Virginia C. Belser
plein air pastel painter

Gallery representation includes:

  • Gallery 9, Lincoln NE,  (July 2023 -August 2024

  • Four Corners Gallery, Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ (Jan. 2023- May 2024)

  • Chiricahua Gallery, Rodeo, NM  (April 2022- present)

  • Art House Centro Gallery, Tucson, AZ (Dec 2021- present)

  • Toscana Gallery, Oro Valley, AZ (June 2021- present)

  • Green Monkey Boutique (February 2022- present)

  • Riley on Main, Boalsburg, PA (August 2016 – May 2020)

  • Airlie Moon shop, Wilmington, NC (summer 2012- August 2016)

     Virginia has shown and sold her work in several juried exhibits in the Tucson area, eastern Nebraska, the central Pennsylvania area and southeastern coastal North Carolina including:

  • “Au Naturel” ,Sonoran Plein Air Painters at Tucson Jewish Community Center, November- December 2024

  • Tuscon Pastel Society, Amerind Museum, May- Novemeber 2024

  • Bisbee Plein Air Festival October 2024

  • "Desert Sentinels" juried show at Steinfeld Gallery, Tucson, AZ, December 2023

  • Guest artists exhibit, Gallery 9, Lincoln, NE, July 2023

  • Tucson Pastel Society juried show at the Ironwood Gallery,  Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, (March-June 2023)

  • Four Corners Gallery at the Tucson Desert Museum, (Jan 2023 - present)

  • Chiricahua Gallery, Rodeo, NM  (April 2022- present)

  • Arizona Pastel Society national juried show at the Phippen Museum, Prescott, AZ (Feb.-April 2022)

  • Sonoran Plein Air Painters juried show A Brush With the Desert, Ironwood Gallery, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum (November 2021- January 2022)

  • Art House Centro Gallery, Tucson, AZ December 2021- present) 

  • Sonoran Plein Air Painters juried show Sonoran Sizzle, Artists and Makers Studios (July-August 30, 2021)

  • Toscana Gallery, Tucson, AZ (April 2021- present)

  • Tucson Pastel Society, Ironwood Gallery Show, (Feb 13-May 9 2021) (Honorable Mention)

  • Sonoran Plein Air Painters juried  show Sonoran Light, Tucson Desert Art Museum ( February  through April 10, 2021)

  • Invited three person show at The Villages at Penn State Gallery, (November-December 2019)

  • Farmland Preservation Artists group show, Foxdale Village Gallery, (October-November 2019)

  • CPPS Member Show, Art Alliance, (September 2019)

  • State College Framing Company and Gallery, State College, PA  (November 2018- April 2019)

  • Carlisle Arts and Learning Center, Carlisle, PA (November- December 2018)

  • Bellefonte Art Museum, Bellefonte, PA (November-December 2018)

  • Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA  (July 2018)

  • Penn State Art on the Move, University Park, PA (July- October 2018)

  • Foxdale Gallery, State College, PA (March 16- May 1, 2018)

  • Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, State College, PA  (July 2017)

  • Riley on Main, Boalsburg, PA (August 2016 – present)

  • Rhoneymeade Arboreteum and Sculpture Garden, Boalsburg, PA (October 2017)

  • Bellefonte Art Museum, Bellefonte, PA (September 2017)

  • Fraser Street Gallery, State College, PA  (June 2017)

  • Tea Room Gallery, Bellefonte Art Museum, Bellefonte, PA  (May 2017)

  • Sustain, Lemont, PA (April 2016 – August 2017)

  • State College Frame Shop and Gallery, Boalsburg, PA (April – November 2016)

  • Nittany Valley Chiropractic Center, State College, PA (November 2015 – January 2016)

  • Carlisle Arts Learning Center, juried exhibit, Carlisle, PA (June – August 2015)

  • Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art- Ligonier, PA (April – August 2015)

  • Lynden Gallery, Elizabethtown, PA (September, 2014- January 2016)

  • State College Framing Company & Gallery, State College, PA (Feb. 2014 – October 2015)

  • Carolina’s Got Art, juried exhibit in Charlotte, NC (April/May 2013)

  • Airlie Moon shop, Wilmington, NC (summer 2012- August 2016)

  • Dual artist exhibit in the MC Ernie Gallery, Wilmington, NC (November- December 2012,)

  • Figments Gallery, Wilmington, NC (spring 2012-summer 2013)

  • Ricky Evans Gallery of Southport, NC (spring 2012-summer 2013)

  • Cary Gallery of Artists Small Treasure show (April, 2013, Cary, NC)

  • Wilmington Art Association Azalea Festival show (2012 and 2013)

  • Awarded best in medium at WAA Azalea Festival show in 2012

  • Group exhibits with the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society  - 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

 
 
 

Virginia has been engaged with art ever since she can remember….

From Saturday classes as a child at the local university to having her own cubby in 3rd grade for storing her creations, high school experiences included her first forays into life drawing, sculpture and learning the medium of oil paint.


Majoring in watercolors in college, Virginia’s senior thesis focused on the tension created by trying to describe vast space while using a minimum of painterly details.
 
She first discovered the medium of pastels in the mid 1990’s. After a painting hiatus focused on raising her sons, she returned to pastels in the mid 2000’s.  During those years, as her young boys were still a priority, her painting efforts occurred mostly on vacations or during intensive workshops. A two year stint in coastal North Carolina provided Virginia with several engaging landscape challenges.

A more recent move in the summer of 2020 brought Virginia to the saturated light of the Sonoran Desert in Tucson. She is embracing the challenge of a vast new landscape and an entirely different palette.

Virginia is an active Artist level and Board member of the Sonoran Plein Air Painters. She participates in the Tucson Pastel Society and is a member of Gallery 9 in Lincoln, Nebraska. She was a signature member and former president of the Central Pennsylvania Pastel Society, a member of the juried Farmland Preservation Artists, the Pastel Society of North Carolina, and The Pastel Society of Western New York.