The year is nearly at its close, and all of us at Principle Gallery would like to offer a big THANK YOU to everyone- artists, collectors, friends, art appreciators, social media followers, and more- who all made this year such an exceptional one for our gallery. It was a fantastic year, and we figured that before we continue on with our excitement for what’s to come in 2015, we’d take a look back at what made 2014 so outstanding.
1. Jeremy Mann’s Solo Exhibition: January 2014
2014 hit the ground running with a fantastic solo show featuring the incredible Jeremy Mann. With a mix of cityscapes and figurative works, the solo exhibition highlighted a wide variety of paintings showcasing Jeremy’s immense talent and signature style.
2. Lynn Boggess’s Solo Exhibition: February 2014
February featured another solo exhibition for a long-standing artist at Principle Gallery, Lynn Boggess. With his unique and unmistakable approach to painting, Lynn’s plein air landscapes of West Virginia through every season never cease to delight collectors and fans.
3. Kevin Fitzgerald’s Solo Exhibition: March 2014
March featured the 16th annual solo exhibition for landscape painter Kevin Fitzgerald. The exhibition included a wide and stunning array of Kevin’s color field landscapes and seascapes in all shapes and sizes, with an especially bright and colorful grouping this year.
4. Teresa Oaxaca’s Live Painting Demo: April 2014
We were delighted to host a live painting demonstration in April, featuring the young and extremely talented and locally based painter Teresa Oaxaca. In just four hours, Teresa painted a gorgeous portrait in front of the big crowd that gathered. Musician Michael Mattice was kind enough to sit as the model for the demo, which was also our first event to be streamed live online as it occurred! You can still check out the footage on our YouTube page.
5. 20th Anniversary Invitational: April 2014
This April marked Principle Gallery’s 20th Anniversary, and we had a phenomenal exhibition to celebrate it. The show featured new works from a variety of Principle Gallery artists in an array of genres. We were fortunate enough to have many, many artists, collectors, and friends in attendance at the exhibition’s opening reception, including GC Myers, who gave a beautiful toast to Principle Gallery’s 20 years of fine art here in Old Town Alexandria.
6. Tourist Season: May 2014
As warmer weather arrived, the cherry blossoms bloomed downtown, and the DC area began to welcome the influx of tourists, we also decided to celebrate some new visitors, as we held a guest artist invitational called “Tourist Season.” It was a wonderful opportunity to work with and exhibit artwork from a range of stellar artists with whom we had not worked before!
7. GC Myers: June 2014
GC Myers held his 15th annual solo exhibition this June, called “Traveler”. The exhibition was comprised of a fantastic grouping of Myers’ beautiful stylized landscapes in a wide range of sizes and shapes. The works featured his signature vivid colors, rolling hills, lively skies, and of course, that red tree.
8. Face Off: August 2014
This year we held our third annual “Face Off” live painting event. Artists Cindy Procious, Mia Bergeron, and Elizabeth Floyd gathered in the gallery to simultaneously paint this year’s model, local restaurant owner Franco Landini. As a new twist for this year’s event, we also had three live streams of each artist as they created their portraits in just 3 hours! You can still see the footage as well as the time-lapse videos on our YouTube page.
9. The Gallery Gets a Makeover: August 2014
After 17 years, Principle Gallery said goodbye to its iconic pumpkin-orange walls as we got a fresh coat of paint and a snazzy new look. The front room was painted in “Skipping Stone,” and some of the back rooms were painted in “Cosmopolitan” gray. We did love those warm orange walls, but it was certainly nice to have a fresh change of pace; not to mention how much bigger the place looks now!
10. Pay It Forward: September 2014
The same month that our Charleston gallery held the 5th annual Women Painting Women exhibition (this year, an incredible juried exhibition!), we in Alexandria did something a little new and different. The women from the Women Painting Women movement created a group show where they each invited an artist to show with them. We then contined the theme of “paying it foward” by donating a portion of the proceeds from the show to several deserving local charities.
11. Urban Aspect: October 2014
This year, both the Charleston and Alexandria locations held their first juried exhibitions. Following the Women Painting Women show in September, Principle Gallery Alexandria held a juried exhibition exploring the world’s urban landscapes. The open call for entries ammassed a tremendous amount of wonderful submissions, and renowned cityscape painter Jeremy Mann served as the juror. Jeremy curated a truly spectacular and diverse exhibition, and the opening reception was a resounding success, with many of the artists and a great number of collectors and fans in attendance.
12. The Space Between: November 2014
November’s exhibition was a two person show featuring Mia Bergeron and Cindy Procious. When we approached Mia with the idea of a two person show, she knew immediately that she wanted to exhibit with Cindy. Mia credits Cindy’s encouragement and advice early on with her career’s ever-growing success, and all these years later, the two dear friends both still live and work in Chattanooga, TN. It was cetainly a treat to have a show featuring such different but incredibly talented and complementary female artists!
13. Small Business Saturday
This year Principle Gallery joined countless other small businesses around the country in celebrating Small Business Saturday. The day after Black Friday, Small Business Saturday encourages everyone to remember to check out their amazing and unique local businesses during their holiday shopping. In addition to a gift certificate promotion that day, we also held an event featuring refreshments and amazing door prizes.
14. Small Works: December 2014
Each December, we hold a show featuring small works from a wide variety of our artists, as well as a few visiting artists. As we do each year, we held the opening reception for the Small Works show the afternoon following Alexandria’s annual Scottish Christmas Walk. Every year, we’re delighted to see the variety of incredible small works offered, and this year was a particularly wonderful group of artwork. The show is still hanging through the end of the year, so feel free to come by and check it out, or preview it on our website!
It was a memorable and wonderful year for Principle Gallery, and we are so grateful to all of you who helped make it so. We’ve got a lot of exciting things planned for 2015 as well, so stay tuned to hear all about what’s to come!
