Middle Street Gallery: Home Page

Barbara Heile studied painting and received degrees (BA76 and MFA82) at American University in Washington, D.C. during a time when the faculty was still grounded and sensitive to the tradition of painting as embodied by artists who worked in a visual and refined expressive process.

She works primarily in oil and cold wax and began exploring acrylics in 2022.

Any medium that affords her a visual and painterly way into relationship with what she is feeling - and open to seeing - is her path.

Her approach is truly Aquarian in nature. Her work is original and she is open to the new; honoring of tradition she is not held by it. In earlier years the landscape had her full attention. This gave way to her interest in the abstract surface for its own sake, as expressive paint. The inner landscape of her felt sense is at present her main subject where new shapes come into painted form.

The paintings express joy and freedom and a depth of stillness through the healing qualities of color and light.

The directness and spontaneity of her approach, often using her hand directly to move the paint, can be felt in the surface and in the free interplay of color. She sees her way of painting as a path of expressive contemplation and is grateful for this way of loving the world as a visual artist.

Barbara has been actively showing in group and one person shows since the early 1980‘s and is a familiar face among artists in Rappahannock County. She enjoyed three years teaching Drawing and Painting at Lord Fairfax Community College in Warrenton, VA. Until its closing in 2015, she kept an active and open studio at River District Arts in Sperryville Her daily studio work now takes place at home.

Her natural call to painting supports her wish to share the experience of the mystery we all live in as human beings. A lifelong meditation practice supports the silent depth you can experience in even her smallest paintings. Her paintings have found homes around the world.

Being the mother of three independent and creative sons, raised in Rappahannock County, is by far her most rewarding life experience.

Barbara keeps an active diary of her work in progress on Instagram @bheileart ~~~thank you for looking! ~~~

GALLERY ARTISTS

- ANITA ZYMOLKA AMRHEIN - GARY ANTHES - RAY BOC - ROBERT E. BOUQUET - JOYCE HARMAN - BARBARA HEILE - JO LEVINE -

- PHYLLIS MAGRAB - PAULO NEUHAUS - PHYLLIS NORTHUP - WAYNE PAIGE - FAE PENLAND - SUSAN RAINES - FRANCIE SCHROEDER -

- JIM SERBENT - THOMAS SPANDE - MAUREEN STOREY - CATHY SUITER - LORI WALLACE-LLOYD - JOAN WIBERG -

Members Greet Friends at Middle St. Gallery

by Gary Anthes

The Middle Street Gallery in Washington, Va. is putting on its annual Members and Friends exhibition, in which members of the arts cooperative show their works alongside those of invited guest artists. On exhibit from Jan. 27 through Mar. 5 will be views of the natural world, the built world, and even the supernatural realm – trees, water, wildlife, city structures, computer-generated figures, and people going about their everyday lives. Prints, photographs, paintings, drawings, and sculptures will all be offered.

The essence of this eclectic exhibit, “The Gallery,” by Tim Carrington, friend of member Susan Raines, is a painting on display of a gallery full or art and people. A reception for the artists and public will be held on Sat., Jan. 28, from 3pm until 5pm.

Birds flock to the gallery this year. Guest artist Thomas Whittington, friend of Phyllis Magrab, offers a photograph of the Icelandic Arctic Fulmar in flight over water, trailed by both its shadow and its reflection. Magrab echoes the firmament with her abstract painting of “a gentle summer sky on a very warm day.” Mary Cornish, friend of member painter Cathy Suiter, offers hyper-realistic drawings of an Andean condor and a Northern Masked Lapwing. Member Joan Wiberg and her friend Nora Harrington both show oil paintings of birds in their natural, wetlands settings, created at the recent plein air festival in Chincoteague, Va.,

American towns get their due, with Suiter offering paintings from Old Town Warrenton, and Thomas Spande taking us to tiny Etlan, Va. for a watercolor view of the Etlan General Store. Guest artist Branden Eastwood shows a photograph of a mechanic working on a car in Havana, and his mother, photographer Francie Schroeder, has a close-up picture of a man sitting on a bar stool. Ray Boc shows a photograph of an old local mill, while his friend, photographer Mathew Black, offers a picture of a boy floating serenely in a swimming pool. Black says, “I found myself wondering about this boy, quietly adrift, who then pulled me into my own wandering fantasies of drifting effortlessly in space.”

Photographer Jo Levine and painter Fae Penland take us indoors for still-life views of a red rose with a fan, and common kitchen objects on a table, respectively. Also with interior still-lifes are Lori Wallace-Lloyd and guest artist Davette Leonard, both with fruit or flowers reflected in silver containers.

A number of views of nature are offered, with Spande's friend Chris Stephens showing a painting of sky and river converging at sunrise or sunset, and guest artist Emilse Wolff presenting a pastel of “crashing waves” at the seashore. Phyllis Northup shows a pair of steeply vertical paintings of walnut trees. Guest artist Barbara Serbent offers “Montana Triplet (Postcards from the Road),” showing “the unparalleled beauties of Glacier National Park.”

The show is rounded out with several forays into the mystical. Jim Serbent, husband of Barbara Serbent, offers a digital collage “inspired by levels of being and states of consciousness rooted in Tibetan Buddhism.” Wayne Paige pairs his surreal combinations of people and animals with an errie painting, “Fox Visitation,” by Sidney Lawrence, which “recounts a spookily cosmic encounter” with a fox in a remote part of northern Denmark.

Barbara Heile, a former member returning to the gallery, makes her debut with “Music of a Wedding Feast,” oil and cold wax on a panel. “The longer I paint and the longer I live, the process of both just leave me in wonder,” she says. “How one life can saturate the surface of a painting is a mystery; how it touches another life magnifies that mystery.”

Heile's friend, Jason Zahn, whose work “revolves around the intersection of defined, planned forms, and spontaneity,” shows the abstract painting, “Structured Chaos.” Mystery also lies in the abstract painting “Seeing Through,” by Pam Pittinger, “a mixture of opaque areas, glazes and line made with soluble pencils.”

The gallery, www.middlestreetgallery.org and (540) 227-5066, is now located at 311 Gay Street, Lower Level, facing Main Street & across from Ballard’s Washington, VA.