Now Showing at
Finn
364 Hayes Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

The Artist

Painting has been a constant thread in the life of Alexandra Bailliere Treadwell. Alexandra started private art lessons at age 9 in Baltimore, Maryland, where she grew up. By the age of 10, she was enrolled in Saturday morning life drawing classes for high school students at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Alexandra continued her study of painting and drawing through high school and into college at Duke University, where she studied with Vernon Pratt, the Dean of the Fine Arts Department. Alexandra received a BA cum laude in French language and literature in 1992 from Duke University, where she was also the 1992 recipient of the Robert J. Niess prize, a prize awarded annually to the outstanding scholar in the Department of Foreign Languages. While at Duke, she completed extensive coursework in art and art history, both on campus in Durham, North Carolina, and abroad on a year of study in Paris.

Alexandra's art studies also include a semester with the Savannah College of Art and Design study abroad program in Lacoste, France, studio classes at the Atelier Port Royal in Paris, and coursework at the Corcoran College of Art+Design in Washington, D.C, the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of Art.

Alexandra is inspired by the light and color of the San Francisco Bay area and tries to incorporate these elements into her work. She paints and teaches adult painting classes at her studio in Sausalito, and she lives in Mill Valley with her husband and three sons. Alexandra exhibits her work locally, and her paintings are well represented in numerous private collections.

Artist Statement

My paintings are primarily based on my interpretation of light. I am extremely affected by the light of my surroundings, and in particular, the light of the San Francisco Bay Area. I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and the light of the mid-Atlantic coast is extremely different from the light of the Bay Area. I can recall the first time I visited San Francisco and noticed the clarity and blue-whiteness of the light. I try to capture this clarity in my paintings, through my use of color and the way I apply the paint to the canvas.

Many of my paintings contain lines and circles. I often refer to my work as "abstract landscapes" as, in my quest to capture light and color, I often paint suggestions of landscapes. Sometimes, I will be drawn to a particular landform, a hill or a tree, and I will observe it and try to paint it over time, the way the light hits the hill differently at different times of year, the way a tree changes based on the seasons. In general, I am obsessed with light, shadow and form in nature, and I want to communicate to the world my interpretation of these things.

Exhibition History

• 2010
  Finn Boutique: ongoing
  Gelateria Cici Solo Show
  
• 2009
  Duke University Fannie Mitchell Career Conference
  Group show participant and art panelist
  
• 2006
  Dagaz Salon, 21 Madrona Street, Mill Valley, solo show
  Marin Civic Center, Marin Arts Council group show
  May 2006
  Marin Arts Council spring show
  Marin Open Studios
  
• 2005 Artisans Art Gallery, multiple group shows
• 2004 C-Ports Cafe, Oakland, California, Berkeley Art Department group show
• 2001 Oakdale Painting Studios, San Francisco, group show
• 1996 St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, alumni show
• 1992 Duke University Art Department show
• 1988 St. Paul's School graduation show
• 1987 Village of Lacoste summer show, Lacoste, France