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May Issue 2006
Walls Fine Art Gallery in Wilmington, NC, Offers Paint Wilmington Event - May 1 - 6
Walls Fine Art Gallery in Wilmington, NC, is
bringing in seven (not fifty) experienced, quality-driven artists,
from around the country, to paint Wilmington, for a week - May
1 - 6, 2006. The artists: Perry Austin, John Poon, Dale Ratcliff,
Charles Movalli, Robert Isley, Randall Sexton, and Larry Moore,
will be adding new works to the final exhibit all week long and
demos and discussions will be offered throughout the week.
This small Southeastern city with the goal of becoming a dynamic
arts community is fertile ground for galleries and the visual
arts. A director of a public garden once described the Paint
Wilmington event concept as cross-pollinating the artists.
Experience, education, seasoning, and eye of each are unique,
producing an exhibition that has recognizable variations for the
viewer as well as a week of uncommon interchange for the artists
themselves.
Because the artists are the indispensable part of the equation, introductions are in order:
Perry Austin looks at each new landscape carefully to choose his colors: will there be three tubes of paint or fifteen? His method of working reflects how he learned to paint - by looking, seeing, and then applying paint. With his roots in rural Alabama, Austin has an innate love of the landscape both as painter and fisherman. His professional affiliations include Oil Painters of America and Plein Air Painters of Alabama. Austin's work resides in museum and personal collections.
"The Wilmington area's variety is fantastic. Within a few miles we have historical downtown, work boats, marinas, salt marsh tidal creeks, black water and cypress, farms and pasture. What's not to like?!"
John Poon moved to Jackson, WY, from San Francisco and a career at the Academy of Art College to paint full-time. Poon quickly finds the structure of a landscape. He has the ability to simplify fields, mountains, clouds, and architecture into purposeful brushstrokes that express the striking beauty and particular serenity of a moment in time. Poon's awards include The Landscape Award of Merit at Arts for the Parks in Jackson and Artist's Choice Award in Sonoma.
"Painting on location gives direct access
to color. Any limitation of changing light serves the artist as
a reminder to focus on quickly recording color, making color notes,"
says Poon.
Dale Ratcliff's colorful paintings are characterized by lively
brushwork and strong design. She especially enjoys the challenge
of plein-air work, catching the fleeting effects of light. Ratcliff
is a graduate of the University of Maine and returns to Maine
frequently on painting trips from her home in Gloucester, MA.
She belongs to many professional organizations, including the
North Shore Arts Association, Academic Artists Association, and
Hudson Valley Art Association.
"A painting should afford an ongoing display
of the artist's feeling for a particular scene. I try with all
subject matter to convey my emotions at the moment of seeing,"
says Ratcliff.
Charles Movalli's original leanings toward Architecture became
a PhD in English. As a writer, he became affiliated with Watson-Guptill.
His articles have been published in Southern Accents and
American Art Review, while over 70 have appeared in American
Artist magazine. Through his writing and as a native of Gloucester,
MA, relationships with Emile Gruppe, Paul Strisik, and others
developed, and Movalli began painting and teaching. Although "retired",
he continues to write and paint. He is a Master Signature Member
of Oil Painters of America and is included in major corporate
collections.
"It can't look like you've worked hard
and long, even if you have. A painting should be done quickly
with both your intellect and your nerves. When they give out,
stop," says Movalli.
Robert Isley was born in Montgomery, AL. He graduated with honors
from the Atlanta College of Art. He lives in Savannah, GA, and
has been a full-time artist since 1990. Isley's subjects are the
often humble details presented in a mosaic of brushstroke and
subtle color. He exhibits extensively in the Southeast and has
had his work in numerous juried and invitational shows. Recent
awards include Best in Show at the Quinlan Art Center.
"My process involves finding those objects, scenes, or lighting conditions that most perfectly resonate with an inner feeling or mood. It is an attempt to experience the object or scene directly, in and for itself, and then through painting, to communicate that experience as simply and straight-forwardly as possible," says Isley.
Randall Sexton moved to California from the East Coast in 1980, following graduation from the University of Connecticut. He teaches at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. His versatility evidences a dedicated painter who strives to stretch boundaries whenever he can. Sexton's colors are brilliant, his values are accurate, and his compositions are full of life and closely observed detail. He recently won "Best in Show" at the 2004 Carmel Plein-Air Festival. He is a member of The Outsiders and the California Art Club.
"My first attempts at plein-air painting were efforts to 'become a better painter' and 'to learn from nature'. It didn't take long to realize how much there was to learn - and how the plein-air experience could shape my perceptions as an artist," says Sexton.
Larry Moore, raised in Cocoa Beach, FL, has seen more than his share of condos eclipsing nature. A career in illustration blossomed from a childhood of drawing, and the awards followed culminating in the Society of Illustrators Gold Award in 2004. His introduction to plein air painting led him to merge his love of nature and life-long goal to always become a better painter. Moore has received awards at both Carmel Plein Air 2003 and 2004 with a Best in Show for 2005. He is a member of the National Academy of Professional Plein Air Painters.
"It's a privilege to be given the opportunity to really see nature, to stand in one spot and really look hard at what most people pass by everyday without noticing," says Moore.
"These master artists come with fresh eyes to see beauty in our hometown, beauty that we often take for granted, and then they portray it all with such different styles. We may take home for granted, but we get excited about accomplished painters and their striking images of our home. This level of proficiency has not become common here, yet," says David Leadman, owner of Walls Fine Art Gallery.
This type of gathering has been called a Paint-out, a Plein Air show, but marketing can run a good thing into the ground with 50 to 100 or more painters participating, so many that they can only be regarded as a group, a plethora of painters, an avalanche of artists with no chance of individual focus. Rather than achieving a torrent of talent, often the numbers have only resulted in dilution. Less is more.
The number of artist participants offers, first,
the assurance of quality continuity for collectors. All of these
people are good at what they do. With seven people, the introduction
of the painters as individuals is entirely doable. Larry Moore
becomes more than just the one who wears shoes that don't match,
he can carry on amusing conversation while painting a subject
you'd never guess would make a painting, but does. Dale Ratcliff
isn't just the only gal, but someone who waxes instructional while
painting, willingly sharing her passion for all things equine
with those who have similar leanings.
To insure the opportunity to meet and greet, at least one artist
a day is scheduled to spend those non-painting midday hours at
the gallery. The informality of lunch offers the young-at-art
a low pressure chance to ask questions and the art enthusiast
an uncrowded one-on-one.
The artists will arrive May 1, with larger
completed works in tow which will hang at the gallery. They bring
with them finished works to display for sale at the gallery during
the painting week, that also serve to familiarize collectors with
the characteristics of color or brushstroke of an energetic Charles
Movalli or a tranquil John Poon.
Painting Wilmington obviously requires painting outside, around,
and in Wilmington with continual interaction with the homeowner
whose view is the subject, or the shop owner whose bit of sidewalk
is the studio, or the carriage driver who has been asked to delay
his departure by another five minutes, pleeease, as well as passers
by.
The artist selection process for Paint Wilmington
included affability research, what we call the never-met-a-stranger
quotient. After all, if an artist doesn't enjoy conversing with
all and sundry at sometimes artistically inconvenient moments,
this event could lead to challenges for Southern Hospitality and
its general loquaciousness - not to mention a disgruntled painter.
You see, people love to watch the slow magic of painting. Many
of them have never had the opportunity to watch the fluid construction
of a composition, the fusing of divergent colors on a palette
to produce the perfect hue for a bit of shadow, the calligraphy
of the final brush strokes.
The painters stay with Wilmingtonians or at a beach house where,
as a group, they can entertain collectors when they are not comparing
notes, critiquing, pontificating, or playing cards. Add a video
camera and there's no telling how far-reaching the benefits of
their debating the serviceableness of a composition or the three
color palette may be.
All the work of five days of painting culminates in the First
Look on Sat. morning, May 6. The doors open at 9am welcoming experienced
collectors - and those who don't yet know they are collectors
- for first dibs.
The Southeast has been referred to as the art frontier. We have
a history of portraiture and then some more portraiture. The Cape
Fear River was first explored by Verrazano in 1524, and Wilmington
was incorporated on its banks in 1739. Wilmington was the major
trading center of Eastern North Carolina and prospered through
the exportation of tar (hence, tarheels), turpentine and pitch
for the English shipping industry.
The first American-won battle of the Revolution took place 20
miles to the Northwest at Moore's Creek where we whooped 'em good.
The railroad came to the city in 1840 and over the next ten years
Wilmington became the largest city in North Carolina, temporarily,
with construction of many of the present day museum homes as well
as Thalian Hall, still an active venue for theater and music,
from opera to bluegrass.
Wilmington was the last Atlantic coast port of the Confederacy to remain open to trade thanks to Fort Fisher and Frying Pan Shoals. The advent of air conditioning (and the fact that somebody who couldn't keep a secret let it be known that we have beautiful white sand beaches with clear greenish-blue water) and probably UNC Wilmington, GE, Corning, PPD, Verizon, not to mention Screen Gems and the film industry as a whole, have re-expanded the population to over 90,000. Tourism may have replaced turpentine as top dog, but Wilmington still sits, a graceful belle, under live oaks and Spanish moss.
Robert Isley made a great point about such an event in an area without an extensive art history, that the paintings that are added to local collections form a legacy, a record during a period of change.
For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 910/343-1703 or at (www.wallsgallery.com).
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