On exhibit at Central Library, May 2017.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
On exhibit at the Westover Branch Library, March – April 2017.
The McLean Art Society was formed in 1955 by a small group of artists to encourage and facilitate their desire to create visual art. They exchange information, visit galleries, and arranged to use public places to show their work.
Today, society members include working artists, art instructors, art students, and people who just have an interest in art. The club is low-key and friendly, and has members from throughout the Washington area.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
On exhibit at The Connection: Crystal City, March-April 2017
For Jennifer, no place on this earth is more majestic and naturally beautiful than the land of fire and ice. It is very difficult not to be awestruck and inspired by the gorgeous landscape, the people, and unique culture of this amazing place.
These photographs were taken during several road trips within Iceland following Route 1, from 2012 to 2016.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
On Exhibit at Shirlington Branch Library, March 2017
Arts Education is an integral part of the core curriculum and provides students with unique experiences not taught in other core areas. The arts offer powerful tools for expression – tools for making connections between intellect and emotion, tools for bringing meaning and beauty into our lives, and tools for solving problems and communicating ideas. They are an essential part of human history and provide a foundation for understanding the present as well as the future.
Studies in the arts foster perceptual awareness, cognitive processes, aesthetic literacy and life-coping skills. Participating in arts experiences enhances self-esteem, builds self-discipline, and reinforces societal values, such as cooperation, commitment, and working towards a common goal. Interdisciplinary arts experiences promote an artistically literate society and stronger understanding of oneself.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
On exhibit at Central Library, March 2017.
Each winter, the Library hosts the Regional Scholastic Art Award, a competition which encompasses all Middle School and High School students in Arlington County.
Approximately 2000 works of art are submitted for regional Scholastic awards each year. Judges award either a Gold or a Silver Certificate to approximately 300 pieces, which are then displayed on the first and second floors of the Arlington Central Library.
The list of this year’s Arlington Public School award winners can be found on the APS website.
Astrid Henkle, “Youth”
And each year, our Youth Services staff chose one piece of student work (depicting a teen) to add to our permanent art collection.
This year’s selection is Astrid Henkle’s “Youth.”
In 1923, M.R. Robinson founded this prestigious art exhibition for students with artistic talent. Each year, Regional Art Competitions across the nation select over 12,000 Gold Keys out of 100,000 submissions. These 12,000 Gold Key individual and portfolio works of art are then juried on a National Level in New York City. On a National Level, over 1,000 works of art are awarded as Gold and Silver Keys. In the past seven years, Arlington County alone has received between 7-11 National awards for both individual and portfolios works of art.
Learn more about Art at the Library.
On exhibit at Central Library, January – Feb. 2017
Bryan Jernigan’s process has always been about exploration. It’s not surprising to those who know him that his breadth of experience ranges from traditional landscapes to figures and to non-representational abstraction. “I’ve always said I’m less of a painter and more of an experimenter.”
Most recently, his process cycles between small, traditional pastel landscapes and large nonrepresentational paintings. “Once I complete a set of landscapes in pastel that take their own kind of concentration, the last thing I want to do is another one. So I cycle into large abstracts that are just as challenging, but in a different way to the landscapes. I think it keeps my work in both areas fresher.”
While Jernigan is an abstractionist at heart, most recently he has been trying to successfully bridge the gap between abstract and representational in both his landscapes as well as some figurative work. He uses acrylics in treatments of simple subjects in nature. Most recently, he has been focusing on trees and their surrounding landscapes using bold strokes and color in both painterly and palette knife techniques. As with human beings, every tree is unique and their surroundings are equally different. Joining styles together allows him to communicate landscapes in a new way with both whimsy and mystery. While he adheres to art’s founding principles – line, shape, form, space, and value – he purposefully leaves his imagery simplistic because color is the star. Jernigan’s work is influenced by the Fauvists and by contemporary artists including Wolf Kahn,
Angus Wilson and William Wray.
Jernigan teaches abstract painting for the Art League of Alexandria and recently won a grant from the City of Alexandria to create 50 different pastel landscapes. His work is held in private and corporate collections in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Brazil and Japan. Jernigan, who has a Master of Arts degree, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas and raised in Oklahoma before moving to metropolitan Washington, DC. more than 25 years ago.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
On exhibit at the Cherrydale Branch Library, Feb. 2 – May 1 2017
Titanic Memorial
Greg Embree Artist statement:
Washington in the depths of night, especially in the rain or snow, has a visual appeal that few experience. These photographs aim to convey that appeal to a broader audience.
Why did I shoot in black and white? I took my first night photographs of Washington in color. I realized early on that shooting gray buildings at night, often with snow in the scene, provided few traces of color, and that these traces added nothing to each picture except distraction. I also realized that black and white shots of Washington at night conveyed a purer expression of a scene’s composition and a crisper evocation of the monumental dimension of our city’s visual allure. The nation’s capital at night, to my eye, is a setting made for black and white photography.
I have noted on the wall plaques the date I took each photograph. I did so because these scenes-like all things-exist in the dimension of time, the slippery element that photography tries to stop. In a certain sense, it succeeds. As long as my photographs exist, the ice skaters next to the National Art Gallery will be forever young, enjoying each other’s company on a damp January evening in 2013. The Avalon Theater, whatever its future, will remain a thriving neighborhood enterprise on a bitterly cold evening in 2015. My photograph of the White House in 2014 will forever depict the home of a first family living in the building with monumental grace.
With these images, I hope to have captured a few places and moments of Washington in the early 21st century-some monumental, some modest, but each reflecting its own grasp at eternity.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
On exhibit at Central Library, February 2017.
A Project of the Afterschool Alliance, these chandeliers were created from recycled plastic bottles, by students in afterschool programs at Arlington County’s Department of Parks and Recreation, Arlington Public Schools Extended Day, the Arlington Partnership for Children, Youth and Families, Care for a Change, Kids in Action, Aspire Afterschool, YMCA and AHC.inc.
Thanks to the Out of School Time Advisory Council for sharing the exhibit with the Library.
On exhibit at the Westover Branch Library, Jan. 23 – Feb. 28, 2017.
Artist Statement:
Hello. I am Adam Dunham. I was born in Arlington, Virginia and have lived here ever since. Photography is my favorite activity as it allows me to exercise the creative element of my mind. Before I owned a camera, I would pester my parents to allow me to use theirs. Now, four years since I got my first camera, I have won a silver key award in the Scholastics competition for Art and Writing and was accepted into the Montpelier Art Center show. You can often times find me sitting by the Potomac River with my bike photographing the elegant skyline of D.C. I have also photographed around the globe, most notably in China, England, and France. I do not only see photos as a way of documentation but as a method of seeing a scene through the perspective of someone else. My favorite things to photograph are airplanes, the Potomac River, and various types of architecture.
The Yorktown High School’s Artist of the Month competition is held throughout the school year. Student’s taking an art class at Yorktown are encouraged to enter, and their work is judged by a rotating committee of teachers, students, parents and guest judges. The winning artists then have their artwork displayed in the school library, the Westover Branch Library, and the Westover Wells Fargo Bank for a month in each location. They also receive a $15 gift certificate from Deli Italiano!
On exhibit at The Connection: Crystal City, January – February 2017
Artist Julian Oteyza started playing the guitar while growing up in the Philippines, where he frequently hung out with his friends singing Beatles Tunes in the streets.
The experience inspired him to build his own guitar and invent his own unique designs.
Want to buy something you see on our walls? Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.
