Ginnie Luster

Although Ginnie Luster has painted all of her life, she has been able to spend more time creating art since retiring from teaching. She lives in Arlington, VA where she enjoys painting local scenes.

She has also participated in many workshops with well-lmown artists, and has gone on painting expeditions in the United States, Canada and Europe – British Isles, France, and Italy. Favorite subjects include landscapes, architecture, florals and still lives, painted mainly in watercolor. This is an appealing medium because of its sparkling, transparent effects. Other paintings are done in acrylics, which offer a contrasting, thicker consistency.

Luster’s work appears in many juried shows in this area and can be seen at local venues – restaurants, community centers and offices. She is also currently exhibiting at Gallery Clarendon with the Arlington Artists Alliance.

Other memberships: McLean Art Society, Potomac Valley Watercolorists, and the Oxford, Pa. Art Alliance.

Elise Ritter

Websites: www.eliserittergallery.com | http://elise-ritter.pixels.com

Elise Ritter is an award-winning watercolor, acrylic and collage artist. She is a juried member of the Potomac Valley Watercolorists and the Arlington Artists Alliance. Her artwork is in several galleries in the Washington DC area, and in Kerikeri, New Zealand. Paintings by Elise have been published in books and magazines in England, Portugal, Belgium, Canada, and the US. Her work has been accepted into the statewide Virginia Watercolor Society shows, and she was also accepted into an annual ‘Best Virginia Artists’ exhibition.

Elise’s exploration as a painter began in 2003, following a 20-year career in publishing, primarily at Time-Life Books, and a 10-year second career in clinical social work. Since becoming a painter, she has received more than 15 awards– as well as having three solo shows and five duo or group exhibitions. Her artwork is in private collections in Germany, England, China, New Zealand, Canada, Puerto Rico, and throughout the US.

From Curator Margaret Hancock, of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: ‘Elise Ritter captures landscapes with fluidity, paying special attention to light, atmosphere, and reflection…Just as it did for Claude Monet, the artist’s experience with paint and light form a starting point for more abstract works.’

Jane McElvany Coonce

Email: Jane.Coonce@verizon.net
Website: www.jmcelvany.com

Jane McElvany Coonce has been in the art field for over 30 years. She works primarily in oil, pastel, and terra cotta. Her favorite subjects are children, seascapes, and bridge scenes. She is particularly skillful at capturing the luminescent quality of sunlight reflecting on water and on the interplay of water and sky.
Her works are held by private and corporate collectors. Her corporate collectors include the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and the International Country Club, Fairfax, Virginia and the Rickover Academy in Chicago. She has won numerous awards for both her paintings and her sculptures.
She has been an art instructor for Arlington County Adult Education since 1980.
Born in Washington, DC, Jane McElvany Coonce lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and three sons.

Kerry Britton

Email: kerrybritton001@gmail.com

Kerry Britton is a textile artist striving to share insights about light, shape, color and texture through wall hangings that capture her experiences in natural settings. An avid photographer, she often uses multiple photographs to create unique compositions that capture essence of place, interesting botanical structures, and the play of light on surfaces. She uses commercial and hand-dyed fabrics as well as original paintings on cotton which she embellishes with stitchwork and mixed media.

Gerda Lane

Email: Lanegerda@hotmail.com
Phone: 703-655-1375

Gerda Lane began pursuing her interest in art in 2014 after raising a family and retiring from a career in the US Department of State. She paints in oil, watercolor, and pastel. She has a degree in fine arts and continues to take classes and workshops in northern Virginia to further develop her skills. Gerda primarily paints landscapes, still life scenes and also enjoys creating whimsical nursery scenes. Her style can be described as impressionistic, choosing colors from a soft French inspired palette. She is a member of the Arlington Artists Alliance, Program Chair of the McLean Art Society, and the Falls Church Art Society, and enjoys belonging to these communities of fellow artists. Gerda works in her studio at the AAA Clarendon Gallery in Arlington.

Michael Allison

Email: mikeyallisonart@gmail.com
Phone: 717-991-3626
Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MJArtsShop
Instagram: mjartsshop
Pinterest: MJArtsShop

I typically work with acrylic paints because they suite the needs of my style – something that dries fast, can be applied in layers, and is economical when I get ambitions to work large (which I often do).

The painting process I stumbled into over the years involves a masking of each layer of paint after application. Working light to dark, I apply a single coat of paint with a roller and then block off portions of the canvas with an adhesive (typically tape or glue) where I don’t want the next layer of paint to appear. This process is repeated until the canvass is essentially entirely covered in adhesive hiding a painting underneath. Then I take a deep breath, remove the adhesive, and hope the painting that’s revealed underneath looks like what I imagined in my head.

I won’t lie, sometimes the painting matches what I had planned, and sometimes it does not. However, I’m rarely displeased with end result. I think that’s what I enjoy most about the process – the hours and hours of labor always end with a bit of a surprise at the end.

Portraits are my burgeoning passion. If you enjoy my style and would like to commission a portrait of a particular person (or animal) I can be contacted at mikeyallisonart@gmail.com.