The Exchange Gallery

Every month VAE highlights the work of four or five exemplary VAE artists in its Exchange Gallery. This highly visible retail space in the front windows of VAE's City Market Gallery is excellent exposure for artists and a favorite shopping spot of patrons. Artists are juried into the space annually. For more information contact Meredith Burgess at 919.828.7834 ex 6853, or meredith@visualartexchange.org.

Click here to learn how to apply for your own featured artist exhibition!

June 2009 Exchange Gallery Artists:

• Diana Coidan
• Nancy Hughes Miller
• Doug Strickland
• Lynne Troy

Diana Coidan

"I believe a piece of art should invite you to enter the work, feel the presence of its subject, and become lost in it, leaving you with a sense of wonder and personal discovery."

Drawing and painting at an early age, I can't remember when I wasn't an artist. Self-taught in oil and acrylic for many years, I took a new approach, replacing brushes with palate knives in oil and added watercolor and pastel to my art mediums. Experimenting with pastels, I "fell in love" with this medium. My paintings represent an attempt to capture a moment of inspiration and pass it on to the viewer with a strikingly photorealistic result. I have an unconscious attraction to blue; therefore, most of my pieces display the sky and sea with many works being set off by silhouetted foliage in the foreground to give the viewer a sense of vast space. Including figures to suggest a story from the scene is my most recent challenge, and this I feel is equal to creating the ever-shifting, captivating skyscape and ports along the eastern coast and in France. Needless to say, pastels have been the most expressive medium for me to work in, and I continue to explore new possibilities with them to enhance my art capabilities through workshops with well known instructors.

Nancy Hughes Miller

"I see the flavors of a rural field in Spring - frothy skies, baby hardwood greens and licorice pines, candy apple red seas atop sour weed grasses of lemon lime."

Inspired by beauty in the landscape, I seek to capture a bold but quiet impression of everyday nature. I find solace painting new and familiar places - rural fields, lakes, marshlands, the beach and ocean, plus vistas from my travels. I paint in oils from my photography using brushes, palette knives and my fingers. My paintings strive to be simple and soothing, not too complicated. Learning, evolving, experimenting, expressing - to me that's what it means to be an artist.

Doug Strickland

I draw and paint whatever attracts my interest and I especially enjoy painting people. Evidence of human activity, I believe, is what attracts the interest of human observers, whether it is the expressive brushwork in a Sargent or Van Gogh painting, the nostalgic sentiment evoked by a Norman Rockwell work, the placement of human handiwork in a landscape, or the outright depiction of a person, as in a portrait. For me, the most mysterious and spiritual parts of the process of creating artwork come with the first inspiration and with the final realization of the inspired artwork. Between these two points, for me, lay many decisions, applications of technique, and revisions, until I feel pleased with the results. I paint in a representational style, but I do not strive for photo-realism. I love the texture left by the brush in paint, since that is evidence of my presence in the process.

It is my desire to paint well enough to attract the attention of a viewer from across the room. I try to leave a couple of unanswered questions about the depicted subject, so the viewer can project something personally relevant into the painting's meaning. Finally, I hope to inspire the viewer and other artists with good draftsmanship, effective composition, and the skillful application of paint or other media.

Lynne Troy

I have always loved seeing artistic and colorful interiors. I think they say so much about the person who created them. In my own painting, I find it natural to set up my easel and paint from my own interior or those I may get access to. I am currently painting in oils because the richness of the colors are well suited to the interiors. My current theme is chairs. They have many attributes of people. They have backs, arms, legs, and seats. They can be soft and inviting, curvy or straight, luxurious or plain. I strive to make the interiors loose and lively and pleasing to me. It is a special thing when the painting appeals to others.

See previous featured artists:

May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007