Making art part of life

Mark your calendar for the first annual LOW Arts Open Studio Tour to be held Saturday, April 20 from 10am-4pm at the studios of 13 LOW artists. Visit one, two or all of them - it's free and open to all art lovers. 

Art media represented will be painting, jewelry, stained glass, pottery, fiber arts, photography, and mixed media. 

Check our Studio Tour page here for more details.  

Rain date for the tour is Sunday, April 21 from 1-5pm. Check this page for weather updates if April 20 is inclement.

Congratulations to our artists exhibiting locally and in nationally juried exhibitions and events. Please visit our Call for Artists page to learn about upcoming exhibits in our area and beyond.

The Fredericksburg Fine Art Show was held March 22-24 at the Dorothy Hart Community Center. LOW Artists participating  were Pete Brown, BJ Elvgren, Bill Mann, Christy Rappoport, Karen O'Donnell and Toni Ruther. Congratulations to Karen and Christy for winning awards in the show!

Christy Rappoport and Pete Brown had works accepted into the "Artists' Choice" exhibit at the Fredericksburg Center for Creative Arts. The exhibit runs March 30 to April 27. Well done!

Lisa Spencer Ballard won 2nd place in the "Uniquely Stafford" exhibit with her work "Goddess of the Garden." Congratulations, Lisa!

Karen O'Donnell received an Honorable Mention award in the FCCA juried "All Photography" show. Well done, Karen!

Catherine Hillis won 3rd place out of the 100 finalists in The National Plein Aire Salon online competition. Fabulous!

Welcome to Marco deVito and Heather Schumann, our newest LOW Arts members. Marco is an accomplished photographer and Heather is a potter. We look forward to their active participation!

Ellen Raguette attended a Botanical Art Retreat at Domaine d’En Naudet, France (near Toulouse) with 13 other artists from the US, Canada, Spain, England, Switzerland, and Belgium. The retreat was organized by UpTek.

On October 21st and 22nd, four of our members participated in Grace Episcopal’s 75th annual fundraiser by contributing artwork for their show and sale in The Plains, Virginia. Bill Mann, Karen O’Donnell, Sigrid Wares, and Karen Weingartner all had pieces accepted for display in this show and Bill, Karen O. and Karen W. each sold one piece in the show.

Did you see the LOW Players' production of "Guys and Dolls" and see our own Elena Pratt in the role of Miss Adelaide, the long-suffering fiancé of Nathan Detroit. She stole the show! Congratulations, Elena, on a wonderful run of performances.

Gary Close was the featured artist in September at Art First in Richmond. His focus was "paleo art."

Catherine Hillis had an article published in the latest issue of PleinAir Magazine (available at Barnes & Noble), which focused on choosing the right watercolor paper for plein air painting. The article content is available to view on the American Watercolor website here. Thank you for sharing your expertise, Catherine!

Here's a good book to pick up to learn more about the value of artmaking to you health and wellbeing - "Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us" by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. LOW Arts photographer Buck Best reports that he is mentioned in this book....we can't wait to read it!

Artist and art educator Maribeth Logan has her own studio right here in LOW, called Creative Gatherings, offering artistic learning opportunities. To be added to her list for notices of programs, email her here. We appreciate Maribeth making her studio available for our DoArt events.

The Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg, dedicated to exhibiting 3-D artwork, has accepted jewelry artist Kathy Walters into their gallery. Stop in and see her wonderful creations.

Catherine Hillis now has a studio in the Sophia Street Studios, 2nd floor, 1104 Sophia Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401. Please visit her website to learn more at https://www.catherinehillis.com/workshops.