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December Issue 2002
Shain Fine Art in Charlotte, NC, Features Exhibition of Works by Amy Dobbs and David Ballew
Shain Fine Art in Charlotte, NC, will be presenting the exhibition, Playing With the Mystery, featuring works by Amy Dobbs and David Ballew, from Dec. 13 - Jan., 31, 2003.
Dobbs is currently painting in Nimes, in the South of France, where she moved in 1995. She was born in Richmond, VA, in 1970. While in high school, she received the Congressional Award for High School Art Students as well as the A.J. Fletcher Scholarship to study art at Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. Two years later, Dobbs earned the title "Art Student of the Year" and was awarded the Eleanor Davis Scholarship to study in Paris. In 1992, she completed her collegiate career as Magna Cum Laude at Meredith College.
The young Dobbs returned to Europe following college graduation as a studio artist in Berlin, Germany for two years, then returned to the States as an Associate Artist for the Charles Lindbergh Fresco Project in Little Falls, MN. When the fresco was completed, Dobbs returned to Europe to adopt France as her permanent residence.
Dobbs' paintings have appeared in many exhibits,
beginning in 1998 in the Congressional Offices in Washington,
DC. Her skills also earned the young painter a position with Ben
Long in 1992 in creating the Bank of America Fresco. Other shows
include private and group venues in Paris and London as well as
those in the US, from Oklahoma to Shain Fine Art in Charlotte.
In total, the awards and shows given Dobbs are indicative of the
caliber of work that Dobbs has achieved. She is one of the most
formidable, highly sought after still life and landscape artists
domestically and abroad.
This highly skilled realist painter works in oil on either linen
or wood panels that she prepares with a rabbit skin gesso. Dobbs
paints "live" in front of the subject. Her paintings
represent an extraordinarily life-like still life, of incomparable
detail and accuracy. Dobbs is a meticulous, diligent painter who
lovingly devotes much time to each work so the final result is
exquisite. In addition to still lifes, she has mastered a pictorial
diary of the people she encounters or the places she visits.
Dobbs says she feels very fortunate to have worked with some of the best classical realist painters alive today, most notably Richard Maury. These artists provided a solid formation and inspiration to the artist and her creations. She credits nature as being "our best teacher." Amy Dobbs will be visiting from France during the opening of this exhibition.
Since 1981, Santa Fe has been home to David Ballew, who has lived elsewhere during his life. He was drawn to New Mexico by the "extraordinary luminosity of color, together with the variety and beauty of the landscape." Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1955, he left the Northeast to pursue his art education at Indiana University. Wherever Ballew has lived he has passionately pursued his love of and respect for nature.
"My father began taking me fishing when I was young, and I think that helped give me a real love of the natural world. Now I carry an easel rather than a rod and reel," said Ballew. As a dedicated student of fishing does, he constantly refines his skills through disciplined dedication, generally painting six days a week. For smaller paintings he works en "plein-air while larger pieces are worked in the studio.
Exploration and discovery, as well as a deepening
connection to creativity and life are Ballew's principle reasons
for painting. "I'm not interested in art as a means of making
a living, but I am interested in art as a means of living a life."
Ballew portrays "living a life" through his extraordinary
landscapes that have established him as a foremost landscape painter
in the United States.
For more info check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call 704/334-7744
or at (www.shainart.com).
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