Exhibits & Artist Talks
Avila Home Care is thrilled to exhibit the work of talented visual artists and host artist talks for residents and their guests at local senior living communities.
Avila’s partners at Brightwood Club are graciously hosting the first exhibits of Avila Art Makers. As part of these exhibits, residents learn more about the artists’ inspirations, who they’ve studied with, their methods, and the stories behind their treasured works of art.
As the Avila Art Makers exhibits and artist talks bloom, we look forward to bringing stunning visual art to the twenty-four Senior Living Communities where Avila serves clients, and beyond! We would be honored to showcase artwork at your independent or assisted living community, as well as for your memory care, skilled nursing, and hospital residents and patients. If you would like for Avila Art Makers to exhibit and speak at your community, please contact Gretchen Maneval, Director of External Affairs at gretchen@avilahomecare.com, or call 410-826-6100.
Meet the Avila Art Makers Artists!
Steve Bleinberger, Water Color Paintings
Steve Bleinberger paints “with sweeping strokes that role and undulate…a hopeful luminous sky moves easily from color to color, as the well-rendered boat attracts the viewer to the focal point.” At the cross section of realism and impressionism, Steve’s “sea and shore” watercolor paintings are continually striving to capture the ever-changing texture of the light, water, land and sky. His influences include Degas, Turner, Homer, Hopper, Thon and Maryland’s own Jim Iams. Growing up on Thomas Point, just south of Annapolis, Maryland, kindled in Steve a deep affinity for the beauty of the Chesapeake Bay. Steve discovered early on that watermedia is well suited to the fluid, ever-changing sea and sky conditions that first inspired him to paint as a teenager, and that continue to fascinate and enthrall. Steve received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Virginia Commonwealth University. An acclaimed artist, Steve is a prolific exhibiter and has won numerous prestigious creative and fine art awards, including numerous awards from The Maryland Federation of Arts. His pieces can be found in private collections, and recent exhibitions including: The Artists’ Gallery in Chestertown Maryland, River Arts in Chestertown, Maryland (People’s Choice Award), Queen Anne County Arts Council, and Annapolis Maritime Museum. Steve has had a long and fruitful professional career in the advertising, graphic design and film business, and has received prestigious local, regional and international awards.
Gretchen Ann Maneval, Post-Impressionist Oil Paintings
“The luminosity of Gretchen Maneval’s paintings are evocative of the Post-Impressionist era, with a touch of Fauvist flair. Gretchen has cultivated a vibrant painterly approach- landscapes dance with light, figures convey a sense of depth and spirit, and interiors vibrate with rich color and form.” Gretchen derives inspiration from many painters, including Fairfield Porter, Joaquin Sorolla, and Richard Diebenkorn. She began oil painting 35 years ago with Theresa Shovlin (formerly McDaniel) at Towson High School’s nationally renowned fine arts program (Class of ’92), where she received the prestigious United States Congressional Award for Creative Merit for a self-portrait which was exhibited in the U.S. Capitol Building, and she was selected for the Alex Cooke Memorial Mural Project and her original mural was installed at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Gretchen was awarded a Fine Arts scholarship to the University of Virigina (’96), where she studied visual art with Philip Geiger, along with an honors major in Political and Social Thought, and a minor in Urban Planning. During the late ‘90’s and early aughts while living in Washington, D.C., Gretchen studied and exhibited at the Washington Studio School, and at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center. After receiving her Master in City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) School of Architecture and Planning in 2003, Gretchen moved to Brooklyn, New York, where in her spare time she studied in the studio atelier of Andrew Reiss, formerly of the Art Students League of New York, while professionally she worked as an affordable housing developer. After moving with her family back to Baltimore in 2014, she studied with Matthew Zoll at Zoll Studio of Fine Art.