First Friday Art Gallery Opening Featuring Jude Dayton

Jude Dayton

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 food and drink available!

Artist Statement- Jude Dayton

For many years I have experienced great enjoyment from the creation of art. I started with pen and ink drawings, then progressed to the media of watercolor and oil and finally moved to acrylic. That led me to incorporate collage and encaustic into my creations. Later I developed a business in which I transferred prints of my work onto wearable art. My art has been influenced by my study of art history and by learning from other artists.

I had art shows while living in Annapolis and displayed my art in my studios in both Annapolis and Baltimore. In 2002, I had a month-long one-person exhibit at the French Embassy in the District of Columbia. This show emphasized paintings that had been inspired by Cro-Magnon cave art that I had visited in southern France. Some of my work on canvas is currently displayed in a gallery in Tucson where we lived for several years.

I recently moved from Arizona to the Shenandoah Valley and was inspired to return to painting with watercolors. This month’s exhibit includes some of my latest paintings. Also, I have available stationery cards showing some of my watercolors and prints of earlier works that were influenced by ancient cave art.

Harrisonburg First Friday Art Gallery Opening at the Depot

depotI 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.

Harrisonburg First Friday: Gaines Group Architects T-Shirts!

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.

Gaines Group Architect Shirts

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”

Christmas at the Chesapeake Western Depot

Christmas at the Chesapeake Western Depot

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. 

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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.

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We get to share space with the creative minds at Estland and the construction experts at Herr and Co.

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We also get to have fun making the space our own. This month Rebecca decorated for the holidays.

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She found this tree at Mercy House along with a few other decorations.

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She made these decorations.

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We also got the guys downstairs at Monger’s to join in the Holiday fun and they hosted Santa in their space.

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Of you put new Marvin Windows on your shopping list – he was checking out the details while at the space. 

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My little elfs also stopped by to put their mark on my office. I like where this Xmas list is heading!

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Of course my annual Harley Davidson tree made it to the new office to complete the decorations!

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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!

Gallery Opening on First Friday “Architecture of Life in Watercolors”

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.

W A Berkshire

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.

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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.

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