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December Issue 2004

The Sylvan Gallery in Charleston, SC, Offers Works by William Berra

The Sylvan Gallery in Charleston, SC, is pleased to present the exhibit, Shore to Shore, featuring new works by William Berra. The exhibit will be on view from Dec. 3 - 31, 2004.

Berra is from Pennsylvania but decided to move to Santa Fe after a storm stranded him there – reminiscent of the stories of the old west! His interest in art started in grade school and continued without pause. Berra attended the York Academy then the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts in Baltimore, where he experimented briefly with abstract expressionism and non-objective painting. He chose his own path, working in a more traditional manner and painting en plein air. Berra considers himself self-taught and developed his own style of painting.

Berra currently lives in Santa Fe. His work is strongly influenced by the Italian Macchiaioli School of the 1850's. Macchiaioli comes from the word meaning stain or blot and was the name given to a group of Italian painters working in Florence who rebelled against the academic style by exploring and developing the effect of individual marks made with paint. Corot and Courbet influenced them
and some feel these Italians foretold the painting approach of the French impressionist painters.

Add spontaneity coming from the plein air work and a vaguely unfinished quality enhanced by the study of the "macchiaiolis" and Berra's work resounds with a freshness unknown in most studio painting. This "impression" versus tightness also allows viewers to use their own imagination to complete the scene. His work is figurative and incorporates his travels through Italy to Tuscany and Venice as well as his well known beach scenes and, of course, New Mexico.

The artist has been featured in Southwest Art magazine. Berra's paintings have been exhibited extensively in the United States and are represented in private and public collections around the world (including Taiwan, Spain) the US State Department, BellSouth, and the University of Texas.

The Sylvan Gallery specializes in 20th and 21st century paintings and sculpture. The works are contemporary versus historical but done in the traditional manner. Many of the artists are plein air painters and all are known nationally. The gallery is the newest member of the Charleston Fine Art Dealers' Association which created the Charleston Fine Art Annual six years ago to promote understanding worldwide of Charleston's place as an arts' destination.

For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/722-2172, e-mail at (j_sylvan@msn.com) or at (www.thesylvangallery.com).

Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.