summer she moved to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley to join the Fine Arts faculty at Mary Baldwin College. While residing in Virginia, Jan’s paintings and drawings were included in two of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s biennial exhibitions. In 1989, Jan received the Virginia Professional Fellowship in Painting.

During her tenure at Mary Baldwin, Jan completed three residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France. During her third residency, she began to exhibit in Paris and received critical attention from the international press. Her paintings were shown in three of Paris’s juried salons including the most respected Salon de Montrouge. In 1990 Jan established residency in France at La Ruche, one of the last of Paris’s historic artist’s colonies. In 2014 she was elected Artist’s Representative and serves on the administrative board of the La Ruche-Seydoux Foundation. Jan’s etching press is now at La Ruche. She paints and teaches in a nearby studio close to the Parc André Citroën. https://janolssonart.com/

Lincoln Perry attended Columbia University and received his MFA from Queens College. He has taught at the Universities of New Hampshire, Arkansas, and Virginia. His work has been widely exhibited in a variety of venues, including more than a dozen solo shows, and his paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the University of Virginia and the Shell Oil Company. In addition to his work as an easel painter, Lincoln’s mural works include commissions at Cabell Hall at the University of Virginia; Lincoln Square, 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, and One Penn Plaza in Washington, D.C.; the Federal Courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida; and the Met Life Building in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the author of Lincoln Perry’s Charlottesville, a collection of his paintings of that city, and a selection of his watercolors illustrates a 2012 edition of Henry David Thoreau’s essay October, or Autumnal Tints. Perry’s work can also be seen in the documentary The Murals of Lincoln Perry, which has appeared on PBS. Perry lives with his wife, Ann Beattie, in Staunton, Virginia; York, Maine; and Key West, Florida. www.lincolnperry.com

Edmond Praybe is a painter concerned with the convergence of perception and abstraction. His work pairs intense direct observation of the motif with abstractions of structure, rhythm, shape and color. He received his BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art and MFA from the New York Studio School. Edmond’s work has been shown widely at juried and invitational exhibitions. He has been the recipient of the Hohenberg Travel Grant, two Mercedes Matter Awards  and was a National Parks Artist-In-Residence at Catoctin Mountain Park. Edmond teaches studio classes and lectures regularly in-person and online. He is a member of Zeuxis: An Association of Still Life Painters and is currently represented by Tregony Gallery in Cornwall, UK, First Street Gallery in New York City and Peterson Contemporary in Bend, OR.

Karen Rosasco returns to Beverley Street Studio School to teach mixed media workshops.  Karen graduated from the State University of NY at New Paltz with an honors degree in Art Education. She taught high school art for over 30 years helping students develop portfolios for the top design schools in the nation. During this time she also earned over 50 graduate credit hours and taught adults in evening courses for over 25 years. After retiring from public school instruction, Karen continues to teach adult classes and give workshops around the country.  Her prize winning art work has been accepted in regional and national juried shows including the American Watercolor Society, Salmagundi Club and Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Exhibitions in NYC, and can be found in private and corporate collections in the USA.
www.karenrosasco.com

Susan is a late-blooming artist. After graduating from college with a BA degree in English, raising a family and having careers in retail and real estate, she received art instruction in workshops. Susan finds the mixed media approach to art exciting, as it offers so many opportunities for expression. Her love of learning is satisfied by this ever-evolving medium. Her earlier creative outlet was music when she sang with a regional opera company and the Long Island Philharmonic. She says, “Like learning to sing, learning to paint is sometimes tedious, but ultimately rewarding!” Susan’s work has been recognized with awards from regional and national exhibits . Her paintings are shown in fine art galleries and are held in private and public collections. Susan’s painting “Concert Night” was commissioned to serve as cover art for Love Letters to Music, a poetry collection by JoAnn Falletta, music director of the Virginia Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Ryan Russell is a co-founder of BSSS, and an active plein air painter in the Shenandoah Valley and beyond.  Having received an MFA from James Madison University, Ryan’s work can be found in private, public and corporate collections throughout the U.S.  His work can also be viewed in The Artist and the American Landscape, and The Virginia Landscape: A Cultural History. 

Peg has been painting in watercolors for 37 years, and teaching watercolor painting for 18 years. She is a signature member of the Virginia Watercolor Society, and has won several awards for her watercolors. She is known for her encouraging, positive way of teaching. To see examples of her work, visit www.pegsheridan.com.

At the age of fourteen, I began lessons in watercolor at the Art Students League in New York City with Mario Cooper, then President of the American Watercolor Society.  I began working as a professional artist, taking commissions, while still in graduate school at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y.. 

In 2006 I had a pastel accepted to show with the Pastel Society of America in Gramercy Park, New York. In 2007 and 2011 I won the commission to create a watercolor painting used for the Montpelier Hunt Races poster which was auctioned for the foundation. A limited edition of fine art prints of the painting was offered for sale to benefit the Montpelier Race Foundation. In November of 2007 I exhibited with The American Artist Professional League at the Salmagundi Club in N.Y.C. and received the top honor for watermedia. I had work in the 18th Annual Juried exhibition at the Bowery Gallery in Chelsea, N.Y.C. and I exhibited at Flux Gallery and The Red Door Gallery in Virginia and had four paintings accepted into a juried show at the Jeffrey Leder Gallery in New York City. In 2020 I exhibited at The Salmagundi Club with the American Watercolor Society, where I am an associate member.

I have been an adjunct faculty member in the School of Art, Design and Art History at James Madison University for over 25 years.

www.maryshira.com

Jeffery teaches several still life painting and figure drawing classes and workshops for BSSS. His work has been exhibited extensively regionally and his paintings have been featured in such notable publications as Southern Accents, The Washington Post, Traditional Homes, and D.C. House Magazine. Jeffery received a BFA from James Madison University’s College of Art and Design with intensive study in large-scale figure paintings at the Corcoran School of Art and Design. For more information on Jeffery, please visit http://www.jefferystockberger.com/.

Robert leads a painting critique class for BSSS. He has also taught at James Madison University, University of Virginia, and Mary Baldwin University. He received an “Academy Award in Art” from the American Academy of Arts & Letters in 2004. Robert has exhibited extensively over the past 30 years and his works are included in numerous museum, corporate, public and private collections regionally. Robert holds an MFA from James Madison University and a BFA from Boston University. For more information about Robert, please visit www.robertstuart.net.

Misa, a native of Nara, Japan, holds a B.A. in English Literature with emphasis on Shakespeare and drama from Kwansei Gakuin University; a B.A. in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts; and a M.A. in Music Composition from New York University. She has taught music in Japan; taught Japanese in New York City; founded the Japanese language program at Virginia Military Institute; and taught Introduction to Japanese Traditional Theater and Introduction to Noh Theater through OLLI at UVA. She is the translator of a two-volume autobiography, Voice of Fire, Voice of Earth, and Encounters with Fire, Encounters with Peoples by Shiho Kanzaki, a Japanese potter.

Born in Lima, Peru in 1957, Tapia initially studied Industrial Engineering and Communications at the University of Lima, Peru, during the mid 1970s. His path led him to the United States to study Painting at Santa Monica College in Los Angeles, California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1984 and his master’s degree in 1987 at the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with highest honors. In 2010 he was awarded the Teresa Pollak Award in the Fine Arts category in Richmond, VA. He has been awarded several grants and scholarships and has participated in numerous international and national exhibitions. 

Tapia’s works belong in several important museum collections including: The National Museum of Culture, Lima, Peru; The Museo Pedro de Osma, Chorrillos, Lima, Peru; The Peruvian-North American Cultural Institute, Lima,Peru. The Ogden Museum of Southern Arts, New Orleans, Louisiana; the Global Centre for Drawing, Langford 120, Melbourne, Australia. 

He was Director and Founder of VCU in PERU, a study abroad program for 24 years, as well as Associate professor in the Department of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he taught for 33 years.

Tapia is represented by Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA. 

Laura Vahlberg lives and paints in Roanoke, Virginia in the United States. Her work is about the everyday and mundane within the context of formal abstraction. She works on site in front of the motif, nature acting as both reference material and active contributor. Atmosphere as well as an abstract experience of light are forces utilized to create familiar moments indoors and out in the landscape.

Laura Vahlberg’s oil paintings can be found on her website at www.lauravahlberg.com, on instagram @lauravahlberg, and at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA.

Chris Watts was born and raised in Southern California where she got her fine art and art history education. She worked in corporate marketing as a graphic artist both in California for 20 years and 8 years here in Virginia. Chris is an abstract painter/printmaker, but also makes time for local urban sketching in Staunton. She has shown her artwork in group and solo exhibitions on the east coast and received numerous awards. Her paintings can be found in private collections in the U.S. and abroad. Visit christinewattsart.com to view her largest collection of work.

Stewart is a watercolorist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is one of the rare plein air painters using the medium of watercolor. His background in architectural illustration adds to his skill set and his paintings reflect his knowledge of good design. Stewart’s paintings have the pleasing combination of good structure with a painterly style. Stewart studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and after serving 3 years in the US Army he returned to graduate from UC Berkeley with a BFA. He works as an architectural illustrator and designer.

His watercolors both in his architecture illustrations and in painting competitions have won him many awards. In June 2009 he was invited to teach a workshop in Paris on his techniques for architectural watercolors to an organization of architects. He continues to teach in Paris every other year. Stewart is President of the Mid-Atlantic Plein-Air Painters Association (MAPAPA). He exhibits his paintings in juried and gallery exhibitions throughout the US. He is the Grand Prize Winner of the prestigious Easton Plein air Festival (2009) and Plein Air magazine’s Grand Prize Salon. He was a featured artist in McBride Gallery’s June 2009 exhibit: “Rising Stars: 10 Artists to Watch.” Stewart is a member of the American Impressionists Society (AIS), a signature member of the National Watercolor Society (NWS), a signature member of The American Watercolor Society (AWS) and past President (2012) of The American Society of Architectural Illustrators (ASAI).