Isabelle Abbot

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I use painting to explore the world around me and, through the tools of brush and paint, come to a deeper understanding of the landscapes that I love. Growing up in Greenwood, Virginia and spending time on my family’s mountain property, I formed a deep attachment to the region and have carried that with me throughout my life. I studied art at the University of Virginia with painters Richard Crozier and Philip Geiger. After graduating, I continued painting the Virginia landscape, showing work locally as well as in Richmond and Farmville. The idea of Place and how we form memories and attachment to the land fascinated me and I decided to attend graduate school to deepen my knowledge of painting and how I could use it to understand and celebrate the world around me. I earned my Master’s in Fine Arts at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. In the Spring of 2011, I returned to Charlottesville to teach in the Art Department at UVA and to continue painting the landscape I love most.

Born 1982
Lives and works in Charlottesville, VA

Education
2011
MFA Painting, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

2005
BA Studio Art, University of Virginia (with Distinction)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022
A World: Isabelle Abbot, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2022
Isabelle Abbot: Convergence, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA

2016
Westminster Canterbury, Richmond, VA
Landing, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2015
Summer Scenes, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA

2014
Knowing A Place, Cleo Driver Miller Gallery, Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA

2013
Surveying Light, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA
J Fergeson Gallery, Farmville, VA
Bridgewater College Gallery, Bridgewater, VA

2011
New Work, J Fergeson Gallery, Farmville, VA

2009
Homeland, J Fergeson Gallery, Farmville, VA

2008
Greenwood, The North Gallery, Crozet, VA
Reminiscence, The Gallery at Fifth and Water, Charlottesville, VA

2007
Horizons II, The Gallery at Fifth and Water, Charlottesville, VA

2006
Ridgelines, The Mezzanine Gallery at New Dominion Bookshop, Charlottesville, VA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2013
Shade, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
Visiting Faculty, Ruffin Gallery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

2012
New Vistas, Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA

2011
Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art, Greensboro, NC
The Way We See It, Christina Ray Gallery, New York, NY
MFA Thesis Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC

2010
Elliot University Center Gallery, UNC Greensboro, NC
Size Matters, Center for the Creative Arts, Greensboro, NC

2008
Show for Emerging Artists, Kaller Fine Arts, Alexandria, VA

Bibliography

2012
“A Brush with Spring at Les Yeux du Monde,” Review by Sarah Sargent, The C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville, VA

2010
“Size (& location) matters,” review by Brian Crean, Yes! Weekly, 2010

2009
“Isabelle Abbot’s Land Portraits Are Getting Snapped Up,” review and interview by Allie Marshall Pesch, The Crozet Gazette, 2009

Professional Experience

2011- Present
Adjunct Faculty, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

2010- 2011
Teaching Assistant/Substitute, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Painting 1, Spring 2010, Drawing 1, Fall 2010, Painting 1, Spring 2011
Gallery Co-Director, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Elliot Union Center Gallery

2009- 2011
Graduate Assistant, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Managing the painting and drawing studios and assisting Art History faculty

2008 – 2009
Director of Exhibitions at South Street Brewery, Charlottesville, Virginia

2008
Art Teacher, Spectrum Art Program, Tandem Friends School, Charlottesville, Virginia.

2007
Art Teacher, Oakland School. Keswick, Virginia

Awards and Honors

2011-Present
Renting Member, McGuffey Arts Center, Charlottesville, Virginia.
Studio awarded through juried application process.

2010 – 2011
Thrush, Holderness, and Howard Scholarships, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

2010
Graduate Assistantship (Summer)

2009
Visiting Artist, Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, Ireland

2008
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Residency, Amherst, Virginia
Visiting Lecturer, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia

Every painting is a question I pose to myself, about the landscape, about my relationship to my environment, about the specificities of where I am. How does this moment feel? How does the atmosphere, the topography, the light affect me? How can I communicate these sensations honestly and clearly? The answer comes through editing, through paring down and cutting out extraneous detail to discover what is essential about a place. The answer also comes through using paint as an investigative tool that can take on the textures and colors of earth and sky, allowing me to reconstruct my surroundings on the canvas. All the work begins with direct observation and, by asking and answering questions, grows into a painting that does not illustrate but embodies the qualities of a particular moment in a particular landscape. I am a painter of a very specific region and I want my viewers to feel instinctively where these paintings come from. I am paying homage, as well as feeding my own need to be oriented, to be grounded, to know where I am and to feel connected to that place.