Recent News and Events
Group show at BSSS
December 12, 2025
The final exhibit for 2026 at Beverley Street Studio School Gallery in Staunton, VA. features the work of Lindsay Freedman, Janly Jaggard, June Jordan, Joan Ranzini, Krista Townsend and Christine Watts. There will be a reception and opportunity to meet the artists from 5:30 to 7:30 pm on December 12. A panel discussion with the artists in the gallery will be on Wednesday January 14 at 2pm. The exhibit runs through February 1, 2026.
Members of “Group 6” are established artists who live and work in Virginia, women who meet regularly to show, discuss and critique their work. Primarily known as painters, these six friends and colleagues also create in collage, vitreous enamel, clay, photography and printmaking. Their work is well known regionally and is shaped by an interest in abstraction and a commitment to creative inquiry. All members have studied and/or taught at Beverley Street Studio School in Staunton, and their work can be found in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States and abroad.
The Beverley Street Studio School gallery is located at 22 West Beverley Street, Staunton, Virginia and shares space with CoArt Gallery. Gallery Hours are Wednesday 1-5, Thursday 1-6, Friday and Saturday 10-8 and Sunday 1-5. Reception: Friday December 12, 2025 from 5:30-7:30pm Panel Discussion: Wednesday January 14, 2026 at 2pm Exhibit Dates: December 12, 2025 to February 1, 2026 Location: 22 West Beverley Street, Staunton, Virginia Gallery Hours: Wednesday 1-5, Thursday 1-6, Friday and Saturday 10-8, Sunday 1-5
Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Krista Townsend of Charlottesville, VA
December 4, 2025
Read Krista’s recent interview in Bold Journey.
Natural progression–A dual show at Phaeton Gallery interprets beauty in layers
March 26, 2025
With the exception of two large views of the forest, “Body Memory” and “Solvitur Ambulando” (it is solved by walking), Townsend’s works are up-close studies of sections of woods or meadow. In “When We Actually Look” and “Dense Vegetation,” the shapes and lines that describe physical objects like leaves and branches, or the visual effects of shadows and light, dissolve into a composition of ebullient abstract forms.
Townsend’s work is filled with interesting visual touches. Whether it’s the purply red clusters of the Eupatorium stalks in “Fox Haven,” the spiraling clumps of grass in “Microcosm,” or the shimmering explosion of pigment and gesture that is “When We Actually Look,” what catches Townsend’s eye and how she decides to represent it is enchanting.
Read the review in the March 26, 2025 edition of C’ville Weekly
Roanoke College 2025 Juried Biennial
Olin and Smoyer Gallery
January 31 - March 16, 2025
Krista’s painting, Evening Glow and Sticks, was selected for the 2025 Juried Biennial at Olin Hall Galleries of Roanoke College.
Interview with Canvas Rebel
May 20, 2024
“The thing I cherish most about the creative process is getting so lost in it. I’ll go to my studio at 9 am. It may take me a hour or so to rev up and get started, but once I start painting, its suddenly 5pm. I’m exhausted but also so fulfilled by the end of the day. Throughout the day, I am often utterly amazed when I step back from a canvas and look at it from a distance and what I’d been working on close up comes together and makes a sort of sense that I am not even sure I knew I was creating. It’s surreal, meditative, almost out-of-body, and at the same time grounding.”
Broken Tree, 36 x 36 inches, oil on canvas
Creating Space: Seven Contemporary Women Artists
Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University
July 14 - September 18, 2022
This exhibit examines the recent work of a cohort of women artists living in the Shenandoah Valley: they are united by location, a lifelong pursuit of seeking through art, and an artist/teacher/mentor to learn beside. Ron Boehmer, Lynchburg-based artist, teacher, and co-founder of the Beverley Street Studio School (Staunton, VA) is the catalyst who brings these disparate artists together.
Each of these artists have juggled life as professionals, daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, grandmothers, teachers, and caregivers. Despite their many roles and responsibilities, they always created space in their lives to make art. Lindsay Freedman, Janly Jaggard, June Jordan, Joan Ranzini, Krista Townsend, and Christine Watts still convene regularly for a critique session to discuss their latest work and get feedback. Deliece Blanchard studied independently with Boehmer and recently moved from the Shenandoah Valley to Winston-Salem, NC.
Best known for their paintings, a few of these artists also create collages, vitreous enamels, or ceramics. They all experiment in the liminal space between realism and abstraction. Many of them also teach art in the region. All participate in solo and group exhibits regionally and across the country; their work can be found in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States and abroad.
Broken Tree was accepted in to the Eleanor D. Wilson permanent collection.
Sense memory | Krista Townsend’s ‘Second Nature’ bursts with visual excitement.
June 22, 2022
By Sarah Sargent
“Townsend’s paintings are the work of a supremely confident artist who is at the top of her game. In nature, she has found an endlessly inspiring muse that challenges her every day to use talent and intuition to interpret and convey the essence of what is there.”
Read the review in the June 22, 2022 edition of C’ville Weekly
Taubman Museum of Art
December 06, 2021
Krista’s painting, The Kitchen of My Childhood, was selected by Nandini Makrandi, chief curator of the Hunter Museum of American Art, to be part of the show Homeward Bound at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, VA.
Homeward Bound will be on view from Friday, December 17, 2021 - Sunday, March 06, 2022.