EXHIBITS
Our galleries are open Tuesday-Saturday from 12:00-3:00 PM, during programs, and by appointment. Admission is free.
Throughout the year, we offer rotating exhibitions in our two galleries. We partner with local, national, and international artists and artisans, nearby schools, and regional arts organizations to showcase art and objects of interest for all to enjoy.
All works displayed here are the exclusive copyright of the artist and may not be reproduced without permission.
Thanks to our sponsor, Dr. Heather H. Gibson!
The Barns of Rose Hill’s two galleries are sponsored by Dr. Heather H. Gibson, whose commitment to thoughtful, personalized care extends beyond her dental practice and into the community. Her generosity helps make meaningful visual arts experiences possible for all.
Page Contents
Experiments in Natural Color: Textile Dyeing with Plants and Iron Oxides | April 17 – May 30
Color Stories | May 2 – June 13
J. Foster Historic Signs | June 6 – July 25
The Quiet Vast | June 19 – August 1
Ava VanDeventer Debut | August 1 – September 19
A Beat of Color, a Pulse of Rhythm: Echoes of Brazil | August 4 – September 19
The Spaces We Share: Animals, People & Place | November 13 – December 26
Experiments in Natural Color
Textile Dyeing with Plants and Iron Oxides
April 17 - May 30, 2026
Upper Gallery
Artist Reception: April 19 | 2:00 - 3:30 PM
Wendell Combest, Ph.D., is a retired professor of pharmacology at the School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University with a research interest in the chemistry of medicinal plants. He is currently exploring the vibrant colors present in plants that can be extracted and used as natural dyes on cotton, linen, and silk. In his fabric creations, natural plant colors are combined with iron oxides in the form of rust and plant-derived tannins to dramatically expand the color palette.
A particular emphasis is placed on the color blue, from the ancient dye indigo derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria, and Prussian blue, which is formed when UV light transforms certain light-sensitive iron salts—a forerunner to the origins of the photographic process.
Further explorations using various resist, discharge, and wool-felting techniques give rise to textiles with surprisingly unique geometric shapes and textures.
Color Stories
An Exhibit by Pam Klein
May 2 - June 13, 2026
Lower Gallery
Artist Reception: May 8 | 5:00 - 6:30 PM
Pam Klein’s paintings are visual conversations in color—rich, rhythmic, and alive with feeling. Across forms that hover between gesture and geometry, she invites the viewer into moments where color isn’t just seen, but felt and experienced. Working in oil and occasionally gouache, her canvases pulse with energy and resonance, exploring the physical and emotional life of hue as a kind of storytelling on the picture plane.
A longtime student and teacher of color—including decades shaping minds at Parsons School of Design—Pam’s work reflects both a lifetime of abstract inquiry and the layered influences of her years in New York and her life now in the Virginia landscape. Color Stories unfolds these experiences into a sequence of paintings that speak through light, mood, and chromatic nuance.
J. Foster Historic Signs
June 6 - July 25, 2026
Upper Gallery
Blending craftsmanship, scholarship, and imagination, Jackson Foster recreates the character and presence of historic American and English signboards. His work grows out of careful research into the lives, trades, and communities of the 18th and 19th centuries, paired with a background in history, design, lettering, and woodworking.
Foster builds each sign from reclaimed wood—sometimes centuries old—and finishes it with period-appropriate hardware, from blacksmith-forged irons to hand-wrought nails and hinges. The result is a body of work in which every sign is distinct, evoking the artistry of early American makers while reflecting his ongoing study of historic typographic styles, painting traditions, and joinery techniques.
The Quiet Vast
June 19 - August 1, 2026
Lower Gallery
“The Quiet Vast” is a duo exhibition by husband-and-wife photographers Chris and Suzanne Bowers, exploring the beauty found in both the overlooked and the ever-present. Through distinct yet complementary perspectives, their work invites viewers to pause and consider the significance of the small moments that quietly surround us each day.
Suzanne’s images focus on tender, fleeting moments in nature, capturing details that are easily missed, a bloom at its peak, a droplet suspended in time. In select pieces, she draws deliberate parallels between these brief earthly moments and the vast, aged universe, pairing natural forms with celestial counterparts to reveal a shared visual language across scale and time.
In contrast, Chris’s photographs turn toward the familiar and the mundane, reframing everyday subjects through simplicity and restraint. His work carries a sense of nostalgia, finding depth and meaning in subtle textures, light, and form.
Together, their images reflect the essence of The Quiet Vast—a reminder that, whether found in a long trodden staircase or the silently passing stars overhead, these quiet, constant presences shape our experience of the world, even when they go unnoticed.
Ava VanDeventer Debut Exhibit
August 1 - September 19, 2026
Upper Gallery
Artistic talent runs in the family! Ava VanDeventer, daughter of Furnace Mountain Band’s Morgan Morrison and Dave VanDeventer, brings her debut exhibit to the Barns of Rose Hill. Described as a “fearless” artist by noted portraitist Jordan Xu, Ava’s distinctive style pairs bold expression with a strong sense of form and subject, creating work that is confident, direct, and engaging.
A Beat of Color, A Pulse of Rhythm
Echoes of Brazil
August 4 - September 19, 2026
Lower Gallery
About the Artist: Leonor Alvim Brazão was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and is a multidisciplinary artist based in Northern Virginia. She spent her formative years in Brazil, where she studied visual arts, music and dance, earning degrees in Visual Communication and Arts Education. Upon returning to Lisbon, she began her professional career in advertising, working as an art director for several multinational agencies.
Currently, Brazão serves as Artist in Residence and Director of Curriculum at an art education organization in Virginia, Abrakadoodle Art Education, where she fosters creativity across a global community. Her practice spans visual art, graphic design, poetry, and education. She regularly exhibits her visual work and has self-published three poetry books.
About the Exhibit: This exhibition brings together three series inspired by Brazil’s rich musical culture, exploring the emotional and human connections created through music. The works capture musicians, urban landscapes, and memories shaped by Leonor Alvim Brazão’s personal experience.
From the intimate relationship between musicians and their instruments in The Blues Series, to the lightness of the Blue Musicians drawings and the urban musical atmosphere of The Musicians Visit São Paulo, the exhibition transforms music into a unique visual language through color, movement, and form.
Rooted in Brazão’s experiences as a musician living in Brazil, these series honor the universal language of music and its power to connect people from different backgrounds. Each artwork seeks to capture intimate musical moments, translating them visually and inviting audiences to feel the music within.
In a world saturated with noise and disinformation, the exhibition invites viewers to pause, reconnect with their essence, and enter a space of musicality, emotion, and beauty.
The Spaces We Share
Animals, People & Place
November 13 - December 26, 2026
Upper Gallery
About the Artist: Tamara Lewis is a Clarke County, Virginia–based artist whose work explores the relationship between animals, people, and the environments they share. Working primarily in oil and cold wax, she builds her paintings through layered applications of color, using both intricate passages and simplified shapes to create form, movement,and visual tension.
Her subjects often center on animals and the subtle connections between animals and their human counterparts. Rather than pursuing strict realism, Lewis uses color,shape, and texture to evoke presence and atmosphere, allowing forms to emerge through their interaction, both up close and at a distance.
About the Exhibit: These works reflect an evolving direction in Lewis’s practice, exploring color, texture, and the relationships between subjects and their surroundings. Working in oil and cold wax, she builds form through layered applications of color—placing individual strokes and shapes that read as abstract up close, but come together into recognizable forms at a distance. In other pieces, she shifts toward larger, simplified shapes, allowing color relationships to define structure more directly.
Inspired in part by the Shenandoah region, Lewis returns to themes of animals, people, and shared experience. Her work often centers on the connection between animals and their human counterparts, using color and composition to create both structure and movement within the frame.
The inclusion of music-inspired imagery nods to the Barns of Rose Hill’s role as a space where art and music come together.
Your Support Matters
Your generous support through donations and memberships helps to ensure that we fulfill our mission to enrich lives through the arts, education, and community.
Barns of Rose Hill is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Tax ID No. 27-0103521. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.