by cbhendricks | Sep 27, 2017 | artwork, community, First Friday
I love hosting artists in our space. It gives them a place to engage fans, sell their work, and frankly makes our space look even better. It takes time and money to hang the work, feed the attendees, and host the party. It is so worth it for me! This past month our artist was able to sell two pieces during the opening on First Friday. Her work is amazing and I love that it found a home. This month our artist did an ink drawing of the depot as part of the show – how cool is that?
Please come visit us. We have free parking, plenty of food and drink, and amazing art to look at and talk about. See you on October 6th!
Official announcement:
Each month for Harrisonburg’s First Friday, we host a new artist in our building’s 2nd floor gallery at the Chesapeake Western Depot at 141 W. Bruce St. (second floor entrance is on Chesapeake). Artwork will remain on exhibit through the month. Come view the show and get a tour the Depot! We will have refreshments available!
Artist Statement – Elwood Madison
As an artist that loves this town, I try to capture the spirit of Harrisonburg in the quick strokes of the pen. There is a creative energy that I feel when I walk these streets. A vibration seeking to burst from the stone and bricks. On strictly architectural terms, the first impression might reveal little more than another small southern town but have begun to perceive a more distinguished collection of structure and space that potentially materializes from years of accumulated experiences. Rather than attempting to capture an exact photographic representation, I tend to let memories and history rise to the surface. If any of the musicality that I feel in the heart of our city is expressed in the renderings of these architectural portraits, then I suppose I have achieved some level of success with this pursuit.
Bio:
Elwood Madison is a local artist and designer with a special interest in whimsical, playful imagery. Much of his recent work is composed of unconventional ink and watercolors of both recognizable and less obvious public spaces in Downtown Harrisonburg. He currently is working as a graphic designer and illustrator for various locally based small businesses.
by cbhendricks | Aug 19, 2017 | artwork, community, First Friday
Gaines Group Architects T-Shirts will be available for pick up at the September 1, 2017 Harrisonburg First Friday from 5pm – 8pm. This monthly event features a different artist each month. We offer food and drink for those attending and the artist is always available for discussions.
Harrisonburg First Friday at The Depot
For September, our artist is Barbara Gautcher. Here is her artist statement:
“I’m continuing to explore abstraction, color, and collage in my paintings. These works are taken from sketches of the architectural features when looking out windows of buildings…the expanse of a sidewalk, the angle of a roof, the curve of a path, the lights for the path, the vertical of a building edge, or the horizontal of a patio wall. To me the window has become an opening to creative discoveries and to a world yet to be explored.
These are 10 x 10 collages of design using color, line, and texture. They are rarely literal nor can one find a horizon line”
by harrisonburgarchitect | Dec 18, 2016 | artwork, community, First Friday
Christmas at the Chesapeake Western Depot
We are loving our new Harrisonburg office on the edge of downtown. This was such a great move for our firm. We still feel connected to downtown – walking distance to the holiday parade. We now have a reserved parking lot for our clients. We get amazing sunrises over the building. We have enough space that we have now grown in size to 5 people in the Harrisonburg office.
We can now host First Firday art gallery openings, which we have each Friday since moving into the building. Our friends, potential clients, and past clients all visit to see the new art work on display and hang out. It is a great chance to build community right in our own office space. We have artists signed up for some months in 2017, but do not have the entire year booked – let me know if you want to be in our space.
We get to share space with the creative minds at Estland and the construction experts at Herr and Co.
We also get to have fun making the space our own. This month Rebecca decorated for the holidays.
She found this tree at Mercy House along with a few other decorations.
She made these decorations.
We also got the guys downstairs at Monger’s to join in the Holiday fun and they hosted Santa in their space.
Of you put new Marvin Windows on your shopping list – he was checking out the details while at the space.
My little elfs also stopped by to put their mark on my office. I like where this Xmas list is heading!
Of course my annual Harley Davidson tree made it to the new office to complete the decorations!
Christmas at the Chesapeake Western Depot is wonderful indeed. Stop by this week to see the decorations or just to say hi. We love having visitors to our space!
by harrisonburgarchitect | Sep 29, 2016 | artwork, community, First Friday
Gallery Opening on First Friday “Architecture of Life in Watercolors”
You are INVITED!
Each month we host a new artist in our Depot building gallery in the Chesapeake Western Depot at 141 W. Bruce St. (second floor entrance is on Chesapeake). This month we are hosting “Architecture of Life in Watercolors” by W A Berkshire. The artwork will remain on exhibit through October and is for sale. Come view the show and get a tour of the newly renovated space! We will have light refreshments available!
October 7, 2016 from 5pm – 8pm.
First Friday Downtown is a great event with businesses all over downtown becoming art galleries for this night. First Fridays Downtown is a free celebration of culture and community held in downtown Harrisonburg. During the first Friday of the month, the downtown venues host art exhibition openings, local music performers, and various arts related events.
This past month we hosted a Harrisonburg Rockingham Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting as part of our Gallery Opening. We even had the big scissors! Ray and Carla joined our Harrisonburg staff from the Charlottesville office. We had around 175 people attend through the 5pm – 8pm event.
by harrisonburgarchitect | Apr 25, 2016 | artwork
Today I start over…. as I seem to do everyday
I have lost my blogging mojo. Maybe I have said everything I had to say or maybe this is just the break so many told me I needed to take from trying to do too much. I have tried to write several posts over the last few weeks, but nothings seems to gel. So for now, here are some pictures I have taken over the last few weeks. If there are topics I can cover about architecture or building science that you think are interesting, let me know.
by harrisonburgarchitect | Oct 3, 2014 | artwork, Harrisonburg Architect
The third annual Harrisonburg Park(let) project is taking place today. This event was created three years ago when a group of us got together to figure out how to bring an event downtown that encouraged more green spaces in an urban space, promoted interaction among citizens, and celebrated local artists. We based our idea on the now worldwide event started by Rebar in San Francisco called Park(ing) Day, which always happens on the third Friday in September. The idea of transforming an urban area such as a parking space into a vibrant place for gathering and sharing ideas is ground breaking for some and other it should be done and permanent. In Harrisonburg we have great community, businesses, and lots of events downtown, but we lack informal places for gathering and green spaces. These types of spaces are vital to a healthy community and this event is our annual attempt to bring more awareness to their value. I hope someday we will have more park space downtown, perhaps a playground, and even more trees along our streets, but until then, I hope you will come and visit the park(let) projects that are being built today and will be open from 5pm – 8pm on court square.
