Welcome to The Artists' Alliance at Jarrett Thor Fine Arts

The Artists’ Alliance (AA) at Jarrett Thor Fine Arts is a cooperative art gallery showing work from over 20 of the finest regional artists in painting, photography, glass, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, and furniture.

Each month’s show includes a featured Artist of the Month. Exhibits change monthly, coinciding with Colonial Beach’s Second Friday Art Walk (6-9pm).

Nancy Brittle, August Featured Artist
Exhibit Opening Friday, August 14th, from 6-9

The Artists’ Alliance of Colonial Beach is delighted to feature Nancy Brittle as our Featured Artist for August, with an opening reception during the Colonial Beach Art Walk on Friday, August 14, from 6–9 PM.

Nancy’s newest collection is a celebration of summer—not simply as a season, but as a place where observation and memory meet.

For many of us, summer brings a change of pace. Days feel a little longer and life a little more casual. We spend more time outdoors, notice the shifting colors of the sky, the light across the water, familiar houses and gardens, and the landscapes that surround us. Sometimes those observations also lead us back to summers we remember.

That connection between the present and the past is at the heart of Nancy’s August exhibition.

Painting from Memory

In this collection, Nancy returns to images deeply connected to her own history: childhood summers, the old mulberry tree, Nana’s house, annual trips to Virginia’s coastal marshes and rivers, and the expansive skies and sands of the ocean.

Rather than treating these memories as literal records, Nancy explores them through paint. Familiar places become opportunities for expressive color, energetic brushwork, rich texture, and simplified forms.

Her beach scenes glow with warm sand and brilliant umbrellas. Marshes and waterways become layers of green, blue, yellow, and reflected light. A familiar old house emerges through broad, confident strokes. In each painting, there is a sense of a remembered place being rediscovered on the canvas.

Ideas in Paint

While memory provides the inspiration, Nancy is equally interested in the act of painting itself. Color, texture, brushstroke, composition, and the physical surface of the paint are central to this body of work. Many of the paintings are intimate 8-by-8-inch oils, which Nancy describes as studies—small “ideas in paint” that allow her to explore a subject directly and spontaneously.

Four larger works give her more room to investigate the painted surface and develop those ideas further.

And there is something especially exciting about this exhibition: all of the work is new. The result is a collection that feels personal without being overly nostalgic—an exploration of how a remembered summer, a familiar landscape, or a particular quality of light can become something entirely new through paint.

Hubert Jackson’s multi-media work, NASA Sheroes and Heroes

NASA Sheroes and Heroes by Hubert Jackson.jpg

The Artists Alliance at Jarrett Thor Fine Arts (AAJT) is proud to share that member Hubert Jackson’s multi-media work, NASA Sheroes and Heroes, will be on display in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for one year. The exhibition coincides with the reopening of their renovated Flight and the Arts Center and the Museum’s 50th Anniversary celebration. The Art of Air and Space: Interpretations of Flight, will open to the public on July 1, 2026, and remain on view through July 1, 2027.

Hubert Jackson’s work joins that of many renowned artists including Francisco Goya, Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Annie Leibovitz, Norman Rockwell, and Alma Thomas to name just a few. Details of the exhibition can be found here: https://airandspace.si.edu/whats-on/exhibitions/art-of-air-and-space-interpretations-of-flight

Hubert Jackson’s recent work is currently on display at AAJT and can be seen during regular gallery hours (Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11-5), Colonial Beach Second Friday Art Walks, or by appointment at 804-224-7200 or 301-452-1333. Please stop by or call to help us celebrate local art legend Hubert Jackson!