Article in Connection Newspaper

This article was printed in local Connection Newspaper.

Portrait of an Artist

Once a law student, Vicki Blum is now at the head of the art class. Whether in her Clifton home or a classroom in Herndon or Lorton, Vicki Blum is making the world a brighter place. Using a contrasting palette of warm and cool oil paints, she finds a dab here and a swish there can make a world of difference. A painting teacher for only a short time, Blum divides her time between two of Fairfax County’s newest haven for artists: ArtSpace in Herndon and the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton."What a bonanza for this area," she said of her classrooms and the gallery space they provide for herself and her students. "It’s all really fantastic."The whole Northern Virginia area has an abundance of artistic talent, Blum said, from the artist groups in Great Falls where she got her start, to the Torpedo Factory where she took some early classes. Even in her Clifton backyard, Blum has helped the talent in her own community, helping to coordinate last year’s art show and in the planning of the town’s barn dances each fall for the past several years.BLUM started painting about 12 years ago, when she finished college classes and decided to re-engage in a favorite hobby. "I’ve loved to paint and draw since I was a kid, and I took a few classes in college, but after graduating law school, I realized I wasn’t happy," Blum said. She decided to do something just for her, and shortly thereafter she enrolled in a class at the Art League in Alexandria, better known as the Torpedo Factory. That was the end of her unhappiness. "I started taking one class and never looked back," she said.Soon, Blum was taking masters level courses, traveling for shows and classes and learning how to work through creative dry spells and difficult pieces."We had to do things over and over again and wipe it away and try it again," Blum said. "I became a much faster painter, I got comfortable using bolder strokes."She hopes her students are enjoying her classes as much as she is enjoying teaching them."When I decided to start, it was because folks asked me what they should do to fix their projects," she said. "It was so much fun. I loved looking at a project and saying, ‘OK, this is what you need to do,’ and seeing how the painting came together. I enjoyed the ability to show how not difficult it can be."THE CLASSES IN HERNDON, on Thursday evenings, are for beginning and intermediate painters and center on a particular topic. Blum brings in various objects for her students to paint and helps them when they ask for her advice. In Lorton, the classes are structured a little differently. Students, for the most part, bring in projects they’ve already been working on, and Blum gives advice and offers suggestions to help bring the pieces to completion. She’s especially fascinated with the environment at the Workhouse in Lorton. Some day, when Blum has free time between teaching classes and her full-time job as a mortgage banking lobbyist — she admits it’s been a "complex" job as of late — Blum would like to take a dance class at the Workhouse or branch out to paint landscapes."Every time I drive by the creek in Clifton, I’d like to jump out of my car, set up an easel and paint it," she said. "There’s one area in particular, where the creek bends with fallen trees, but I know people love to paint the General Store."She’d also like to do more portraits, where the strokes aren’t as daring and the real challenge is making the final product resemble the subject."Portraits are very intense and you have to take a concentrated approach," she said. "With a still life, there’s paint flying around. When you do a portrait, you can really enjoy the concept of putting colors down."IN THE MEANTIME, Blum will continue teaching at both facilities and enjoy living in Clifton with her husband, Dave, a lifelong Clifton resident, and their son, David, 7, a student at St. Leo the Great Catholic School in Fairfax.Blum muses that becoming a painter full time is a nice idea, but one of her former classmates and teachers, Kurt Schwarz, is convinced she could make the switch from part-time painter to full-time artist."She’s a very hard worker, very dedicated," said Schwarz, whom Blum met at the Torpedo Factory more than a decade ago. "She’s very talented with her color and her brush work. She’s developed a technique of teaching where she starts a painting in a bit of an earth tone background and makes it work. It’s a very individual style and I’m very proud of her."Schwarz said Blum could very well make a full-time living as an artist if she wanted to, a vote of confidence not many artists will ever hear.While Blum’s students would no doubt support her if she chose to paint full time, they would undoubtedly miss her optimism and sunny disposition."She is the definition of vitality," said Tricia Ratliff, a student in Blum’s Herndon class. "I really think for her, the world is a happy place."Ratliff likes the personal attention she gets from Blum’s classes and the help she’s received on her own projects."I haven’t been able to find a class like this anywhere," she said. "If you’re working on a project for a gallery exhibit, she coaches you to make the outcome more successful."Blum has become a fixture in the Northern Virginia art scene; she is the Maryland and Virginia ambassador to the Portrait Society of America and is currently working on their annual conference in Reston later this spring. She’s already hoping to be invited back to teach at both the ArtSpace in Herndon and the Workhouse in Lorton for the spring sessions."Teaching isn’t something I set out to do, but I really enjoy it," she said.