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October Issue 2006
Charles II Art Gallery in Charleston, SC, Features Works by William Armstrong
Charles II Art Gallery in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibition, Coastal Splendor, featuring works by Savannah, GA, artist William Armstrong. The solo exhibition will be on view from Oct. 20 through Nov. 10, 2006.
One of the Southeast's leading landscape painters, Savannah's William Armstrong's painting career spans over 30 years, and he has been referred to as one of the very best landscape painters represented on the Charleston peninsula today.
Coastal Splendor features all oils, primarily dramatic coastal landscapes, with some special pieces on exhibit including a New York series depicting sights including Barneys, and the Garment District.
Armstrong is originally from New Jersey where he is best know as one of the world's foremost scenic artists, designing major movie sets, he's worked with Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee and Woody Allen. Ornate sets featured in Architectural Digest include Meet Joe Black and The Legend of Bagger Vance. He worked with Barbara Streisand on The Prince of Tides in Beaufort, SC, and seven years ago he transformed the City Market in Savannah into an elaborate Depression-era set for Bagger Vance. Falling in love with the Lowcountry, he and his wife Monique purchased an 1885 brick home, which together they restored to a quaint inn, where his annual solo show regularly attracts over a thousand visitors and collectors.
This is his first solo exhibition in Charleston, where Armstrong has been exhibiting since the Fall of 2005. "I could tell I would enjoy painting here because of the wealth of weather changes you have," says the artist. "You have instant storms and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. It's amazing what people don't see, even when something is right in front of them, I try to teach people to see the beauty in their own neighborhood and to learn to see the day-to-day changes in the world around us."
Dealer Chuck Wolf says. "Many artists have a 'look' or a 'style', if they're good, but Armstrong has a 'feel'. I think that is what he does best. His work is clearly of an exceptionally high caliber, depicting a scene is one thing, but imparting such a strong sense of emotion is what defines a master".
Armstrong started out at the age of 14 painting signs for butcher shops, in Newark, he grew up to become one of the world's leading scenic artists, creating dozens of major movie sets.
Armstrong typically works from pen and ink drawings and pencil sketches, carefully observing the landscape and people around him. A traditional painter, Armstrong refuses to work from photographs. "A photograph is only a mechanical reproduction of what is there," he says. "A painting can convey the emotion of the moment. There's a quality of painting that comes from within."
Armstrong's paintings are worlds away from high-profile movie sets like Brighton Beach Memoirs, Scent of A Woman or Conspiracy Theory, but they enlighten viewers with their heightened sensitivity to the ineffable beauty of a palm tree at sunset or the spiritual presence of an old wooden dock.
Armstrong enjoys creating watercolors on location, in the plein-air tradition, painting a shell-pink and pale-lilac sky over the marsh at sunset or celebrating the view across the river at Bonaventure Cemetery. Inspired by John Singer Sargent's watercolors, Armstrong explains that he strives for a "looseness with the brush strokes" in his watercolors, which showcase palm trees with spiky fronds and plush, diaphanous clouds.
Armstrong's best work is the product of intense, almost inhuman, attention to his surroundings. "Most people think nothing changes," he says, "but things change all the time - if you're paying attention." By remaining attuned to his environment, he is able to capture subtle reflections in the water that mark the season or a particular time of day. He uses rich oil paints to intensify the colors of a Beaufort marsh, creating a rosy haze echoed visually in the sky and in the river.
"I love color theory," he says. "I work out all my colors beforehand, based on the light and the time of day." He simultaneously captures the luminescent glow of the marsh in oil paint and the seemingly infinite blue of the sky - ranging from deep cadmium to pale aquamarine - in many of his oil paintings.
"It's amazing what people don't see, even when something is right in front of them," he says. "I try to teach people to see the beauty in their own neighborhood and to learn to see the day-to-day changes in the world around us."
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