Photo by Hekyung Parkbarr
About Sally Veach
Sally Veach (b. 1962, Summit, NJ) creates contemplative landscape paintings that explore the place of humans within the sublime power of the natural world. Working from her studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA, she develops layered compositions that invite quiet reflection and moments of connection to the natural environment. At the same time, her process invites viewers to contemplate ecological and societal issues.
Veach’s current series, human Nature, combines atmospheric landscapes with delicate botanical patterns sourced from historic textile collections. Through careful research of museum archives, she develops custom stencils that layer natural motifs throughout her paintings, creating works that feel both timeless and deeply rooted in our shared relationship with nature. Her process builds multiple layers, allowing previous applications to show through like an historical palimpsest, suggesting the accumulation of eras alongside the enduring presence of nature in our lives. Canvas edges often fray into soft fringes, reinforcing the organic, plant based origins of the canvas.
Many pieces draw inspiration from Hudson River School painters, whose sublime landscapes invoked spiritual renewal but also promoted consequential ideas of manifest destiny. Combining symbolic references to the 18th and 19th centuries, Veach’s work celebrates the healing power of landscape at the same time as revealing the complex relationship between humans and nature.
Recognition and Collections
Veach’s work resides in the permanent collections of the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, the City of Alexandria, and the County of Fairfax, Virginia. She has exhibited extensively in the Eastern United States, including a duo exhibition at the DC Arts Center in Washington, DC and a solo exhibition at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA. In 2026 Veach will present her work in duo and solo shows at The Athenaeum in Alexandria, VA, McLean Project for the Arts, Berlage Arts and Education Center in McLean, VA, and Goggleworks Center for the Arts in Reading, PA. She and is a two-time solo exhibitor at the Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, Maryland. Her practice has been supported through three grants from the Marian Park Lewis Foundation.
Veach was awarded a fellowship for a multi-disciplinary residency at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in 2025. In 2024, her work has been featured in two “I Like Your Work Podcast” catalogs. Recent group exhibitions include Women Artists of the DMV in Rockville, MD and Melissa Ichiuji Gallery in Front Royal, VA, Field Projects in New York, NY, The Athenaeum and Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA and Washington Studio School in Washington, DC.
Forthcoming solo and duo presentations include Vanderbilt University’s Sarrat Gallery, American University’s Katzen Art Center curated by Crowstep in partnership with Bard University’s Hannah Arendt Center, and BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, MD. Critical recognition includes a 2026 review by DC art critic, Mark Jenkins, a 2022 Washington Post review, also by Jenkins, and multiple local and regional press features.
Education and Professional Development
Veach holds a BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University. Her commitment to professional growth includes residencies at Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, Weir Farm National Historic Park, and Lodestar School of Art in Ireland, as well as continuing education at New York Studio School and New York Crit Club.
With over ten years of dedicated practice, Veach combines technical expertise with a deep understanding of how art functions therapeutically in institutional and residential settings, creating work that serves both aesthetic and intellectual purposes.
Statement
My art practice explores humanity's place within the sublime power of the natural world through multi-layered landscape paintings. These complex compositions invite moments of connection to the natural environment while offering opportunities to contemplate ecological and societal issues.
The series human Nature combines gestural and atmospheric landscapes with intricate botanical images derived from historic textiles and rare book collections from the 18th century. Through careful research of museum and library archives, I develop custom stencils to layer these motifs throughout the paintings. Building multiple layers allows previous applications to show through like a historical palimpsest, suggesting the accumulation of human eras alongside the enduring presence of nature. Canvas edges often fray into soft fringes, reinforcing the plant-based origins of the substrate.
The chintz textile patterns are indicative of the colonial period, when British and American merchants capitalized on and exploited indigenous lands and people. Also from the 18th century are botanical illustrations made during the Age of Enlightenment, when, in their quest for knowledge and control over nature, Europeans endeavored to catalog and commodify all species of the natural world.
Many pieces incorporate imagery from 19th-century Hudson River School paintings, whose sublime landscapes invoked spiritual renewal but also promoted harmful ideas of manifest destiny. Combining symbolic references to the 18th and 19th centuries and the Western world's impact on the American continent, the work reveals the complex relationship between humans and nature.
This work is deeply personal due to my ancestry of early American settlers. It offers a way to acknowledge the effects my culture has had on the world and to communicate a belief in the sublime power of the natural world, despite human interference.
b. 1962, Summit, NJ
Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2026 SallyVeach, McLean Project for the Arts Berlage Center, McLean, VA
Sally Veach & Elizabeth Coffey, The Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA
Sally Veach: Hubris and the Sublime, Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA (forthcoming)
2024 Here & Where?: Sally Veach & Jeffery Berg, DC Arts Center, Washington DC
2023 Sally Veach & Megan Caldwell, Purple Fern Gallery, Winchester, VA
2022 Sally Veach: Toombs Hollow, Delaplaine Art Center, curated by Corey Frey, Frederick, MD
2020 Ghosts of a Forgotten Landscape: Paintings by Sally Veach, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley,
curated by Corwyn Garman (2019-2020), Winchester, VA
2019 Abstracted Landscapes, Staunton Innovation Hub, Staunton, VA
2018 Barns of Shenandoah, Delaplaine Art Center, Frederick, MD
Barns of Shenandoah: Returning to Nature, The Barns of Rose Hill, Berryville, VA
Almost Heaven, Grasshopper Gallery, Wardensville, VA
Barns of Shenandoah & More, Larkin Arts Wine-Riner Galleries, Harrisonburg, VA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Women Artists of the DMV, The Universities of Shady Grove, Priddy Library, Rockville, MD
Daughter of the Stars (Women Artists of the DMV), Melissa Ichiuji Gallery, Front Royal, VA
WPA Art Night, Hickok Cole, Washington, DC
Echo Locator, Field Projects, New York, NY
2024 Landscape of Desire, Melissa Ichiuji Gallery, Front Royal, VA
Wallmountables, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC
2023 Wallmountables, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC
VSC X WSS, Washington Studio School, Washington, DC
March 150, Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA
ADMO Art Walk, DC Arts Center, Washington, DC
2022 Torpedo Factory Art Center On the Road, Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, Alexandria, VA
Newly Juried, Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA
2021 Art Optimism, The Athenaeum, curated by Twig Murray, Alexandria, VA
Garden Party, Latela Curatorial on line show, curated by Marta Staudinger, Washington, DC
Shine: Catching the Light, AnnMarie Sculpture Garden and Art Center, Solomons, MD
2020 2020 Virginia Juried Artists Exhibition, Charles H. Taylor Visual Arts Center, Hampton, VA
Vital Force, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, curated Corwyn Garman, Winchester, VA
Salon Show, Cheryl McGinnis Gallery, New York, NY
2019 Terrain: A Landscape Collective, Anne Neilson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Social Media Friends,Thomas Deans Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
2018 Art at Belle Grove, three person exhibit, Belle Grove Plantation, Middletown, VA
2017 2017 Emerging Artists Exhibition, Anne Irwin Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Abstracts Matter, 311 Gallery, Raleigh, NC
2016 American Landscapes, Maryland Federation of Art, Circle Gallery, Annapolis, MD
Larkin Arts National Juried Exhibition, Larkin Arts, Wine-Riner Galleries, Harrisonburg, VA
Institutional Collections
County of Fairfax, VA
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester, VA
City of Alexandria, VA
Hotel Heron, Alexandria, VA
Awards and Honors
2025 Oak Springs Gardens Foundation Interdiciplinary Residency, Upperville, VA
I like Your Work Podcast Spring 2025 Catalog: Out Reach
2024 I Like Your Work Podcast Summer 2024 Catalog: It’s Complicated
2023 Marion Park Lewis Foundation Grant
2022 Torpedo Factory Art Center Studio Recipient
Marion Park Lewis Foundation Grant
Weir Farm Art Center Residency, Weir Farm National Historic Park, Wilton, CT
Chateau Orquevaux Residency, Orquevaux, France
Lodestar School of Art Residency, County Limerick, Ireland
2021 Marion Park Lewis Foundation Grant
Lodestar School of Art Residency, County Limerick, Ireland
2020 Vermont Studio Center, merit grant, Johnson, VT
Press
2024 Phil Hutinet, History and Color - Art and the City, HillRag, September, 2024
2022 Mark Jenkins, In the galleries: Seasonal group shows include a singular artist / Newly Juried 2022,
Washington Post, Aug 12, 2022
Lauren La Rocca, Four new solo exhibitions at the Delaplaine Center, The Frederick News-Post, Feb 16, 2022
2019 Jenny Baker, MSV to host Women in the Arts panel Sunday, The Winchester Star, Aug 3, 2019
Josette Keelor, ArtFest paints a fun scene in downtown Woodstock, The Northern Virginia Daily, June 24, 2019
2018 Ashley Miller, Barns of Shenandoah County, The Shenandoah Valley-Herald, May 11, 2018
Ashley Miller, Belle Grove art show features 75 works by 3 artists, The Winchester Star, Mine 21, 2018
Education
Selected Study
2022 New York Studio School, Painting Marathons, Graham Nickson, Fran O-Neil
Eric Aho Master Workshop, Eric Aho Studio, Saxtons River, VT
NYC Crit Club: instructors Clarity Haynes, Andrew Woolbright, Yevgeniya Baras , Alexis Callender, Monica King
2021 NYC Crit Club: instructor Padma Rajendran
Degree
1984 BFA: Illustration, Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse, NY and London Program