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November Issue
2008
Beaufort Art Association in Beaufort,
SC, Features Works by Members of the Charleston Artist Guild
The Beaufort Art Association in Beaufort, SC, will present the exhibit, Charleston in Beaufort, featuring works by members of Charleston Artist Guild, on view in the BAA Gallery from Nov. 4 - 29, 2008.
The Charleston Artist Guild, established in 1953, is one of Charleston's oldest arts organizations, and many of Charleston's finest artists got their start with the Guild. The Guild operates a gallery at 6 North Atlantic Wharf in Charleston's art district and its members organize numerous community outreach programs and exhibits.
Several of the Charleston artists who will be participating in the exhibit have shared stories about their artistic inspiration. Helen Beachum, a native of Montreal, Canada, moved to historic Summerville, SC, in 2006. She is the current Vice-President of the Guild and an active member of the National Watercolor Society. Her watercolor entitled The Swimming Hole illustrates her love for the Carolina Lowcountry.
Marty Biernbaum has been working in two very different forms - painting and clay - for over 25 years, and the forms and patterns of nature inspire both her acrylic paintings and her ceramic pieces. Her painting, The Moment, shows a glimpse into one of old Charleston's charming side streets.
Bonnie Doty, a native of Summerville, SC, and a watercolorist, worked for many years as a commercial artist before her retirement to Edisto Island, SC. She originally began working in batik, switching to oil and watercolor in 2005, and has received numerous awards in both media. Her watercolor, Queen and State Streets, captures the essence of downtown Charleston.
Gayle Gilford, who began studying art as a teenager, graduated from the University of South Carolina. Her career has included teaching on many levels. She specializes in painting miniatures, and her subjects include realistic landscapes, seascapes and historic buildings in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in Charleston, and the natural beauty of the Carolina Low Country.
Elaine H. Hruska, President of the Guild, also began painting as a teenager. Her formal art studies included classes in New York at the Art Students League and the Cooper Union School of Art. Before embarking on business trips that take her throughout the world, Hruska always tucks a sketchpad inside her briefcase, allowing her to slip away and capture the very essence of the world around her. Today a resident of the Lowcountry, she is enchanted by its charm and beauty, believing that "the luminosity and brilliance of pastels are especially suited for capturing the dichotomy of Charleston - old world charm wrapped in the warmth of cosmopolitan modernity."
Patricia Huff, working primarily in pastel, credits her study of Italian art and architecture while a student in Rome as a major inspiration. Her works capture memories of people and places, and time spent plein-air painting on the South Carolina coast.
Ann Marie McKay, a retired college English teacher, works in both watercolor - which she prefers for her children's book illustrations - and oil, which she uses for her landscapes painted on location. Several of her paintings have been selected for the Blessing of the Fleet festival in Mount Pleasant, SC, and another painting was selected for a special exhibition at Brookgreen Gardens.
The exhibit, Charleston in Beaufort will also include photographic works by Skip Runge, and Olli Wendelin. Runge's earlier works record images of inanimate objects, such as architecture and landscape. Recently he has turned his attention to the area of portraiture. Runge makes both silver prints and digital prints, and frequently makes digital images from film negatives, noting that ". . . the cameras, films, scanners, software, printers, darkroom equipment and so forth are only tools."
Wendelin's interested in photography began in college, and his travels while in the US Navy allowed enabled him to photograph in many exotic locations, including Italy, Greece, and the Caribbean. He has spent most of his career in the shipbuilding and ship repair industry, giving him the time and funding to pursue his passion for photography.
At the conclusion of this landmark exhibit, Beaufort Art Association Gallery artists will begin planning their participation in a reciprocal exhibit at the CAG Gallery in 2009. The idea of this exchange came from Hetty Nijman, a long-time Beaufort Art Association member, gallery artist, and a member of the Charleston Guild. As she became acquainted with the Guild officers, the idea of a Charleston/Beaufort reciprocal exhibit was formed.
The Beaufort Art Association Gallery, located in the historic Elliott House, features the works of 80 member artists, including paintings in oil, watercolor and acrylic, works in collage, pastel, photography, glass, jewelry, wood, and note cards.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the Association at 843/379-2222 or visit
(www.beaufortartassociation.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 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© 2008 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.