Our Featured Artists:
Deborah Conn
Deborah Conn has had a longtime interest in drawing, but it wasn’t until 1998 that she first picked up a watercolor brush - and has rarely put it down since. "The most exciting thing about painting, for me, is the way it has altered my way of seeing things," she said. "My goal is to express these newfound patterns, colors, and connections in my work."
Deborah Conn works in transparent watercolor to create florals, portraits
and figures, still lifes, and landscapes. In addition to original watercolors,
she offers reproductions of her work as note cards and small prints.
Check out Deborah's items
Deb Easter
Deb Easter, of Woodbridge, VA lovingly pieces, quilts and sews beautiful
yet sturdy stockings together by hand. No sewing machine, just a comfortable
chair and a very good light! Deb constructs her stockings from velour, velvets
and playful holiday themed cottons. All stockings are full lined so the
treasures don’t get stuck inside!
Check out Deb's items
Elizabeth Geers Loftis
I'm inspired by patterns and primitive works. I love using oil pastels because it puts me close to my work- I'm happiest when my hands are dirty." Elizabeth begins with a pencil sketch and then layers on the color! She favors earthy, ethnic combinations that refer back to her international travels while her husband was in the Foreign Service. After Elizabeth is happy with her colors she applies a layer of watercolor to provide a neutral base for her composition. Elizabeth has both framed and unframed pieces in the shop and can be tapped to do custom pieces as well! Check out Elizabeth's Gallery - some orginials are still available, fine art giclees and note card sets are available for all of her works, just contact Theresa. We have some items listed seperately - Check out Elizabeth's items
Jan Irene Miller
Jan Irene started painting in high school and studied art history, music
and professional modern dance in college. Influenced by the dynamics of
an unusually large family and her broad international travels and studies
her paintings elicit the energy of dramatic change. She paints with bold
color, patterns, movement and high contrast.
In recent years she has been studying art with many teachers in the Washington
DC area and creating abstract art with acrylics and collage. She offers
her original work on paper and canvas and reproductions on canvas. Her work
can also be seen at http://web.mac.com/janirenemiller.
Check out Jan
Irene's items
Phil Napala
Phil Napala
Born: Mc Donald Island, California, 1951
Falls Church Virginia
Digital technology has changed us dramatically over the last decade. We
do things faster, better and ways unthinkable by individuals from previous
generations. With photographic computer manipulation software, endless combinations
of effects and filters can be applied to an original image. But many of
these combinations are just blind alleys that make no coherent sense. We
can do many tricks, but often we end up with too little. I needed a guide
where form follows feeling and I found Japanese woodblock print masters
as my guides. Japanese woodblocks capture the control, precision, and clarity
of the period landscapes and natural forms. I follow the Japanese woodblock
path to make my photographic message stronger and clearer.
Simplicity and form: what I try to do is take photographic images and strip
out the nonessential. Photography is transcription art form that records
everything that is in front of the lens. It’s too much information,
coming from all possible angles, at too great a speed. The way we live right
now is similar with 24-hour news reports and mobile phones, video streaming
and impossible emails that demand personal attention. Basically what I did
a few years ago was to shut down. I need a more intimate impression of the
world, a more stripped down version.
“You can have anything you want, but you can’t have every thing.”
I filter the world, seeing small, more snug, with more intimacy. I show
what I see, not what the camera sees a much more narrower view.
Check out Phil's items
Cathy Soltys
When she is not busy creating new jewelry designs, Cathy Soltys enjoys time spent with her husband, Peter, their two daughters, Madison and Lillian, and two greyhound children, Kirby and Ellen. Cathy, who is a graphic designer by training and education, moved from Indianapolis, her home town, to Fairfax, Virginia, and began a career with a defense contractor. Several years later her first daughter was born, and she became a full time stay-at-home mother. One more child, two dogs, and twelve years later, Cathy discovered the joy of making jewelry, thus the name of her business – Joie de Beads. Designing and making jewelry is the perfect marriage of colors, shapes, and movement, plus some basic engineering. Her designs are simply sophisticated and uniquely elegant. For Cathy, “life gets richer and lovelier with every passing year.” Check out Cathy's items
Theresa Wells Stifel
As the proprietor and artist in residence of Stifel and Capra, Theresa is keeping busy. Her custom pillows, original art dolls, and mixed media collages are featured in the store, on this site, and in living rooms all over the country. Check out Theresa's items. Theresa also has an Etsy store http://www.TheresaWellsStifel.etsy.com
Cathy Summers
Cathy Summers is a nature photographer based in Falls Church. Cathy's primary subject areas are landscapes and macro images reflecting the diversity of the seasons in the Mid-Atlantic and other areas in the United States.
While photographs are static two dimensional images, Cathy tries to convey more than just the moment in time when the shutter was opened and the image recorded. Cathy tries to help the viewer see more in a familiar flower, face or place than the viewer may have noticed standing beside her when Cathy took the image.
Cathy's prints, as available here, are made on an archival ink jet printer using the highest quality materials to ensure the long life of the finished piece. Cathy has found the digital darkroom to be a better way to make prints that match her feelings and what she wants to communicate while remaining faithful to the image captured in her viewfinder. Read about Cathy's perspective on "Is it real?" here.