Artists
We specialize in these mediums
Drawing
Bob started drawing in college while pursuing his doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics. His work is a collection of very detailed black & white pen & ink drawings all inked entirely by hand using a .25mm Rapidograph. He has exclusively used a .25mm Rapidograph since 1971. Bob’s work covers a variety of themes ranging from nature, animals, and scenery; to machinery, musical instruments, and vehicles; to space, science fiction, and fantasy.
The smaller pictures embedded in Bob’s drawings are an essential component of his work. Aside from the unique texture they provide, they are unplanned and result from a stream of consciousness. He doesn’t know what he’s drawing until he starts drawing it. Visitors at shows or galleries are always amazed watching the process.
Additionally, Bob replicates the equations from his PhD dissertation as graphics. He doesn’t know what they mean any longer, but he thinks they look cool.
The idea is to keep you looking and always finding something new.
Emily Walker is a self-taught artist from Purcellville, Virginia. She’s been interested in drawing and creating things for pretty much her whole life and started drawing regularly with graphite pencils around 2016 when she was 14 and never stopped!
Emily enjoys photographing birds, plants, and animals which is where almost all of her drawings start. Each of her drawings are based off of at least one photograph that she carefully maps out onto a piece of paper using a proportional divider and is meticulously and entirely hand-drawn. She especially loves capturing textures and having soft subtle details!
She won Best Loudoun County Artist as well as 1st Place in the Drawing Category at the 2024 Waterford Fair.
Fiber Art
Anna Willard is an artist who specializes in Art Quilts and Paintings who lives in Herndon, VA. She is a self taught artist exploring art and developing her own style which ranges from realism to expressionistic.
She often creates a painting to establish the colors and composition before then translating it into an art quilt. Her favorite subject matter are portraits, animals and landscapes. Her work has traveled the United States and shown at the Library of Congress, the Virginia Quilt Museum, the National Quilt Museum, the McClean Textile Gallery and much more.
Glass
Liz creates beautiful and decorative fused glass items. Her work includes functional pieces like bowls, platters and cheese plates, as well as her whimsical standing pieces. She has been working with glass for over 30 years.
Liz began her glass journey first as a stained glass artist, and evolved over the years to fused glass art which became her continued passion. Fused glass offers Liz so many colorful, creative avenues to explore. She hopes her eye-catching art work brings joy to all who see it.
Jewelry
Mary Kenesson creates her “ma su ke” fiber art adornments with an Asian flair – accessories, purses and jewelry – with fabrics, beads, vintage buttons and found objects from around the world.
Mary was one of the founding members of the gallery.
Mixed Media
Christa is a self-taught artist who works across many media. She loves to play with bright colors and textures. She is known for her digital art, colorful mobiles, 3D digital prints, abstracts, mixed-media, sculpture, and jewelry.
Christa’s studio, the Utter Chaos Design Studio, is just down the hall from the Gateway Gallery. Christa is a founding member of Makersmiths, Inc., a local non-profit maker space with two locations in Loudoun County – Leesburg and Purcellville.
Joe focuses on printmaking, papermaking and working with recycled material. Working with handmade papers, metals and fabric surfaces with different plates, woodblocks or photographic images lets Joe experiment and allows him to show that art should have a hint of imperfection.
Joe enjoys trying out making his own inks and bookbinding. He also teaches the occational class in papermaking or tin craft.
Each year Joe works during the winter months as a manager in a homeless shelter. It’s the best part of his year.
Painting
Karen Winters loves the transparency of watercolors. She is a “studio”
artist who likes to experiment with different techniques to create
vibrancy and mood in her paintings. She selects images from life and
nature she finds stimulating and inspiring to interpret.
Although Karen likes to paint a variety of subjects, she particularly likes
flowers, especially “white” ones that reflect the overabundance of
colors in them that make the white more vibrant.
She also likes to create custom home vignettes as a special treasure
or as a gift.
Rachel is a contemporary fine artist and muralist from Reston, Virginia. She has been creating art and working in the design field in one form or another for over three decades. She is the cofounder of NOVA Plein Air Artists, showing with them several times a year. Rachel is also a proud member of The Art League in Alexandria, VA, Artists in Middleburg, and Gateway Gallery and Gifts.
Rachel’s work focuses primarily on realism, be it landscapes, portraiture, or live on-site event painting. She also enjoys painting the occasional non-representational/abstract commission, and is happy to talk about commissions.
Pewter
Karen uses traditional methods of hammering, casting, and spinning to create heirloom quality pieces. She and her husband, Stuart, have been pewtersmithing for 40 years.
Their pieces are well known for being highly polished and finely finished. Collectors enjoy the extensive selection of ornaments.
Karen has carved over 600 different designs!
Photography
Terri’s photography is simply a reflection of her beliefs; every day is a gift. She strives to capture moments in time both ordinary and extraordinary. She wants each image to make an emotional and visual connection.
Travel and still life photography are a major part of her portfolio. She shares her work and adventures on Instagram, Facebook and her studio (across the hall from the gallery).
Pottery
Okcha is a potter who creates and fires her creations in her studio on her Western Loudoun property. Her glazed pieces are water tight and are dishwasher, microwave, and oven safe.
She also does a variation of primitive firing technique called RAKU, and especially enjoys “pit firing.” The vessels created with this technique have no glaze and have a very light, warm and organic feel to them. They are decorative pieces and will not hold water.
Sculpture
For two decades he has been creating and selling art made from objects found while hiking in woodlands and meadows, and along streets and sidewalks. Recently retired from nearly 30 years working as a building maintenance supervisor, Jim holds a BA in history and an MA in museum studies. He writes and publishes short stories and is a long time volunteer at Harpers Ferry National Park.
Naturally curious, Jim finds things that appeal to his artistic sense and translates them into an elegant and often whimsical creation. Almost every day Jim hikes a few miles and all too frequently chances upon a discovery to add to his working inventory that may become his next unexpected creation. Taking the “finds” as he calls them, back to his shop, Jim noodles and fiddles until the concept emerges as a finished piece.
Following his guiding philosophy of doing less to show more, he allows a piece to speak with minimal help from the artist. The trick is having the eye to find just the right objects to begin with.
Woodwork
Woodworking has been a creative outlet for Trevor Smith since his early school years. He enjoys all forms of woodworking but spends much of his time turning items on the lathe or using hand tools to build projects. The majority of his work trends towards the practical: objects that are useful and have the potential to increase the value to the owner the more they are used.
Currently retired from his educational career of teaching Physics 2 to high school students, Trevor’s love for artistic design, woodwork and education continues. Trevor attends master woodworking courses and continues to learn and develop his skills. With a fully functioning home shop, Trevor enjoys creating projects that are new to him along with his more familiar projects.
As a professional educator, he enjoys sharing his knowledge, techniques and acquired skills with interested individuals as well. Before moving to Virginia, Trevor taught woodworking, and assisted professional woodworkers teaching their courses in Michigan.