The Works: Quirk Gallery features striking new work.

Porch Dogs. Live music at the indoor tasting room. Free, noon. Eastwood Farm and Winery, 2531 Scottsville Rd. eastwoodfarmand winery.com Together in Song: Bach and Bonds. A day of listening, learning, and music-making with The Oratorio Society. $10-30, 10am. Aldersgate Methodist Church, 1500 Rio Rd. E. oratoriosociety.org

stage

The Legend of Georgia McBride. See listing for Wednesday, March 9. $25-30, 8pm. Live Arts, 123 E. Water St. livearts.org

classes

Book Arts Workshop: Japanese Bookbind-

ings with Lana Lambert. In this two-day workshop, experience the beauty and function of Japanese Bookbindings. $240-260, 10am-5pm both days. Virginia Center for the Book, Jefferson School City Center, 233 Fourth St. NW. vabookcenter.org Grafting Workshop. Expert hands-on instruction will introduce you to the fine art of grafting. $50, 9am. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarle ciderworks.com

outside

IX Farmer’s Market. Over 60 local vendors with fresh produce, prepared foods, artisan goods, and more. Free, 9am. IX Art Park, 522 Second St. SE. ixartpark.org The Haven 8K Run For Home. The 8K run or 4K walk through Charlottesville’s downtown area raises money for local nonprofit The Haven. $40, 8am. Near the Ting Pavilion, Downtown Mall. thehaven.org

etc.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Celebrate 20 years of Harry Potter on the big screen. $10, noon. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, 5th Street Station. drafthouse.com Met Live in HD: Ariadne auf Naxos. Soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine of Strauss’ enchanting masterpiece. $18-25, 12:45pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net

Sunday 3/13

music

An Evening with David Wax Museum. The “Mexo-Americana” band performs live. $1820, 8pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. thesoutherncville.com Brunch with Sammy. Enjoy brunch with Sammy Horn on piano. Free, 10am. The Pub at Lake Monticello, 51 Bunker Blvd., Palmyra. lmoa.org Gary Green and Justin Storer. Harmonica wizard Green and folk musician Storer join forces. Free, 2pm. Glass House Winery, 5898 Free Union Rd., Free Union. glass housewinery.com Irish Music. Irish jam session with fine renditions of traditional tunes. Free, 2:30pm. Albemarle CiderWorks, 2545 Rural Ridge Ln., North Garden. albemarleciderworks.com Music on Park Street. Works by Bach, Mozart, and Enescu. Free, 4pm. First Presbyterian Church, 500 Park St. firstprescharlottesville.org

Paramount Presents: The Mavericks: “En

Español” World Tour. Fan-favorite Latin, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. $38-75, 7:30pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. theparamount.net Swing Into Spring Benefit Concert. Featuring the AHS jazz band and an all-star lineup of the area’s top professional musicians, the concert raises money for local non-profit The Haven. $17-35, 7pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St. jeffersontheater.com

Color rush

Two artists combine for a vibrant show at Quirk Gallery

By Sarah Sargent

arts@c-ville.com

As daily temps start to climb, and we await the vibrant colors of spring, Quirk Gallery offers a visually stunning show celebrating the work of two artists, Priscilla Whitlock and Mary Holland, whose work is guaranteed to lift winter’s gray grip.

Whether producing vignettes of her garden, open meadows, or mountain vistas, Whitlock’s “Eden” conveys with paint the essence of a place—not just its physical manifestation, but also the experience of being there. She clearly revels in depicting nature, and her manipulation of paint and her lively gestural style expose a deep appreciation for the purely visual aspects of painting, too.

The trio “Spring, Greens,” “Goldenrod Thistles” and “Wild Field, Mustard” are heady depictions of a world in full bloom. The paintings buzz with life. Whitlock captures the effects of nature—wind, shifting light and shadow, and the sense of ever-present insects—to reflect this bombinating sensation, but her painterly approach infuses the works with vitality. With “Spring, Greens,” Whitlock zooms in beyond the vegetation depicted in the other two works and emphasizes the riotous sensual quality of the place as a whole.

“Dogwoods, Spring Mountain” has an entirely different mood. Its muted colors suggest dawn or dusk, a quieter, more somber time. In the work, a vista of mountains rises above a grove of dogwood trees. The mountains are rendered in broad mauve and blue brushstrokes. Whitlock uses jagged lines to describe variations in the terrain, but for the most part this area has a distinct serenity as compared to the foreground. Visually, this situates the mountains in the distance, but it also fittingly depicts their grandeur and permanence. In front, the trees of the title are animated with wind and light. They seem to bend and twist before our eyes, brought to life by Whitlock’s adept handling of the paint.

With the showy “Bee Balm, My Garden” and “Blues, Pinks, Whites, My Garden,” Whitlock ventures closer to the world of abstract painting. Yes, these works are representations of plants in the patch of earth by her studio, but how she arranges her composition and the way she applies paint demonstrate an emphasis on the formal aspects of painting. Just look at the riotous blobs of pigment in “Blues, Pinks, Whites,” and the daubs of scarlet, green, and blue overlaid with the scrawl of oil stick in “Bee Balm.”

Like her paintings, Whitlock’s monotypes (unique images printed from a plate that has been painted by the artist) are about putting pigment down on a flat surface. These delightful, small-scale works possess a thrilling freshness and dynamism that holds its own against the larger works.

COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

“Flow,” “Spring, Peaches” and “Orchard, Spring” are visually striking examples, but I was particularly taken with the perfectly balanced “Water, Blues” and “My Garden.”

Whitlock has been producing monotypes for years. “I’ve stayed with it so long because it’s like playing another instrument,” she says. “You see something new that you wouldn’t have if you just stuck to your primary medium.”

At the other end of the gallery hangs Holland’s “Compositions in Blue: Cyanotype.” Cyanotype is a photographic printing process discovered in the mid-19th century that uses paper coated with a photo-sensitive solution and sunlight to produce an image of a stencil or object. Cyan is a hue with profound emotional resonance. Whether it strikes primordial chords within our subconscious, referencing natural phenomena like the night sky or deep water, this bold yet quiet color has an undeniably mysterious and romantic quality.

In 14 works, Holland takes full advantage of this. The reduced palette of blue and white sets off her striking arrangements of both natural and manufactured

Charlottesville’s Priscilla Whitlock and Richmond-based artist Mary Holland complement each other’s work in a dual exhibition at Quirk Gallery.

objects. Some of these she leaves as is. With others, she introduces collage and watercolor, occasionally adding the bling of silver foil to augment the white.

Holland’s assortments of leaves lend themselves well to the cyanotype technique. The veiny beech frond skeletons of “Forest Bathing,” the silvery disks of “Money Plant,” and the graphic power of the fan-shaped leaf blades in “Gingko Pattern,” all present a different kind of foliage. Holland’s approach reveals an affinity for the individual qualities of each specimen. With the first two, she employs collage to enhance the basic thrust of the work, adding silver to underscore the mica-like money plant pods and inserting silver hands in the allegorical “Forest Bathing.” When it comes to the distinctive gingko leaves, she adds nothing, deeming the graphic rhythm of their silhouette powerful enough.

In other pieces, Holland turns to the world of handicrafts, using antique lace doilies, placemats, and embroidered handkerchiefs as her subjects. These are poetic works that highlight the intricacy of needlework and the filmy quality of fabric. Against the blue field, these stark white pieces are transformed to reveal works of intricate design and superb workmanship. One can’t help thinking about the anonymous creators of these bits of needlework.

“I think women’s work is undervalued,” says Holland. “Especially old crochet, and lace, and all these things women did. You can pick them up at junk shops and vintage places for very little, which is amazing when you think how beautiful they are and the amount of time that was put into them.” Holland gives these pieces a second chance and shines new light into their origins.