PASTORAL PRINCETON: Charles McVicker’s oil painting, “Mustard Field, The Great Road”, will be one of his works on show in the joint exhibit with Lucy Graves McVicker opening with a reception from 3 to 6 p.m. this Sunday, June 2, at the Sawmill Gallery at Prallsville Mills, Route 29, Stockton. (Image Courtesy of the Artist)

Although they share their home and their lives, and have the creative impulse in common, husband and wife artists Lucy Graves McVicker and Charles McVicker rarely exhibit their artwork together. So, the show that opens this Sunday, June 2, at the Sawmill Gallery at Prallsville Mills in Stockton, promises to be a rare treat.

The exhibition, for which there is a reception from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, is titled “Opposites Attract,” appropriately enough. This is their first joint show in many years.

As the exhibition will demonstrate, each artist has maintained a unique approach borne of differing personalities, temperaments, and conceptions of art. Although they have worked side by side for many years, the couple say that they have not influenced each others’ output. Rather, with encouragement and humor, each has watched the other develop an individual artistic path.

Through critiques, art classes, and individual teaching, the couple has affected a broad range of local artists over the years.

The McVickers married after college when Charles was in the Army. Lucy supported her husband while he studied at The Art Center College of Design on the GI Bill, and raised the couple’s three daughters when they came to Princeton, during which time he commuted to Manhattan as a free-lance illustrator. When their youngest daughter, Heather, was in school, Lucy commuted to Parsons School of Design for two years to renew her own interest in painting.

WATER WORLD: This acrylic painting titled “Deep Water’s Treasures,” by Lucy Graves McVicker will be on show in a rare joint husband and wife exhibition opening, Sunday, June 2, and running through June 15 at the Sawmill Gallery at Prallsville Mills, Route 29, Stockton.

Mr. McVicker, then became an assistant professor of art at The College of New Jersey, and both artists began to enter local, statewide, and national juried exhibits.

Both have won significant honors and awards in state and national competitions and both are called on to serve as jurors for art exhibitions.

Charles McVicker has works in the permanent collections of the U.S. Capital, The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, and Princeton University. As one of the founders of the Princeton Artists Alliance, he has seen this organization expand the scope of art through significant venues such as Bristol-Myers Squibb Gallery, The Newark Museum, and the Noyes Museum in Oceanville, NewJersey.

Artwork by Lucy Graves McVicker is in the collections of Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson and Johnson, AtlantiCare, and ADP Corporation. She was represented by Janet Hunt of the Coryell Gallery in Lambertville for over 15 years.

Both have paintings in the collection of the DuPont Corporation, and their artworks have recently been selected to be hung in both the Capital Health System’s new hospital, and The University Medical Center at Princeton.

The exhibition benefits the Delaware River Mill Society and takes place through June 15 at the Sawmill Gallery at Prallsville Mills, Route 29, north of Lambertville, Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Sunday, 1-6 p.m. Charles McVicker will lead a gallery “Talk and Tour” on Wednesday June 5, at 2 p.m. and Lucy Graves McVicker will offer a watercolor demonstration on Saturday, June 8 at 2 p.m.