Jean Galloway: Christmas Santas

© Jean Poff Galloway

ON DISPLAY

November 17 - December 26

RECEPTION

December 4  5:00-7:00

Christmas Santas

Just in time to usher in the holiday season, Jean Poff Galloway has agreed to share her fabulous Christmas decorations she has created over the years.  The collection will be in the vault of the former bank, now the Montgomery Museum, starting in mid-November. 

A native of Christiansburg, Galloway lived in Richmond until 1994, and she had a studio in her home where she taught art classes.  Every year she introduced a new decoration for the students to make, after, of course, demonstrating by making one for herself.  The size of the works ranges from a large Santa Claus to small decorations for a tree.  Acrylic paints are her medium of choice.  She found a woodcutter who made wooden templates for some of the pieces.  Other works are on metal trays, even silver-plated trays, which she found take the paint well.  There are stockings painted on canvas and paintings on watercolor paper.

Directions for some of the Santa collection were published in "Paint Works" magazine.  The instructions are explicit and a page or more in length. 

 Galloway calls herself a self-taught painter, but she studied interior design at the University of Tennessee, where she earned her B.S. degree.  She then attended the New York School of Interior Design, where she developed an interest in art and color.  Her varied career shows how basic education can be used as a jumping-off point to related occupations.  For example, she once worked for a company where she designed and painted wallpaper. One of her brothers had a product photography studio in Christiansburg.  Galloway used her design talents to become a photography stylist and even took up photography herself.  Her brother was a great mentor.

All images © Jean Poff Galloway