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October Issue 2007
Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash, NC, Offers Works by Ramona Batsford Bendin and Susan Dade
Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash, NC, is
presenting the exhibit, The Art of Fashion: Looking Back,
featuring works by oil painter Ramona Batsford Bendin and watercolor/acrylic
artist Susan Dade, who both began their careers in fashion. The
exhibit will be on view through Oct. 13, 2007.
Ramona Batsford
Bendin
Bendin attended Brooklyn, NY's Pratt Institute in the forties, where she took lettering and foundation courses. After World War II began, she switched to night classes and studied fashion design and figure drawing.
After marrying and starting a family, her career in commercial art was put on hold. By the time she began again, her interest was fine art. She would go on to make a name for herself, being elected to the prestigious Hudson Valley Art Association and American Artists Professional League, the latter as a lifetime member.
After moving to North Carolina in 1990, she continued painting, now inspired by many of the local marshlands and landmarks. In Feb. of 2005, a retrospective of her work was held at the Sunset River Studio, a workshop and meeting space affiliated with the gallery, but at a different location in Calabash.
Included in the retrospective were a number of student fashion drawings, which Bendin's family had discovered in the garage. Apparently, they had been moved from New York 15 years earlier, but the box hadn't even been opened. Bendin has received so much interest in her 60+ year-old-drawings, that she has once again raided the box in the garage, and the result is her contribution to The Art of Fashion. The torn pages from her pad, and the washes of paint along the side where she mixed her colors add to the authenticity of the pieces.
When asked about the show, the artist laughed, saying, "I'm honored people like the drawings, but you have to remember, I was an art student conserving paper and materials." Bendin is referring to the fact that several of the pieces have two or three figures on them, often facing different directions. She has already made a few giclee reproductions available for sale, but this is the first time the actual drawings themselves are being offered.
Susan Dade
Susan Dade, a popular Southport, NC, painter of local eateries, landmarks and coastal scenes discovered her talent for fashion and costume illustration in high school. She graduated from Parsons School of Design. Dade would later become an instructor at Traphagen School of Fashion teaching layout and design, illustration, fashion model sketching, watercolor and drawing for interior design majors. Traphagen is alma mater to such industry names as Vera, Geoffrey Beene, Anne Klein, Mary McFadden and James Galanos.
After leaving Parsons, she joined the staff of Women's Wear Daily. Throughout her career, Dade freelanced for clothing manufacturers such as Young Sophisticates, Vanity Fair Lingerie, Clairol, Max Factor and others. Ads featuring her illustrations appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Seventeen, House and Garden and Vogue.
Dade has also been a staff artist for Glamour Magazine where she illustrated many of the company's beauty and hair care booklets. Other assignments included illustrating Jackie Onassis and Babe Paley designs by Geoffrey Beene.
Dade's pieces in the show at Sunset River Marketplace date from the 1960s to the early nineties.
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 910/575-5999 or visit (www.sunsetrivermarketplace.com).
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