Regional Artists Spotlight Series – Round One

For more than five decades, An Occasion for the Arts has celebrated creativity in all its forms, bringing artists and audiences together through one of Virginia’s longest-running arts festivals.

As we prepare for this year’s juried art, student art, and performance festival in October, we’re proud to celebrate regional artists who help make our community more creative, vibrant, and connected through our ongoing Regional Artist Spotlight Series, highlighting artists from across the region regardless of their participation in the festival.

Michelle Barka is a contemporary painter based at Beech Tree Studio in rural Lanexa, Virginia, where the natural world surrounding her plays a quiet but unmistakable role in her work. Her paintings often inhabit a space between still life and subtle surrealism, blending familiar objects with unexpected details that create a sense of mystery, wonder, and quiet introspection. Influenced by both Old Master painting and medieval artistic traditions, her work balances historical reverence with a distinctly personal contemporary voice.

Drawn to experimentation as much as technique, Barka works across traditional and mixed media, including acrylic on linen and canvas, while continuing to expand her practice into portraiture, botanicals, and finely detailed drawing. A fascination with unusual plant life, including the carnivorous species she cultivates at home, adds another layer to her exploration of nature’s strange and intricate beauty. Her work invites viewers to look more closely, where the ordinary begins to feel quietly extraordinary.

Gitta Brewster works primarily in acrylic and mixed media, creating representational work infused with expressive color and a deeply personal perspective. Her art reflects a belief that beauty persists even in difficult times, often revealing itself in nature, in human-made spaces, and especially in the imperfections that make things feel real and alive. She is also inspired by the fearless creativity of children and sees the pursuit of that same freedom of expression as an ongoing artistic goal.

Originally from West Berlin, Germany, Brewster spent nearly four decades in California’s Central Valley before recently making Williamsburg home. Her creative life is shaped by both observation and connection, from walks in the woods to time with family, music, and quiet reflection – all of which inform a practice rooted in warmth, curiosity, and appreciation for everyday beauty.

Inspired by the illustrations and cartographic imagery found in old books, Derek Cook is fascinated by the interplay between expressive freedom and careful observation.

His work aims to capture some of that same emotional resonance, drawing from scenes encountered in travel, daily walks, and the quiet rhythms of everyday life.

His practice suggests a thoughtful relationship between concept, craft, and experimentation.

Barbara S. Gibson’s work reflects the kind of steady creative practice that grows richer over time. There is a thoughtful sensitivity in her approach, with work that feels attentive to material, form, and the quieter emotional qualities that make handmade art so resonant. Her pieces invite a slower kind of looking, the kind that rewards attention.

Inspired by a visit to a historic African American church in Waterford, Virginia, built in 1891, Just Wait’n on the Lord reflects a deeply personal moment of contemplation. While photographing the town’s covered bridges, the artist found themselves in the church’s second-floor sanctuary, where warm light streamed through old windows onto worn wooden pews. The quiet atmosphere prompted reflection on faith, resilience, and the generations whose perseverance helped shape the lives we live today.

The Floral Disarrangement series reflects the artist’s fascination with transformation, chance, and altered perception.

By photographing flowers underwater, Kathy Hornsby captures moments of distortion and abstraction that reimagine familiar botanical forms, allowing unpredictability to become an essential part of the creative process.

Working in oils, acrylics, and watercolor, Tenley Raithel approaches painting as both a creative exploration and a source of balance and freedom. Embracing a contemporary use of color, the work moves beyond straightforward representation, focusing instead on interpretation, mood, and visual storytelling rather than the pursuit of perfection.

Rather than simply recreating a scene, the artist transforms what is observed into compositions that invite reflection and personal interpretation. The result is work that feels expressive, thoughtful, and open-ended—offering viewers space to connect with each piece in their own way.

Nathaniel Smith, the artist behind VIGLNCE, approaches his work with a strong focus on character, values, and personal perspective. His pieces are designed not simply as visual statements, but as invitations to reflection – encouraging viewers to consider questions of identity, morality, and the choices that shape how we move through the world.

Through VIGLNCE, Smith creates work that blends personal philosophy with artistic expression, using each piece as a catalyst for introspection rather than offering fixed answers. The result is work that feels direct, thought-provoking, and rooted in a clear sense of purpose.

W.R. van Elburg creates work designed to draw viewers into an unfolding visual narrative, leaving room for interpretation rather than imposing a singular meaning.

Instead of simply capturing a moment in time, the work encourages a more active engagement – inviting each viewer to bring their own perspective, questions, and story to the experience.

Originally from Kentucky, Christopher B. Wagner has lived and worked in many parts of the country, experiences that inform his sculptural practice. Using reclaimed and reconstituted wood as his primary medium, he combines traditional carving skills with a contemporary artistic approach, giving new life to materials shaped by time and use.

He brings a strong sense of form and craftsmanship to his work, with an approach that feels both technically assured and creatively exploratory. His pieces carry a distinct visual confidence, balancing structure with expression in ways that feel contemporary and thoughtfully resolved.

Dianna Woolley’s work reflects a long-standing fascination with flowers – not only for their beauty, but for the symbolic role they’ve played across history, literature, and human storytelling. A devoted gardener as well as an accomplished painter, she brings that personal connection into her work, creating paintings that celebrate the color, vitality, and emotional resonance of the natural world. Floral forms become more than subjects; they become expressive carriers of memory, meaning, and visual delight.

With more than three decades of exhibiting, continued study, and award-winning practice, Woolley brings both experience and curiosity to her work. Working across acrylic, encaustic, and oil, she continues to evolve her artistic voice while remaining grounded in a deep appreciation for observation, beauty, and the enduring inspiration found in nature.

Thank you to the artists featured in this first installment of Regional Artists Spotlight, and thank you to everyone who took the time to explore their work.

We’ll be back soon with another group of artists. In the meantime, we invite you to learn more about An Occasion for the Arts and our annual festival each October.