First Fridays Exhibition Features Work of Deborah UHL

Media Contact:

Kristen Gleason
Director of Marketing
The Paramount Theater
215 East Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.979.1922 ext. 103
kristen@theparamount.net

For Immediate Release

September 17, 2007

This opening at The Paramount has been CANCELLED.  The theater apologizes for any inconvenience.

Click here to listen WVTF's
Studio Virginia interview with the artist about her work.

The Paramount Theater is pleased
to present the Virginia premiere exhibition of works by Deborah Uhl with “Life on the Edge”: Observing the Oldest Living Things on Earth, opening on Friday, October 5 at 5:30 pm. Her show will be installed in the theater’s ballroom (on the ground level adjacent to the grand lobby) for the month of October.

This installation marks the first show in Virginia for Uhl, whose works can be found in public and private collections and have been shown throughout the country. Featured at The Paramount will be works from her “Bristlecone Pine Series,” which derive from her travels above 11,000 feet to protected groves in the western United States. These paintings visually explore the struggle for trees over 4,000 years old to survive their tree line existence. “The Bristlecones carry a wisdom that we as humans should tune into if we hope to have the kind of longevity they embody.” 

The artist, whose home base is Evergreen, Colorado, made her way to Virginia while hiking the Appalachian Trail with her dog Pawley in 2004. She returns from time to time to visit friends and paint in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Showcased backstage at the Charlottesville Pavilion for the past two concert seasons, her work has caught the eye of many performers there, particularly Bonnie Raitt and k.d. lang.

Accomplished in a variety of professions as well as a variety of media, Uhl funds her high-elevation pilgrimages by bringing back to life murals and wall paintings in our country’s historic buildings. Among the Conservation projects she has worked on in the past year are two in the nation’s capitol --  the trompe l’oeil decorative ceiling in the Secretary of War’s Suite in the Old Executive Office Building (soon to be dedicated as the Vice Presidential Ceremonial Room) and the French wooden coiffered ceiling in the Music Room at Dunbarton Oaks Museum.

She has been formally trained at the graduate level in painting, art history, and the conservation of painted surfaces. She has discovered that painting transparently with oils over airbrushed acrylic backgrounds allows her to achieve the ethereal quality she strives for, and for which her work is particularly outstanding. When pleine aire painting, Ms. Uhl works with watercolors, acrylics, and egg tempera, which are easily transportable and dry quickly.

She prefers working on rigid supports as opposed to the traditional stretched canvas. “My Conservation training has taught me that certain materials endure time better than others. Painting thinly on properly-primed hard wood greatly decreases the chance that the paint layer will crack over time. “

The works to be presented at The Paramount exemplify Ms. Uhl’s use of high-quality materials, down to the well-considered frames. Many were built and assembled by Uhl, while others were handcrafted by the Dard Hunter Studio in the Roycroft Arts and Crafts tradition. Uhl hopes that the beauty embodied in the paintings will resonate with the viewer and propel them to preserve their own natural surroundings.

Uhl will be present at the First Fridays opening of her exhibit at The Paramount Theater on Friday October 5th from 5:30 to 8 pm. Admission is free. Ticketholders to Paramount performances can also view the exhibit throughout the month of October.

Additional information about Deborah Uhl can be found in Who’s Who in American Art or by visiting her internet “studio” at www.deborahuhl.com.