Photos of Avila Art Makers’ Exhibits and Artist Talks
Exciting Trivia Question: Which artist has paintings in The White House, The Smithsonian, The Library of Congress, and now at Blakehurst Senior Living’s new Avila Art Makers exhibit?! Read on to find out! Avila Art Makers is thrilled to announce the debut of The Carol and Ken Collection at Blakehurst! Carol Morgan, a resident at Brightwood Club Association, has generously loaned Avila Art Makers pieces from her extraordinary Modern Art collection. Read about Carol's incredible life story here, which includes highlights about her mother Nina, whose paintings are in the Collection. Nina was a well-known and prolific modern artist, and Carol grew up part-time on Long Island, where her parents regularly visited and hosted Jackson Pollack and his artist friends! Carol's bio also shares the story of her late partner Ken, a renowned architect who enjoyed making drawings in his later years. We are grateful to Carol for bringing joy and learning about modern art to Avila Art Maker's audiences at Blakehurst Senior Living and the other communities where we will exhibit her collection. Oh! And the Answer to the Trivia Question is: artist R. A. Smith- enjoy!
Avila Art Makers' Trevor Twist generously shared his painting and teaching process with residents and their guests during his Artist Talk at Brightwood Senior Living in September, 2024. Trevor is the Executive and Creative Director of the Mitchell School of Fine Arts here in Baltimore, and we've been honored to benefit from his wisdom and beautiful artwork (we especially loved that we got to meet Trevor's wife and baby girl who joined us for the Artist Talk!) www.mitchellartschool.com
Congratulations to Avila Art Makers' artist Steve Bleinberger! Brightwood Senior Living was so delighted with Steve's exquisite watercolor painting exhibit, artist talk and painting demonstration in spring 2024, that they have invited Steve to become Brightwood's official "Artist in Residence"! Avila cared for Steve's wife while she was on hospice, and we are so glad for him that he is joining the community of artists and art enthusiasts at Brightwood during this new season of his life. We are grateful for our partners at Brightwood, and we look forward to bearing witness to the wonderful art that their residents will create during Steve's tenure! Check out Steve's paintings at www.bleinberger.com/
Avila Art Makers’ watercolor painter Steve Bleinberger and Debra Bartgis, Community Life Services Director at Blakehurst Senior Living, during Steve’s artist talk to Blakehurst’s Independent Living, Memory Care and Assisted Living residents in June, 2024- the gallery space was filled to capacity with residents admiring Steve’s work!
Brightview Senior Living shines! We loved all the accolades and best wishes for Brightview Severna Park's first Avila Art Makers exhibit in their brand-new exhibit space! Avila’s own Gretchen Maneval exhibited her oil paintings for the summer 2024 exhibit. We even got to take a beautiful birthday photo with one of Brightview's residents whose family had flown in from all over the country to celebrate with her. Thank you Brightview Senior Living for being so spectacular!
Wow! Avila Art Makers’ incredibly talented watercolor painter Steve Bleinberger gave a wonderful Artist Talk at Brightwood Senior Living! Steve's absolutely exquisite watercolor paintings include many nautical scenes, and Brightwood's residents marveled in particular about the technique that Steve uses to paint waves. In fact they asked him to come give a demonstration to Brightwood's art class! One really special anecdote from Steve's presentation- he brought with him the SAME sable watercolor paint brush that he was given by his Towson High School art teacher over 50 years ago- and he still uses it to paint all of his paintings!
Our heartfelt thanks goes out to Blakehurst Senior Living for hosting Avila Art Makers’ 3rd art exhibit of 2024! Avila's Gretchen Maneval gave two separate Artist Talks at Blakehurst about her oil paintings- one talk for Blakehurst's Independent Living residents and their guests, and the second talk for Blakehurst's Assisted Living and Memory Care residents. In addition to sharing her story as an oil painter, it was a delight for Gretchen and the audience to learn from the residents all about their experiences with painting and drawing, and to hear their astute observations about colors and composition.
Thank you to Avila's partners at Brightwood Senior Living for hosting a lively Artist Talk with Avila's very own Gretchen Maneval, whose oil paintings were on exhibit at Brightwood until March, 2024! A fantastic group of art enthusiasts from Brightwood joined the discussion, including a cousin of one of Gretchen's favorite artists- Fairfield Porter- incredible!
