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September Issue
2009
Picture This
Gallery on Hilton Head Island, SC, Features Folk Art Exhibit
Picture This Gallery on Hilton Head Island, SC, is presenting a Folk Art Group Show, featuring works by coastal visionaries, on view from Sept. 2 - 30, 2009.
Unencumbered by tradition, Folk Art is pure. Gullah art, portraiture, weaving, acrylics and oils, it takes many forms but is at once recognizable. It is also something that most of us can connect with on one level or another. The exhibit of Folk Art includes works by Sandy Brannen, R.L. Alexander, Linda Rorer, Clyde Williams, Henry and Mary Foreman and from collectors of Lowcountry artist Joe Pinckney.
Artist Joe Pinckney moved to Hilton Head Island from New York City in his teens. He was strongly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance, the first great flowering of black culture in the United States. At this time, Hilton Head and Daufuskie Island, where his family relocated, was geographically separate, a community steeped in Gullah traditions. For thirty plus years, Pinckney recorded the history of the Gullah people. He told stories of his memories and the stunning visual contrasts between New York City and the barrier islands of South Carolina.
On view from private collection, Joe Pinckney's Flower Lady is masterfully executed, her stoic beauty and peaceful persona radiating, original acrylic on canvas. Other works include Fish Monger, and Tin Can Lady. Pinckney studied Art at The New York School of Industrial Arts, and received a prestigious scholarship from The Norman Rockwell Foundation. He was given the Gullah Jubilee Award in recognition of outstanding contributions. Pinckney passed away in 2005.
Originally commissioned for the Gullah Museum of Hilton Head's capital campaign, Savannah artist Sandy Branam's trickster tales series portray Gullah folk tales in fanciful detail. "Certain trickster tales have animals as the characters. We know we are talking about humans, similar to the Aesop tales. As the Gullah say, they try to get over on somebody but in the end they do not succeed. There's a moral, to try to do good in life," explained Carrie Hirsch, museum board member.
Henry and Mary Foreman's sweet grass baskets are folk art of rarely seen quality. What makes them even more unusual is they both work on each piece, as husband and wife, their artistry and skills binding them together as surely as their intricate vessels are formed. "Our weaving is almost identical. We've been weaving together since we married 48 years ago," Mary said. Taught by their grandmothers in the Mt. Pleasant district, Mary and Henry produce original and traditional designs. Their Moses baskets are made from bulrush, a marsh grass hard to work with because it is so firm. Their pieces have traveled far, in private collections to New Zealand, Germany, and Spain.
Rick Alexander's paintings work around the idea of lost folk tales. The Florida artist paints in vivid detail. "Fight or Flight is a tale of the near legendary battle of two knights, one very small and light with a butterfly for a steed, one very large and stout, perched upon a great spiked lizard. We don't know who ultimately wins," Alexander said.
Lowcountry artist Linda Rorer's works range from Lowcountry scenes to large-scale mixed media pieces and fine sketches. She is known for her colorful oils and still lifes, as well as her ability to paint en plein air, in a manner distinctly her own. She captures her passion for the Lowcountry, immersing herself amongst the marshes, finishing paintings on-site.
Beaufort artist and art restorer Clyde Williams paints in the style of impressionistic-realism. "I can capture the essence of age, scenes from the past with a very rustic appearance," Williams said. Humble Beginnings, in oil, shows Williams' home in downtown Beaufort. "At the age of seven, I started painting, literally, on the house I grew up in. My mother had five children; she never knew which of us were doing the artwork, that was my first canvas," recalls Williams.
For further information
check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at
843/842-5299 or e-mail at (picturethis@hargray.com).
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