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January Issue
2009
Plum Elements
in Charleston, SC, Features Works by Ruth Heffron
Plum Elements in Charleston, SC, is presenting, Finding Grace: New Works in Oil by Ruth Heffron, on view through Jan. 20, 2009. This longtime former Charleston resident and civic leader returns to the peninsula for her first solo show.
Heffron's subjects span the geography where she's lived and traveled in recent years - from coastal South Carolina and Maine, to Texas, Montana and elsewhere in the American West; as well as Canada, Mexico and Europe. "To me, a painting is like a poem - and I've always liked poetry that shines light on the ordinary," she says. "So that's what I want to do with my paintings, to get people to notice things - whether it's a line of cows on a snowy hill, sunset illuminating boats, or a plate of garden tomatoes."
Andrea Schenck, owner of Plum Elements, says Heffron's landscapes move the viewer, not only in an emotional way, "but the way the best portals do - like the way catching a wisp of a scent can instantly transport you to another place or time. It was a hot morning in Charleston when I first saw one of her works, a painting of a Maine morning - so cool, with a certain soft lightness, a sense of pine and salt water. It took me right to our summer home in Maine, where I have not been in some years. That is the grace of these paintings - the blessing of fine moments and their finer feelings."
Heffron's ties to Charleston are strong. She lived and worked in the city from 1970 to the 1998 - including 17 years as the first director of the Trident Community Foundation (now the Coastal Community Foundation), which grew during her tenure from a $21,000 Rotary Club experiment to a charitable endowment of almost $20 million. In 1999, Heffron and her husband, journalist and photographer John Vernelson, purchased the Compass Rose Bookstore & Café in Castine, ME. Besides working to manage the store - doing everything from coordinating author readings to baking chocolate chip and ginger cookies each day for the café - Heffron began an ongoing study and practice of painting in oils, which she continues today. Her painting teachers include Rhett Thurman of Charleston, Noel Robbins of Austin, TX, and Kevin MacPherson of Taos, NM.
Discussing her painting, Heffron explained, "For as long as I can remember, landscape has offered me a refuge and an invitation of kinship. In my work, I want to pay homage to nature; to, as nearly as possible, let the subject speak for itself while also communicating the way I see and feel it."
Heffron paints in plein air and from photographs, most of which either she or John have taken on road trip travels, and in her own kitchen and vegetable garden. Since selling the bookstore, Heffron divides time between Austin and Missoula and frequently visits family and friends in Charleston.
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/727-3747 or e-mail to (info@plumelements.com).
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