“In a year that will be remembered by all of us for its many difficulties, for me it will be a year that I will choose to remember for its many kindnesses shown to me and to others. We’ve had to learn to make peace with it. For me, that came in the form of color and thoughts of this wonderful village and its people. This is my humble tribute to a very, very special place.”

Anita Callaert

“The past six months gave me plenty of time to focus on what I wanted to paint and get inspirations. Many of these paintings were done during that time. I also had a lot of time to sit outdoors and photograph the many scenes I planned n painting. This collection is a reflection of the time spent in the studio in 2020.”

Tommy Beaver

“I was looking forward to the year 2020. It was to be my first full year of retirement, the year my new granddaughter would come into the world, the year I would make real progress toward finishing my third book.

I planned to fill my days with writing, painting, experimenting with fused glass, and swimming in the creek, at least until baby Barlow Rose made her entrance in August. But starting in the middle of March, all of us had to confront the menace known as Corona.

The pandemic is terrifying, but it made me see with new eyes and paint with newfound urgency. It made me want to record what I saw during a spring and summer more transcendently beautiful than any I remember. It made me want to experiment with ways to render darkness and light, in watercolor and in glass. Remembering Daniel Defoe’s account of the bubonic plague in London, I have come to think of these paintings as my Journal of the Plague Year. “

Susan Millar Williams