December Windows

This December the RAL Art Center celebrates the Winter and Christmas Seasons with two well-known artists; Mary Ellis and Sue Ramsey. Their snow scenes in watercolor and acrylic will help bestow the joy of the season upon you! Their artwork will also reflect the seasonal event called “Snowmageddon”, when artists use their imaginations to make their most creative version of a Snowman.

Sue Ramsey is an artist who is talented in many mediums, from watercolors to acrylic to cold wax and oil, as well as Fiber Arts - including knitting and felting. After ten years of teaching in the Richmond area she opened a gift and accessory shop which she owned and managed for twenty years. Sue is retired now and lives on the banks of the Rappahannock River, in Sharps.

With an added interest in photography and as an avid traveler, Sue began painting the flowers in her garden as well as the landscapes she had seen and photographed during her travels. These photos became much of her source material for her paintings. Sue has made many of her paintings into greeting cards and Christmas cards which are sold in the RAL Gallery as well as in shops in North Carolina. Now you can see some of Sue's artistry in the Gallery windows as she displays her versatility with a variety of winter scenes done both in water color, which are somewhat impressionistic; and the cold wax and oil technique, which are more abstract.

Mary Ellis, who is the Exhibit Coordinator and Window Designer for all the artists at the RAL Art Center, will have a chance to show her stuff this month! Some of her paintings are delightful graphic designs, some are whimsical; all are simple designs painted in acrylics using alluring colors. You can also find her work at the RAL Holiday Shop, where the Gallery sells gifts and Christmas items. Although Mary has no formal art training, she has been involved in the arts all her life and has won many awards for both her paintings and her photography in many of the RAL art shows. Mary’s snowman paintings will serve as a backdrop for the Snowmageddon sculptures created by the other member artists, the largest of which is a 30” x 40” image of a snowman. Mary says that her paintings are playful “Winter Window Artwork”. It’s just fun!

"Snowmageddon" is the RAL Art Center's challenge to their member artists to create a snowman, or woman, in any style they like. There is a collection of amazing sculptures, paintings and works-of-art of different snowmen featured inside around the Gallery. This year the “Snowmageddon” Challenge has been extended to other merchants’ windows on Main Street: So be sure to take a December stroll through our quaint and Christmassy town and experience it all!

Written by Ellen Huddy