Art Exhibitions at the Arboretum

An exhibition of paintings

July 3 - August 2019 | Christine Andreae & Ann Currie

8 AM - 4 PM (M - F) | Frances Plecker Education Center

Christine Andreae is a writer, artist, and environmental activist who, during a debilitating illness, found that her connection to plants was a healing path. She began sketching them on her own and went on to study botanical drawing and painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.  She likes to combine watercolor with graphite in plant “portraits” that tell a story – be it a plant’s life cycle or how it is threatened in the wild.  She finds color pencil the most relaxing of mediums but also enjoys the challenge of making woodcut prints using black ink on hand-made Japanese papers.  Her work has been shown at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, at the Jefferson Library at Monticello, at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, and most recently at the Brookside Gardens Arboretum show “Nature in Danger”. For more information on her work, visit her website: www.christineandreae.com

Ann Currie is an artist, teacher, papermaker, and sculptor who is Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History at Lord Fairfax Community College where she established the Associate of Fine Arts degree program. She is inspired by the natural world and finds connection to it through her art. In her botanical illustrations she creates visual layers by drawing in graphite and color pencil on watercolor monoprints. In these works, both the colorful backgrounds and the drawings of plants are of equal visual importance, often making the plants appear semi-transparent. She also enjoys rendering the singular drama of a plant by using gouache paint and color pencil on a black surface.  Her work has been widely exhibited in our region, including the Renwick Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Middle Street Gallery and RH Ballard Gallery in Washington, VA, and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA.