December 4, 2020 - January 22, 2021, Main Gallery.

This series by Charlottesville-based artist Laura Wooten illustrates the changing seasons of Virginia’s landscape and human connection to the land. Wooten painted over 90 small works for the exhibition, inspired by the daily walks she and her dog took to the same spot every day for a year.

When asked about her current work, Wooten said she was interested in painting her daily experience: the fields and meadows of central Virginia, views to the distant Blue Ridge Mountains from her hilltop neighborhood, and the way trees mark the passing of time in her backyard. View from the Ridge follows the natural beauty of Virginia’s landscape: the works were painted at different times of the day, showing each season passing into the next. In sharing her experience with others, Wooten hopes her exhibition takes visitors on a personal journey through nature.

Laura Wooten earned her undergraduate degree in Art and Architecture at the University of Virginia and continued at UVA as an Aunspaugh Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in Studio Art. She went on to receive her MFA from American University. Her landscape paintings have been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware. In partnership with Charlottesville-based company Apex Clean Energy, visitors will be encouraged to write down their thoughts and reflect on their relationship to the land and climate in response to interactive prompts.