As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
***
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
Continuing through the rest of the year, Steven Francis Fine Art in Lynchburg, Virginia, is presenting “The Philip Geiger Project,” a series of exhibitions celebrating the work of Philip Geiger.
From the organizers:
Through many years of painting Philip Geiger has amassed a profound portfolio of work, impacting an extensive audience of admirers and painters alike with his unique way of translating his perceptions with paint. As a teacher at the University of Virginia, his influence extended beyond gallery walls as he taught other young artists the value and importance of perceptual painting. With today’s global and interconnected world, Geiger’s philosophy and work has managed to reach a remarkable number of students, colleagues, contemporaries, and collectors.
We at Steven Francis Fine Art are deeply inspired by Geiger’s story and the significant impact made by his work. We have thus created The Philip Geiger Project — a year of exhibitions inspired by Philip Geiger. Each highlights and exhibits a part of Geiger’s story by featuring artists directly influenced by his artwork and teaching, such as his close friends, contemporaries and former students. While it is not possible to explore every facet of his story in a single year, we hope for this project to act as the start of a more global conversation in the art world.
Allen TenBusschen, Solo Exhibition
Through January 3, 2026
A solo-exhibition featuring the recent work of Allen TenBusschen.
Philip Geiger is a retired Professor of Art who taught at the University of Virginia for over thirty years. He earned his BFA from Washington University and received his MFA from Yale University. Geiger is a noted realist painter. His work has been reviewed by the New York Times, Art in America, ARTnews, and The New Criterion. He has exhibited at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York City, and his work is in a number of prominent collections. His paintings have been described as having “lustrous light, loose brushwork and subtle color” which “tellingly captures the nuances of mood and feeling that make up the more peaceful moments of contemporary family life.”
For more details, please visit stevenfrancisfineart.com.
“The Power of Drawing: Marking 25 Years of the Royal Drawing School” brings together an extraordinary range of contributors from diverse creative disciplines, showcasing drawings and personal reflections on the importance of drawing in their lives and practice. This free exhibition runs through July 26, 2025.
From the organizers:
The featured artists are Quentin Blake, Frank Bowling, Tim Burton, Tracey Emin, Tacita Dean, Es Devlin, Denzil Forrester, Norman Foster, Catherine Goodman, Antony Gormley, Thomas Heatherwick, David Hockney, Eileen Hogan, Jony Ive, Chantal Joffe, Rachel Jones, Bharti Kher, Christopher Le Brun, Charlie Mackesy, Ishbel Myerscough, Humphrey Ocean, Alice Oswald, Cornelia Parker and Rufus Wainwright. The Royal Founding Patron, His Majesty The King, has also contributed a drawing (shown above) to the exhibition.
The exhibition will also highlight the breadth of talent nurtured by the School over the past 25 years, with works by alumni including: Jamiu Agboke, Frith Olwyn Angel, Sara Anstis, Alicja Biała, Daniel Blumberg, William Brickel, Somaya Critchlow, Clara Drummond, Charlotte Edey, Ned Elliott, Douglas Farthing, Laura Footes, Jake Garfield, Jake Grewal, Richard Ayodeji Ikhide, Olivia Kemp, Christina Kimeze, Oliver Macdonald Oulds, Jessie Makinson, Kathryn Maple, Francesca Mollett, Louis Pohl Koseda, Fraser Scarfe, Lindsay Sekulowicz and Alice Shirley.
“Drawing is a primary language intrinsic to human expression, fundamental to learning and creativity from childhood onwards,” said Catherine Goodman, Founding Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School. “It remains a critical tool for innovation across disciplines, from fine art and fashion to animation and engineering. Our mission is to ensure high-quality drawing tuition remains accessible to artists, students, and the wider public, addressing the steady decline of observational drawing in formal education.”
In the foreword of the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, His Majesty The King states: “Drawing is one of the most direct ways of engaging with the world and provides a foundational route to human creativity. The School remains one of the few institutions worldwide dedicated to high quality, observational drawing. I am immensely proud of its significant contribution to making drawing accessible to all, regardless of background and circumstance.”
The Power of Drawing: Marking 25 Years of the Royal Drawing School
The Royal Drawing School
19-22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG
The exhibition and events are free, however booking is required at www.royaldrawingschool.org.
There is a lot of superb contemporary realism portraiture being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual.
Working as a freelance sculptor, mold-maker, and adjunct professor at several academies in New York City, Heather Personett (b. 1988) stays active in her own Brooklyn studio and through an on-the-go lifestyle in the Big Apple. Recently, she has been moving beyond capturing a physical likeness in favor of excavating beneath-the-surface emotional and spiritual content from those who sit for her.
Personett’s prowess in this regard has earned awards, residencies, and commissions, including a First Place in the Salmagundi Club of New York’s Library Portrait Sculpture Competition for her rendition of the great sculptor, and former Salmagundian, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907).
“Saint-Gaudens was lauded as a thoughtful and gifted teacher who trained some of the finest American talents through his own artists’ colony and other classical New York City institutions,” Personett shares. “His work also carries the same tenderness and humanity that he himself possessed. I therefore aimed to create a portrait that embodied the sculptor he was while paying homage to his skill and delicacy of touch.”
Personett’s own skill and delicacy are apparent in the sculpture illustrated here, “Portrait of Justin.” Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she invited fellow sculptor and friend Justin Kendall to work on their mutual goal of building stronger studio practices. “I was interested in working on a portrait study that went beyond the mere copying of nature to delve into the realm of emotive portraiture,” Personett says. “I am highly aware of the portrait’s role as a record of how a person will be remembered long after they are gone, when there are no longer people around to describe who they were or how they lived. It’s also a record of my own experience as the note-taker. What emerged here was a portrait that captured a depth of character within the eyes and an invitation to get to know the sitter more.”
Personett earned her B.F.A. in illustration and animation from the State University of New York at Fredonia. She continued studying ceramics and sculpture, then went on to receive an M.F.A. in sculpture at the New York Academy of Art (NYAA). More recently, Personett worked as a portrait sculptor and freelance artist at Studio EIS in Brooklyn, under the tutelage of head sculptor Jiwoong Cheh. Today she is a sought-after teacher herself, and she relishes being connected to a community of students and fellow instructors through adjunct professorships at both NYAA and the Fashion Institute of Technology; she is also the lead sculpture instructor at the Grand Central Atelier. In these classrooms, she says, the inspiration and enrichment flow both ways.
View more artist and collector profiles here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
On view at the Santa Paula Art Museum is the exhibition “Anne Ward: Painted Seasons,” which features more than 50 works in oils, acrylics, and gouaches, most available for purchase.
Details at a Glance:
Santa Paula, California
santapaulaartmuseum.org
through July 6, 2025
Ward grew up in Los Angeles and studied at UCLA, but it was only while working on a film production in France that she realized her abiding love of painting outdoors. She now lives in Ojai.
Ward’s garden is her favorite subject, and, like it, her paintings teem with energy and joy. Amid the noise of modern life, she finds inspiration and reassurance in the seasons.
“By slowing down to observe the ordinary things in our lives,” she says, “we soon discover there are extraordinary things all around us always.”
To mark the centenary of the artist’s death, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is exhibiting more than 100 paintings, watercolors, and drawings that trace the transformative decade John Singer Sargent spent in Paris. Organized by the Met and the Musée d’Orsay, “Sargent and Paris” opens in 1874 as the talented 18-year-old American student wowed friends and teachers with his precocious drawings and sketches.
Never satisfied, he paid close attention to both historic masterworks and contemporary art, and, thanks to his privileged upbringing in Europe, he kept finding memorable subjects during excursions in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and North Africa.
Met curator Stephanie L. Herdrich observes, “Sargent’s career was indelibly shaped by the time he spent in Paris. Over the course of one remarkable decade, he created the boldest and most daring paintings of his oeuvre.” These include an array of ambitious portraits — flattering, if provocative, likenesses that gratified his patrons and their desire for social status. Enjoying Paris at the apogee of its glamour, Sargent became immersed in a cosmopolitan circle of artists, writers, and patrons while navigating a successful path through the competitive French exhibition system, achieving acclaim and awards.
This formative decade culminated with the scandalous success at the Salon of Sargent’s portrait “Madame X,” which he later described as “the best thing I’ve done.” Savagely attacked for its frank sexuality, the masterwork is explored in depth and, for the first time, is reunited with numerous preparatory drawings and paintings. An adjacent gallery displays portraits of Parisian ladies by the artists who inspired Sargent, and with whom he competed for commissions and recognition, including his teachers Carolus-Duran and Léon Bonnat, and such role models as Édouard Manet.
“Sargent and Paris”
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York City
metmuseum.org
through August 3, 2025
Mary Cassatt at Work is the exhibition on view through October 12, 2025 at the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA). It features 30 pastels, oil paintings, and prints, as well as personal correspondence, that chronicle Cassatt’s six-decade career as a visual radical who — although born independently wealthy — proceeded to make her own living through art. The only American invited to join the French Impressionist circle, she employed materials and processes that pushed boundaries, inspired particularly by Japanese prints then flowing into France, of which HoMA has one of the largest collections outside Japan.
Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has loaned 22 objects, this show also contains eight works from HoMA’s collection, including a drypoint that was among the works gifted by its founder, Anna Rice Cooke, in 1927. Cassatt’s imagery highlights roles traditionally assigned to women such as caregiving, nursing, and making music, so the curators have undertaken fresh research on the class implications of such “invisible work.”
For more details, please visit honolulumuseum.org.
About the Museum: “HoMA is a gathering place where art, education and community converge in two iconic buildings in the heart of Honolulu. Presenting our remarkable collection and innovative exhibitions in the galleries, screening the best in new cinema, and offering a full curriculum of studio art classes, HoMA is a vital, transformative part of Hawai‘i’s cultural landscape accessible to all.”
View more art museum announcements here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.
A plein air exhibit celebrating the Route 66 Centennial and focusing on scenes along the route through New Mexico, Arizona, and California has been organized by Santa Fe Artists Carole Belliveau, Stephanie West, Wendy Ahlm, and Elizabeth May. Their eclectic paintings honor the transcontinental “Mother Road,” and will be on display and available to purchase at the Luna Gallery in San Juan Bautista, CA from June 21 to August 10, 2025, with works from twenty artists.
“We are thrilled to showcase this body of work that captures the iconic Route 66,” said Jennifer Colby, Ph.D., Luna Gallery President. “Our fine art gallery, located in a historic town, provides the community a place to experience art and the artist’s vision.”
Stephanie West organized a trip for twelve artists in October 2024 to spearhead the project and paint locations along Route 66. Many old buildings and artifacts are still standing since the mid 20th Century, so the plan was to meet at the Safari Hotel in Tucumcari, New Mexico and head out to paint from there. As plein air artists, capturing a bygone way of life inspired the group to paint every vintage building, neon sign, and site from the past that deserves its moment in paint.
Wendy Ahlm provided photos of the group and videos to augment the exhibition. At the end of the weekend adventure, an impromptu group show was held at the Safari, presenting more than forty works they created in just two days. All the paintings were lined up on the orange and teal blocks of the Safari’s walls.
Later Stephanie West took part of the group to her family’s ranch, where they painted tractors, windmills, and cows, while some of the painters headed home and several more local artists joined. Elizabeth May volunteered to drive the paintings to the Luna Gallery in California, at times along the original Route 66.
Visit the gallery website at www.lunagallery.art for inquiries about paintings.
Classic Art London: June 23 – July 4, 2025
Classic Art London is a new destination event for international collectors, museum buyers, and those who appreciate or wish to discover more traditional art genres.
Exhibitions featuring old masters will include a rediscovered Titian at Trinity Fine Art, Venice in the 19th century at Charles Beddington Ltd, exceptional drawings and watercolours such as a group of works by the intrepid artist-traveller Constance Gordon-Cumming (1837-1924) at Karen Taylor Fine Art and works on paper by J.M.W. Turner at Guy Peppiatt Fine Art. New discoveries by British and European artists will be presented at Nonesuch Gallery and Alexander Clayton-Payne, and The Limner Company will reveal exquisite miniature portraits by leading practitioners of the art.
Modern masters are represented by Daniel Katz Gallery which stages a significant Paul Nash show; early 20th century cubists form the centrepiece of Ben Elwes Fine Art’s exhibition, while leading Impressionists will feature at Haynes Fine Art in Belgravia and David Messum Fine Art in St. James’s. A joint exhibition by Rountree Tryon Galleries and Fine Art Commissions will combine traditional form portraiture and British sporting and equine paintings, both mainstays of ‘The English Look’ so admired in country houses.
Other dealers taking part include Colnaghi, showing paintings, drawings and sculptures; Justin Raccanello with important Italian ceramics, and Paul Mitchell Ltd, specialists in antique picture frames, whose expertise has for decades helped transformed important works for numerous international collections.
Dealers based in Cecil Court, off St. Martin’s Lane will be joining Classic Art London, including Emanuel von Baeyer (old master drawings, prints and paintings) and Darnley Fine Art (old masters and Orientalist paintings). This special pedestrianised street close to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery retains its Victorian atmosphere, as well as its original gas lamps, and is home to art, map and book, and antiques dealers.
Classic Art London’s talks series is designed to appeal to museum scholars, collectors and students of art history, as well as offering more accessible and entertaining topics to reach a wider audience of art connoisseurs. For curators and collectors, podium discussions will span from dealing with climate change to shared ownership of major works, and the rise of private museums. There will be a talk on how gallerists have shaped collecting interests, the important matter of art in education, and J.M.W. Turner at 250. Vanity Fair contributor Patrick Monaghan will chair a talk with art specialists based on Country Life’s popular feature series “The One Thing I Couldn’t Part With” with proceeds going towards The Society of Antiquaries’ fundraising campaign.
Full details are on the website at www.classicartlondon.uk. Classic Art London coincides with sales at the major auction houses and a wide range of antiques and art events such as the RA’s Summer Exhibition, Treasure House Fair and Trois Crayons, making it the prefect time to come and enjoy all the classic art London has to offer.
