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Nansemond-Suffolk Academy’s annual art show and sale had its opening day on Saturday. This year, the show features over 170 artists, the most since COVID-19, with North Carolina native Karen Crenshaw as the featured artist. The art show is open and free to the public through Feb. 2 for people to look and shop in person. People can also shop online through Feb. 1 from 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.   

Hundreds of paintings, photographs, and drawings line the walls of NSA’s lower school. There’s a designated room for the mixed media art including pottery, glass, jewelry, wood, and more. Prices range from around $15 to thousands of dollars. 

The goal of the show is to raise money for NSA’s visual and performing arts program. 35% of sales go to the program, with the rest going to the artists. 

About halfway through the show’s opening day, NSA Assistant Director of Advancement Melissa Hlinovsky said they sold over $40,000 of art. On average, they tend to sell over $110,000 in total.

Crenshaw first got involved with the show about 10 years ago, and she’s the featured artist this year, an opportunity she said she’s “thrilled” to have. Of the 81 paintings she brought with her, she sold 16 at the time of her interview.

She paints mostly landscapes, saying she loves “finding a sense of place.” She particularly said she enjoys plein air painting, which is painting outdoors with the landscape as the subject.

“Doing plein air painting I think is what really set me on the path,” Crenshaw said. “Because when you’re painting plein air, all of your senses are heightened, and every time I look at a painting I’ve done plein air, I remember was it steaming hot, was I freezing, was it raining, was the wind blowing so hard.”

She continued to say she would much rather paint from the real thing than paint from a photo. She linked it to when you take a picture of a beautiful sunset, but the photo pales in comparison to the real thing. She said photos are “missing information.”

In addition to landscapes, Crenshaw also occasionally paints portraits. She said one of her favorite paintings she’s ever done is a six-foot tall portrait of her daughter in her wedding dress.

Crenshaw said she found a 4-by-6 foot frame at an antique store that stood in her studio for two years as she thought about what she would paint to fit the frame.

“I happened to have a snapshot of my daughter waiting at our house in her wedding dress, and there’s a zebra skin on the wall behind [her], so that’s what I painted,” Crenshaw said.

The main reason Crenshaw said she keeps coming back to the NSA art show every year is because of what it promotes — art appreciation among young students. 

This appreciation for fostering creative curiosity is common among the art show organizers.

Head of NSA Michael Barclay said while most people take an art class in school, not everyone grows up to be an appreciator of art. 

“I think for all our little people, because of [the art show], specifically, you have a bunch of students or NSA graduates who grow up appreciating art,” he said.

Hlinovsky added there are usually a couple students who will save up their allowance and purchase pieces for themselves that they really love. 

Mary Kemple Henderson is a co-chair of the art show, and she said the teachers also do a great job of using the artwork as educational tools.

When she was an English teacher, she said she would have her kids write poetry about a piece that spoke to them. Some of the lower school teachers will put together scavenger hunts for their students. Even the math teachers will develop word problems about spending money on art.

“It always is really great for the kids to see how many different styles of art there are,” Henderson said. “It’s just a great experience.”