And we're back!

I just arrived back from a fantastic (and chilly!) Thanksgiving week up in Maine and I'm so glad to be back in the gallery with these warm, summery Eugene Healy paintings!

Sadly, they're only up through this Sunday at which point we'll be putting up Attainable Art, a small works show (think Christmas presents!) curated by yours truly and featuring the artists of the gallery. We'll have prints up by Polish artists Elzbieta Bocianowska, Renata Zolcinska and Maciej Deja. If all that is a mouthful for you, we'll also have new oil pastels and small encaustics from Sondra Arkin, oil bar works and a couple of fantastic new prints by Ellyn Weiss, mixed media assemblage boxes by Mary Beth Ramsey (whose new show Numerology is opening this weekend in Rehoboth), drawings by Robert Saunders, small acrylic paintings by Thomas Walsh, and much much more!

Up in the Back Room

Apologies for the sparseness of posts in the past couple weeks. My computer crashed and, guess what! I'm the IT department here at the gallery. Actually my partner Mark was very helpful in donating his time to help me get all my files back. If it weren't for him, every image of every work of art that's come through the gallery would have been lost in the internet ether. And he worked for cheeseburgers!

Anyways, now that (almost) everything is back in order, I wanted to post some shots of the work we're featuring in the back room for the month of November. The Healy takes up the front room and two of the walls in the back, but we also have up the work of New York watercolorist Gretchen Feldman and DC abstract artist Sondra Arkin. Please excuse the picture quality, Photoshop is one of the programs I have yet to re-install.

Today and Tomorrow: Midcity Artists Open Studios

This weekend is the Midcity Artists Open Studios event. The Nevin Kelly Gallery is an MCA supporting business and we will have work out by MCA members Sondra Arkin (whose studio isn't open this time around), Mary Beth Ramsey, and Mark Parascandola (whose open studio is around the corner from us at 2002 15th St.). Mary Beth's work can also be found at Bos|Scott on 1610 11th St. Click here for a map of participating studios and supporting businesses. Pictured is Sondra Arkin's triptych Orange Tide, encaustic on Dibond each panel 32"x23".

The Healys Have Arrived!

Gene Healy drove down from Connecticut this morning and arrived at the gallery at 2:30 this afternoon. His gallerist on Nantucket, Doerte Nuedert of the Art Cabinet Nantucket, arrived yesterday.

Here's a shot of the paintings being laid out around the room.

Nevin and Doerte Hang Granite Bay and Tuxis Island.

Nevin Hangs Point Lookout. (Also pictured: Sands Point and East Wharf)

In all there are 16 works by Gene Healy in the gallery. It looks absolutely beautiful.

Stop by the gallery (1517 U St. NW) Saturday night, 5-8 pm to see this gorgeuous work, meet Gene and Doerte, and have a glass of wine.

Bare Walls

The Weiss show came down earlier today and the Healy show goes up tomorrow, so in the meantime the gallery's walls are empty. It is very stark and gloomy with no color on the walls. I couldn't work in an environment without art.

During the opening of the City Hall art collection on Tuesday evening, people who worked in the building - guards, city council members, government employees - kept coming up to Sondra, the DCCAH staff and me and thanking us for filling the building with art. Mayor Anthony Williams remarked in his speech that with art on the walls, the building became more than just the place that housed the city government; it became the city government's home.

When I move into a new apartment, it never really becomes my home until I begin to hang art. And like many others, I spend more of my waking hours at work than at home. My office becomes my home away from home, which makes it all the more important that there be art on the walls. So I will put up with these bare walls until tomorrow, when some gorgeous new art comes in to brighten the place up.

A Summery Healy Painting to Brighten Our Fall

Eugene Healy just sent me this image of "Bar Beach," another work to be included in his November solo show at the gallery. Gene will drive down Friday morning from Connecticut, and we'll be hanging the show Friday afternoon. The opening reception is this Saturday from 5-8pm. Please come out and welcome Gene back to Washington for his first solo show in DC.