Opening night of Jim’s exhibition, “Dynamics of Desire” at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley was a thrill for us all and a great success, with over 200 guests attending.

After a road trip from the Shenandoah Valley to the Black Hills, Jack Knows the Hot Feels and Woods of June is perfectly at home in its new contemporary setting.

A new generation gets to grow up with Jim’s exceptional paintings of the Shenandoah Valley.

One of the marvelous qualities of Jim Costello’s work is that it can be hung in environments of any period of style and décor.

We are always glad for the occasions when we are in the company of Jim’s paintings, even if those occasions require a little sweat and elbow grease. We met recently at Vilnis Vitols’ antiques showroom, Vilnis and Company, to wire the paintings for the Shenandoah University exhibition.

The Shenandoah University exhibition of Jim’s work is now less than two months away. While this show will be smaller than last summer’s retrospective at the Burwell-Morgan Mill, we are excited to be presenting a new grouping of equally gorgeous paintings. Once again we have the rare and happy privilege of bringing more of Jim’s work into the light of day, and of introducing it to the public.

After many months of preparation, seeing images of the paintings on screens and in print and seeing the paintings themselves at the mill before they were hung, what struck me immediately when I finally saw them at the opening was how comfortable and natural the paintings looked in their surroundings at the mill, as if the mill was built to house them.

I went out to Jim’s in Coal Mine Hollow to retrieve a few more paintings for the show, and was struck dumb by the magnitude of a body of work that spans over 40 years.

Yesterday the show organizers and a volunteer crew (husbands and sons) began hanging the show in the second floor gallery at the mill. The paintings fit comfortably in their surroundings, not yet formally hung on the walls. It gave me a sense of what it must be like to have one of these paintings in your home where it becomes a familiar presence.

We took advantage of a warm, sunny afternoon to ready some more paintings for the show at Burwell-Morgan Mill in June. The artist himself pitched in to help with the cleaning!