Page 5 - November 15, 2017 Magazine Style Full page issue

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Kathy Rivera

featured artist at

Swift Creek Mill

Swift Creek Mill Theatre is was there for them every week, the oil
pleased to present Kathy Rivera as its bug having bit her. She began talking
featured artist during the production of to Chuck about teaching and eventually
"The Andrews Brothers" running Nov. convinced him to give it a try.
11 through She transitioned to oil paint that
Dec. 31. year and never looked back.
Kathy Rivera built a studio in her home
Quesnel where she teaches beginners and
Rivera intermediates. Now retired, she paints
graduated daily with Larivey.
Madison All are welcome to enjoy Kathy’s
College with work in the Mill Room during dinner
a BS in art or lunch or during intermission of each
education in performance.
1971. She Swift Creek Mill Theatre has been a
taught one Richmond and Tri-Cities institution for
KATHY RIVERA year and 50 years. It has come a long way since
left teaching three local families took a 353-year-old
for the business world. Through the gristmill and turned it into an intimate
mid-'70s she restored oil paintings and space for the production of so many
cleaned antique prints in a little shop splendid theatrical experiences. Five
in Staunton. In 1979, she purchased a decades and more than 340 productions
frame shop in Bon Air. Six years later later, the Mill is still going strong in
Rivera bought a gift shop named Accents its historic location at 17401 Jefferson “WATERING HOLE,” ONE OF THE MANY PAINTINGS BY KATHY RIVERA
Unlimited and incorporated that year. Davis Highway. ON DISPLAY AT SWIFT CREEK MILL THEATRE.
She ran the shop for 32 years, moving it
five times before finally retiring.
In 2013 Rivera took watercolor
classes at the Virginia Art Museum
with Dawn Flentes. The following year, Alzheimer’s
she studied watercolor with nationally
known Susan Stuller in Richmond.
Rivera was in a car crash in 2015 Specialty Center
and spent four months in body braces
and seven months in physical therapy.
During that time, she continued her
study with Stuller, but switched to
acrylic and began painting dog portraits
for her shop clients.
One Sunday in 2016 she walked
into Crossroads Arts Center and
found Chuck Larivey doing a painting
demonstration. He spent three months
doing demos every Sunday, and Rivera

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