^ At Old Rag Photography on Main Street, gallerist

At Old Rag Photography on Main Street, gallerist Wynn Ludwig, will greet visitors with a smile at the door of the nineteenth century building that used to be a Conestoga wagon making shop. Joe Okane, photographer and owner of the gallery, bought the building to house his own work, as well as to show that of other photographers. Okane produces scenic digital photographs and prints them on canvas for a painterly effect. Also on show will be Kent Wiley’s formal, abstract images of Blue Ridge boulders, Ray Boc’s and Richard Lyke’s lovely scenes of Rappahannock County, and Will Brown’s lithographic-looking botanicals. In back of the gallery there will be more work on display, all accompanied by refreshments on the old fly-fishing deck overlooking the Thornton River.

Down Main Street, Long View Gallery owner and artists’ representative, Andrew Haley, has a small, simply restored eighteenth century house full of remarkable painting, sculpture and crafts. Amazed at the concentration of talent in Rappahannock, Haley recently opened a second branch of Long View in Washington, D.C., to spread the word. Included in his stable of local artists are tempura realist Patton Wilson, painter of neo-surreal landscapes in oil; Robin Barker Purnell, and plein air landscapist, Chris Stephens, among many others. “There is no Rappahannock look’”, says Haley. “The appeal here is to do your own thing, which is reflected in the diverse nature of the art you see. It is not homogenized as it can be in certain other regions of tire country.” Also on