Principle Gallery

Our first exhibition of the year opens today! Journeys featuring work by Jill Basham, Christine Lashley, and Kim VanDerHoek is officially open and will remain on view until Tuesday, March 16th.

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We will be open from 10 am until 8:30 pm this evening and two of the artists are planning to join us (weather permitting). Over thirty works depicting scenes from California, Paris, Georgia, Charleston, and other locations will be on display and you won’t need a plane ticket or your passport!

Learn more about the featured artists below!

Jill Basham

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Jill’s work is typically quiet, often with muted colors and purposefully simple design. She is dedicated to conveying the light, atmosphere, and “feeling” of the landscapes she paints, whether natural or manmade, and wants to evoke an emotional reaction. Basham paints in her Maryland studio near the Chesapeake Bay, as well as outdoors, in locations both far and near. She is comfortable allowing each painting and its subject to lead her on an exploratory, experimental journey, as this approach often yields the most unexpected and visually exciting results.

“I have always been at home under the open sky. To try and capture in paint the beauty and mystery of nature is a joy like no other.” says Jill “It is like coming home, I enjoy painting expansive views! I often work to show extreme depth in a scene because I want the viewer to feel as though he or she can see for a great distance when viewing my paintings. There are a few steps in order to accomplish this appearance. I keep the warmer tones in the foreground, cooling and graying as the scene recedes. It helps to have a focal point that draws the viewer’s eye far into the distance with this sort of scene.”

Having earned numerous awards and honors, Basham’s recent accomplishments include “Best of Show” in the most recent Plein Air Easton (modified for 2020); “Best of Show” for her work at the Door County Plein Air Invitational by C.W. Mundy, master artist; and the “Judges Award” at Olmsted Plein Air for two different works by both Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief of Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine; and Kelly Kane, editor-in-chief of Plein Air Magazine.

Click here to view more of Jill’s work!

Christine Lashley

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As a contemporary impressionist painter and lifelong nature enthusiast, Christine Lashley gathers most of her ideas by painting outdoors. The art she creates on location or in the studio is about the beauty of a moment held in memory. Her paintings often fuse reality and the abstract, using color and texture to look realistic from afar but dissolve into abstraction up close.

With a BFA from Washington University in St. Louis and prior study at the Sorbonne and Parsons in Paris; Christine continued her art education with workshops from prominent artists including Scott Christensen, with whom she is currently doing an online Beyond the Easel Webinar project (a series of interactive artistic conversations).

Christine has taught US and international workshops for over 20 years and is a Signature Member of: Oil Painters of America (OPA), Plein Air Painters of the Southeast (PAP-SE), Salmagundi NYC, and the Washington Society of Landscape Painters.

Christine has been involved in the arts all her life, with early years sketching outdoors and watching her mother and grandmother create sculpture. She spent several years in the high fashion world of Europe, and then worked in graphic design and creating murals. She began painting professionally with watercolors but moved to oils in 2009. Her work has won numerous awards, including Best of Show for both landscape and portrait work. Recent awards were the ARC Salon (Plein Air), Bold Brush Award (June 2020), Best Landscape at the 27th Oil Painters of America National Show, and Best of Show at Telluride Plein Air and Bath County Plein Air.

Click here to view more of Christine’s work!

Kim VanDerHoek

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After graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, California, Kim worked as a graphic designer for 11 years. She left the design field to pursue a career as a full-time painter. She learned to paint by painting en plein air. Kim feels that through plein air painting she has gained a better understanding of the effects of light and atmosphere. She aims to translate those effects into her studio paintings.

Kim creates current, vibrant paintings in oil both in her Southern California and en plein air. A multi-award winning artist, she recently received Best of Show in the BoldBrush competition, twice won Best Oil in the Plein Air Salon competition and won the Western Art & Architecture Award at the Haggin Museum American Women Artists 2018 National Exhibition. Her work has been featured in these national magazines: American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Southwest Art, American Artist and PleinAir Magazine. Her artwork is part of both corporate and many private collections.

Kim says, “It is my hope that when you view my painting from across the room, the large shapes make a strong visual statement that allow you to easily see what the subject is, then, upon closer inspection, you find yourself lost in the paint texture. I am always striving to elevate the scene I am painting in order to show the viewer the every-day beauty surrounding us. In each painting I aim to accurately represent the subject while allowing the paint to have an equal voice and a strong presence.”

Click here to view more of Kim’s work!

Journeys will be open for public viewing and the exhibition catalogue is available on our website, click here to view. If you’re on a mobile device, click here for the best viewing experience.

We have a full year of exhibitions planned; our schedule (February – May) can be found below and click the image to join our mailing list to stay up to date on exhibitions and new arrivals!