FIRSTfriday at Stifel and Capra

Description

FIRSTfriday in October at Stifel & Capra will feature husband and wife artists, Maureen Radcliffe George and James George. They have different approaches and their art is very different too. In addition, our featured Artisan is Amy Green Thrasher who sculpts with stone, fiber and beads. Please join us for the Artist's reception and refreshments.
 
Maureen studied art at Ohio State University with a BFA, she has continued her education in different communities across the nation as the two lived from north to south, east to west and returned to Virginia. Along the way, Maureen has had keen interest in opera and dance in addition to her painting and printmaking. At Stifel & Capra, she is showing Butterfly, an acrylic rendition of a scene from the opera Madam Butterfly. She has many such large paintings, representing various operas, in her inventory. She often begins with a large opera painting, and then uses the images as inspirations for monoprints that she makes at the Lee Arts Center printmaking studio. Her work is distinctively detailed and her craftsmanship is exquisite as it is creative.
 
James George writes about art as the Arlington Arts Examiner. He is a retired publisher and an active writer. His art education comes from having lived with art professionals including his wife and daughter. James is a watercolor painter who prefers doing quick sketches of people in active settings that he captures with a portable paint set that he takes with him everywhere. A couple of years ago, he began to focus on Potomac Overlook Park where he does plein air painting. James recently painted scenes from his family’s heritage town, Talgarth, Wales that are now owned by a collector.Maureen and James will exhibit finished and framed work, and will have racks with abundant selection of unframed prints and paintings for sale. 
 
Amy Green Thrasher is our "Featured Artisan", she has been sculpting with stone, fiber and beads for over 30 years since she was juried into the Ann Arbor Art Fair.  Her most recent experiments in three dimensions involve botanical themes in wood and wool felting. Thrasher started carving birds out of wood, but her work soon moved into imaginary creatures with human and animal faces.  She begins with basswood blocks, and carves them by hand with small whittling knives.  The wood is then stained or washed with acrylic paints and then finished with beeswax. Thrasher’s fiber work is based on wet-felting techniques with merino wool roving and silk roving. Again, the themes run to the botanical, and sculptural.  In some pieces, findings and beads are added to make the pieces more versatile and wearable.