Free to Roam:

Landscapes By Caroline Adams, Brad Aldridge, Carl Bretzke, Ed Cooper, Dean fisher, Carlton Fletcher, Lindsay Mullen, Rodgers Naylor, Maggie Siner, Andrew Sovjani, Maud Taber-Thomas, Colin Taylor, Antonia Walker & Steven Walker.

November 13th - January 12th, 2021

 
 

Artist Biographies:

Caroline Adams: grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She received her BFA  from the Rhode Island School of Design. Caroline has lived in Washington DC on and off since 2003 while not abroad with her husband, a Foreign Service Officer. Currently,  Caroline, her husband, and two children are posted in Bogotá, Colombia.

Brad Aldridge: creates pastoral landscapes which evoke an Arcadian calm. Aldridge states that his ultimate goal is to create objects of beauty which nourish the viewer on a spiritual level. Aldridge knew he wanted to become a professional artist from the age of four when his mother began taking an art class at a community college. He received his BFA from Brigham Young University, and he went to the University of Arkansas for graduate school. 

Carl Bretzke: is representational oil painter who specializes in urban scenes and plein air landscapes. His compelling nocturne, street, and scenic landscapes, often executed on location, have been described in the Washington Post as "simultaneously intimate and detached…The artist's unadorned style recalls Edward Hopper and The Ashcan school.” Carl originally  trained under Plein Air Painters of America signature artist Joseph Paquet, and regularly wins prizes at Plein Air competitions.  Bretzke, who retired as an interventional radiologist to pursue painting,  lives and works in Minneapolis, MN.

Ed Cooper: began drawing and painting at an early age—and it became his lifetime passion. As a youth, he lived on a farm, worked in the fields, hiked in the woods, wandered the hills, and developed a great love for nature and landscape. During his career, he used a progression of media, from oil to watercolor to pastel to acrylics, but finally settled again on his first love, oil paint. He won first prize in the landscape category in a national contest sponsored by American Artist Magazine and won the Landscape Art Award at the highly competitive Arts for the Parks competition. Ed is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters and has also been an award winner in a number of plein air painting competitions, including Paint Annapolis and Plein Air Easton. 

Dean Fisher: is an artists’ artist, who teaches in both the US and France.  Dean studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and has been exhibiting nationally and internationally in prominent galleries for more than thirty years. After living in Spain, France and England for eight years and making master copies as a form of study at the Prado museum, the Louvre and the National Gallery of Art, Dean returned to the US and has been living in Connecticut with his wife, the artist Josephine Robinson in Milford, Connecticut.

Carlton Fletcher: received his degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA, 1972), and American University (MFA, 1982) where he studied under Robert D’Arista, and was one of the founding members of the Washington Studio School (1985). His work was featured in the 2018 Katzen Center exhibition on Robert D’Arista, his professor during his time at American University. Carlton's paintings are in the permanent collections of American University, Georgetown University, Stanford University, and the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities. 

Lindsay Mullen: was born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, Lindsay Mullen is celebrated as a post-impressionist artist in her native United Kingdom and is closely associated with the island of Menorca, where she has lived and worked for most of her adult life. Mullen’s interest in art and passion for exploring the world around her started early. After studying at St. Albans School of Art and West Surrey College of Art and Design, she graduated in 1979 with a BA honors degree in fine art. Lindsay now splits her time between Menorca Spain and Washington DC.

Rodgers Naylor: is a native Washingtonian, was born near Georgetown and spent his childhood on a farm near the Patuxent River in Maryland. He pursued painting and drawing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, The Atelier in Minneapolis, and the Art Students’ League of Denver after attending the University of Chicago and Carleton College for academics. Adhering to a realistic yet painterly style, Naylor paints in an “alla prima” manner, which allows great flexibility in mixing colors and attaining soft edges, fostering a fresh, spontaneous approach to painting. 

Maggie Siner: is an American artist whose paintings are shown in Paris, Venice, London, New York, Washington DC, and in hundreds of collections around the world. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, she began her studies at the Art Students League of New York, graduated from Boston University (BFA) and American University (MFA) where she studied with Robert D’Arista. During her long artistic career she has lived for extended periods in France, China and Italy. Siner is also a devoted teacher who has influenced a generation of painters.

Andrew Sovjani: is a fine art photographer and printmaker. He grew up in a family of working artists and after a few years of trying to escape the artistic pull, he returned to his creative roots and picked up a camera. Since then, his award-winning work has been shown in exhibitions throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan and is held in many public and private collections. He has won awards of distinction at many of the top fine arts festivals in the nation and was a finalist for the Critical Mass book awards. Andrew has his studio in Easthampton, an old mill town near the Berkshires in western Massachusetts.

Maud Taber-Thomas: was trained in classical techniques at the New York Academy of Art, Maud teaches at the National Gallery of Art. Highlights from her career include a Terra Foundation residency in Giverny, France; an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, and in 2019, her painting Elizabeth Bennett was shortlisted for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Colin Taylor: Though landscape is his subject matter, Taylor paints semi-abstract works which express a personal emotional response to the natural world. Through the use of a combination of media (oil, pastel, and charcoal on canvas) and a rich palette, Taylor’s application of vigorous mark-making and swirling brush strokes redefines the physical space of a landscape’s mass into the individual perception of a place. As well as being a painter, Colin Taylor has nearly 30-years of experience climbing and working in the mountains in continental Europe, South American, and Asia, locations which translate into compelling artworks. \

Antonia Walker: has become known for her paintings of the light and color of the Virginia countryside as well as images of Italy and France. Antonia received a BFA from the University of Georgia, where she studied painting and printmaking and later attended graduate school at George Washington University. She has been published in many books and her works are represented in the Arts in Embassies program at the State Department, as well as many corporate and private collections throughout the United States. Antonia currently resides in Virginia and travels to France and Italy frequently, teaching and painting the landscape.

Steven Walker: was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Steven  discovered his love for art at a very early age and,  with little interest in anything  else, earned his BFA at Virginia  Commonwealth University. He would later earn his MFA from  Marywood University, where he also met his wife and fellow artist, Evelyn.  Since going full time as an artist in 2008, Steven has been included in several local and national juried competitions. Steven also had the privilege of being a part of a statewide traveling exhibition with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Steven currently resides in Hahira, Georgia, where he continues to work  hard on the advancement of his career with the assistance of his wife and daughter.