The works of Jim Costello, a local artist based in Strasburg, Virginia, will be displayed in the rotunda of Shenandoah University’s Health & Life Sciences Building (HLSB) from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day from Saturday, April 2, through Sunday, April 10. An artist’s reception will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 2.
Costello’s work draws from the world outside his Shenandoah Valley studio. Back roads and meadows, clouds and sky, cedar trees and fences, old barns and buildings are sometimes rendered as if through the window of a moving car. In this distinctive world, willowy, pale images of women appear as if by magic.
A mystical understanding of the world, and the spirit and energy that animates all living things, is central to the artist’s 40 years of work, which includes acrylic paintings, pen and ink drawings, and illustrated journals.
A 1980’s gallery exhibition of Costello’s work in Washington, D.C., was received with rave reviews by the Washington Post and the signature painting from that show was purchased by the National Geographic Society. In 2015, a retrospective exhibit at the Burwell-Morgan Mill in Millwood, Virginia, was an exceptional success and reintroduced Costello to the public after many years of self-imposed anonymity. His paintings have been collected throughout the decades by friends and admirers.
Costello has never actively sought recognition as an artist. He prefers instead to play his banjo by a wood stove, trout fish in the Shenandoah River, read copiously, and live life as it comes. Still young at heart at age 72, the born storyteller spins yarns like a true Irishman, and is beloved by his friends.
Originally from Rochester, New York, Costello studied art at the Ecole St. Luc in Brussels, Belgium. He attended the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in painting in 1964, followed by a master of fine arts degree in 1967.
He taught art at Loras College (Dubuque, Iowa) and Yankton College (Yankton, South Dakota). In 1970, he moved with his wife Barbara and their son to the mountains of Virginia to make art and build pole barns in the 200-year-old log house they call home.
For more information on the art show, please contact info@jim-costello-artist.com.