Artist Talk: Under Spacious Skies by Bradley Stevens

Exhibit Dates: October 18 – November 30, 2024

Opening Receptions to Meet the Artist: Friday, Oct 18th 4-8PM & Saturday, Oct 19th 2-6PM

Artist Talk: Saturday, Nov 2nd at 2pm & Saturday, Nov 16th at 2pm

As a landscape painter, I spend a lot of time looking up. I’m mesmerized by the sky––the dynamic, ephemeral light show occurring before our eyes––and the sense of something greater than ourselves that it evokes. These paintings bear witness to fleeting sky moments I have experienced in my travels out West and closer to home, in the Virginia countryside. I try to capture the magical interplay of sun and clouds as they dance across the landscape, and to express my feelings of awe and hope in the limitless expanse of the open sky.

In his career of over 35 years, Stevens has forged a reputation as one of America’s leading realist painters. His style is contemporary realism––rooted in classical training, yet boldly depicting the modern world with his penetrating eye. Stevens is unique among his contemporaries for his exceptional achievements in three domains of representational art: portraiture, landscapes and figurative cityscapes. He skillfully combines these genres in his work, creating contemporary portraits of people and places. He frequently works on commission, and many of the commissioned paintings are on a large scale for public and private spaces.

Stevens’ portraits, landscapes and figurative cityscapes are found in the collections of the U.S Department of State, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and America’s preeminent judicial courts, universities, corporations and professional firms.