Huyen MacMichael

Huyen MacMichael is a Loudoun County, Virginia-based artist, instructor, and art therapist who has focused on playful functional ceramics and realistic watercolor painting over the past several years. She has exhibited in several local juried shows and placed at the Waterford Art show, participated in national and international art mail exchanges and round robins, painted murals at local schools, and has been commissioned for pet portraits and ceramics. She is working on a community art installation with local potters for Spring 2024. She has enjoyed plein air painting workshops with talented instructors like Catherine Hillis and Christine Lashley; has taken and taught ceramics workshops and classes at The Clay and Metal Loft, Round Hill Arts Center, and CIY Pottery; is a member of the Loudoun Sketch Club; has co-chaired local and district Reflections Art Contests for school students; and is the Director of Visual Arts of The DaVinci Art Studio, Arts For All, Loudoun. 

Huyen has over 20 years experience in facilitating art and art therapy groups for various ages and with a variety of media including drawing, painting, clay, and photography. She has worked and volunteered in community homeschool groups, preschools, elementary schools, residential facilities, hospitals, community programs and private residences. She won the Jim “Doc” Wiley Leadership in the Arts Award in 2021 and was also selected as a Loudoun 100 Honoree. The DaVinci Art Studio program that she manages was nominated for 2023 Best of Loudoun for Art Instruction. Her education consists of a BA in Fine Arts from Mary Washington, an MA in art therapy from George Washington.

She loves drawing, pastels, watercolors, and creating with clay. The push and pull of different media or contrasting techniques intrigues her, and often drawing and painting techniques encroach upon her ceramics. She tends towards realism but likes to shake it up sometimes with some experimental impressionism, abstract, or Asian influences and techniques in her ceramics. She has been exploring glazes and surface designs with techniques like sgraffito and underglaze and slip transfers, as well as barrel firing and raku techniques. She strongly believes in learning all the time and art is an endless creative journey.