| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
October Issue
2009
Pickens County
Museum of Art & History in Pickens, SC, Features Works by
Dabney Mahanes
Pickens
County Museum of Art & History in Pickens, SC, is presenting
the exhibit, Dabney Mahanes: A Journey with the Figure,
on view through Nov. 19, 2009.
Now living in Greenville, SC, Dabney Mahanes was born in Virginia. She received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1959 and then worked in the field of advertising as an illustrator for McGraw-Hill. She has three children, two grandchildren and five cats, all whom she loves dearly.
It was later in life that Mahanes decided to pursue her passion as a serious painter. She has studied art under Jeanne Dobie, Alex Powers, Henri Casselli, Cecile Martin, Meinrad Craighead and has enjoyed tremendous guidance from Julia Peters, Henry Fagan, Glen Miller and Michael Brodeur. Mahanes works daily out of her Pendleton Street Art District studio in West Greenville, SC.
When referring to her work, Mahanes says, "As far back as I can remember I have loved drawing figures. That attraction has stayed with me. Now I am committed to creating art through painting."
Mahanes continues, "The human figure allows me to explore the full range of my creative process. I can find rhythmic line in the movement of body gesture, shapes in human contours, composition with figures in relationship to one another and their environment, and content in the human story. I suppose that much of my work would define me as a portrait artist. I find inspiration in a pose, an expression, an attitude, a situation and I am moved to capture that 'up close' and personal moment through my own emotional expression. I love working the paint, using vivid color, and as Jeanne Dobie would say, 'making color sing'."
This exceptional collection of paintings representing a decade of Mahanes' figurative exploration.
The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
For further information
check our SC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
864/898-5963 or visit (www.co.pickens.sc.us/culturalcommission).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2009 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© 2009 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.