Changing Times -- A Gallery Gone

M. M. Sikes at Prince George Open House, Dec. 2019

One of the saddest things to happen during this pandemic is the lost of Prince George Art & Frame in Williamsburg, Virginia. I have been with a Fred Miller gallery since I finished graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early 1980s--first Whitehall, then Prince George. Fred visited my studio, then took me as one of the Whitehall artists, arranged shows and many sales for me there.

After Whitehall closed, I became an artist with Prince George where I had many shows and exhibited my work until the closure in April. I also depended on the gallery to frame my watercolors. Fred gave excellent advice and always stood behind his work. Often, when we were in Williamsburg, we would stop by the gallery just to chat with Fred. He knew all the people in the art world there, past and present. We loved his stories about travels to Paris and other places.

He had a great website set up for the gallery with a page for each artist, featuring their story and their work. He even made sure the website would work not only on the computer but for the smaller cell phone screen.

For the past several years, Fred has arranged to have an Open House event at the gallery twice a year.
It was this time last year that he held the spring event. Then, what would be his final Open House took place in December 2019. A highlight each time would be his French picnic offerings. He also created still life setups for those of us who wished to paint. Last year, instead of painting from his still life, I decided to put finishing touches on some "Just for Fun" paintings I had started earlier. Now I regret not painting from that final still life.

We always miss another gallery gone. But this is different. This is the loss of an icon from the Williamsburg art scene. We will always remember Whitehall Gallery and Prince George Art & Frame.

____________________
This from their website:

Dear friends, after 40 years of providing quality picture framing to Williamsburg, Prince George Art & Frame has closed for business. We have enjoyed working with each of you over the years, starting in 1980 on Prince George Street until our current location in Colony Square on Jamestown Road.

​Thank you for your business and your friendship.

From A to Z Blog Challenge to Art Exhibition

Last April when I began the A to Z Blog Challenge, I had no idea it would become an art project and an exhibition. Since I already had developed an interest in creating wild animal canvases to go with my novel, Jungle Jeopardy, I found myself painting mostly creatures from the wild for this project. Only one of the 26 Animal Alphabet paintings is not the original from the Challenge. That one is the "D" painting for "Dragonfly and Daffodils". It was the only pastel painting in the project, so I decided to use it as a reference for an acrylic painting on canvas that would better fit in with the other acrylics in the show.

Gallery owner Fred Miller did an outstanding job hanging the show which also features the two paintings I made for Jungle Jeopardy. The exhibition will be on view at Prince George Art and Frame in Williamsburg, Virginia through November 30.

"Dragonfly and Daffodils" pastel ©MMSikes

"Dragonfly and Daffodils" acrylic ©MMSikes

Viewing Animal Alphabet Show ©Mary Montague Sikes

How I Spent My Summer Vacation, An Exhibition of Art



 Prince George Gallery Art and Frame in Williamsburg, VA has an exhibition of gallery artists called, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation." When the gallery owner, Fred Miller, suggested the show, I was excited. After all, we had a crazy summer schedule that included five weeks on the road with a variety of destinations. I had a lot of resource materials, but most of my work is in photographs, not completed paintings.

I have dozens of photos taken in Key West, in the Mid-West, and in Wisconsin. They will make excellent resources for future paintings and provide background for more articles and even a book. Perhaps a Gothic novel will arise from the ghost tour we took in Key West. I have lots of photos taken along the way during that dark and spooky night event.

Although I completed some art work to include in the show, I am envious of Edwin Green who paints en plein air. His oil paintings from a trip to Maine are glorious and tell the story of days spent midst luscious seascapes along the coast of that picturesque state.

William Crute has a new series of paintings very different from the landscapes I've come to recognize. His lively foliage paintings in this show are remindful of Rousseau's jungle scenes. One painting with a shadowy garden figure hovering in the background especially intrigues me.

And who wouldn't envy Fred Miller who spent two weeks in France--one of them in Paris? All the artists have a story to tell about each painting or photograph in the show.

In all, there are eleven artists in the "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" show. It's a fun show to visit and imagine what the artists saw and thought as they painted or took photographs. This exhibition that stirs the imagination runs until November 27.