American Painting Fine Art Gallery To Show "Historic Washington, DC"

Written by Anton Maxwell Thursday, 16 June 2011 00:06

Washington, DC.- The American Painting Fine Art Gallery on MacArthur Boulevard, Washington is exhibiting "Historic Washington, DC : New Works by the Washington Society of Landscape Painters" from June 18th through September 10th. In this exhibition, the region's most venerable group of plein air landscape painters (founded in 1913) pays homage to the historic nature of the Nation's Capital, featuring works in oils, watercolors, acrylics, pastel and mixed media.

The Washington Society of Landscape Painters, one of the oldest active art organizations in the greater Washington metropolitan area, traces its origins to 1913 when Charles Seaton and Winfield Scott Clime met one Sunday while painting on location. This chance meeting led to additional weekend painting excursions where they were joined over the next four years by a number of other artists. By 1916 the group had become known as the "Ramblers". In 1919 the Ramblers took on the more formal name of the Landscape Club of Washington, D.C. That year also marked the opening of a "permanent" headquarters and studio at 1221 Fifteenth Street NW in the wing of a private residence occupied by Senator Fletcher of Florida. Meetings were held at this location and art work was regularly displayed. However, for reasons not recorded, the headquarters were given up in the late 1920s.

Among the early Ramblers were August H.O. Rolle and Benson Bond Moore, who would later become prominent in Washington art circles. In October 1919 the Club held its first exhibition of members' work (at the Fifteenth Street headquarters), and for the first time Club activities began to be reported in local newspapers. During the 1920s and early 1930s the Club's participated in traveling shows, primarily to cities in the eastern United States but also to locations as far away as Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, and Wisconsin. At times as many as 100 paintings were sent to other cities.


This enthusiasm carried over into the displaying of members' work. The 1930s were particularly marked by the frequent exhibitions of members' work in the Washington metropolitan area, and these were regularly reported in the press. From 1930 to 1937 there were at least three shows each year, and in 1935 six exhibitions were held. Almost every year featured a show (commonly referred to an "the annual show") at the Arts Club of Washington, D.C., with the Mt. Pleasant Branch of the D.C. public library system a popular alternative space for displaying work.  Shows were also held from time to time at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Ambassador Theater, Howard University, the Silver Spring public library, the Northwestern and Georgetown Branches of the D.C. public library system, and the Alexandria public library.  There were also several one-person shows by Landscape Club artists.

The primary focus of the Society today is the painting outdoors en plein aire with fellow members and guest artists, enjoying their camaraderie, and critiquing each other's work in a constructive way. In addition to these paintouts, the Society also promotes the advancement of landscape painting through meetings, exhibitions, and field trips. Meetings are held four times each year, and paintouts are usually held the last Sunday of every month except December. The Society holds at least one month-long exhibition each year, at a gallery or public art space. Through friendly competition, one image is chosen to appear on the exhibition announcement card. The Society also holds an annual luncheon, restituted in 1996, to which each member brings one painting for judging by all the members and the guests. Each person has one vote and monetary awards are given to the top three paintings.


The American Painting Fine Art Gallery specializes in traditional contemporary American painting by local artists with national reputations, including Andrei Kushnir, Michele Martin Taylor, Barbara Nuss, Michael Francis, Carol Spils, Stevens Jay Carter, and Roger Doyle, and members of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, including Bernard Dellario, Mary Kokoski, Sara Linda Poly, Genevieve Roberts, Bill Schmidt, and Meg Walsh. They are the exclusive dealer for the Potomac River School Artists. American Painting Fine Art was established by artists Andrei Kushnir and Michele Martin Taylor, and is a descendant of Ms. Taylor's gallery Taylor & Sons Fine Art, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC. The artists have also operated galleries in Manhattan and Ellicott City, MD, each for a period of 5 years.  In every location, the focus of the gallery was to display one-of-a-kind works of art of the highest quality by the owners and other mid-career professional artists, often highlighting the respective gallery's surrounding location. American Painting Fine Art also serves as the studio of plein air painter Andrei Kushnir. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://classicamericanpainting.com/

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