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March Issue 2003
Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, Honors Area Women Artists
The Converse College Art Department will pay homage to four Spartanburg, SC, women whose lives have been dedicated to art. From Mar. 4 - 27, 2003, the school's Milliken Art Gallery will showcase the works of Carol Augthun, Betty Bramlett, Claire Hopkins, and Mary Ellen Suitt.
"These women have produced art, taught art, and exhibited art for many years," said Mayo Mac Boggs, Sculpture Professor and Chair of the Department of Art and Design. "They deserve to be recognized."
Mother Nature serves as inspiration for the works of Bramlett, a Converse graduate. "About 20 years ago," she explains, "I built a home near a creek which was once the site of a grist mill. All of my paintings are taken from trees, rocks, flowers, and animals in that habitat." Using mixed media, Bramlett's work is characterized by color. "My paintings are on watercolor papers using acrylics, watercolors, and drawing pencils combined with Japanese papers of all kinds," she said.
From 1959-1999, Bramlett devoted much of her efforts to inspiring budding artists in Spartanburg School District 7. Much of that time was in the capacity of coordinator of the district's fine arts program. She obviously made an impact as her portrait has been commissioned to hang in the district's administration building; a scholarship in her name was established for the SC State Fair art winner; and in 1999, the Spartanburg High School Orchestra dedicated its final concert of the year to her.
For Claire Hopkins, inspiration comes from people around her. "My creativity is fueled by those I'm closely involved with," she says. "They can be family, friends, and students, or people I have an affinity for or a strong emotional response to." Known regionally as a portraitist, she works in oils, pastels and watercolor. "For the past 25 years, the majority of my paintings have been in soft pastel," she explains. "In recent years, I have used watercolor and pastel/watercolor combinations."
Largely self-taught, Hopkins is an artist-in-residence in SC public schools, and has been teaching drawing and painting for 25 years. She has been featured in numerous publications including The Best of Pastel 2, The Best of Portrait Painting, The Artists' Magazine, and Artists of The Carolinas. In 2001, Converse College commissioned Hopkins to paint a portrait of Nita Milliken. The portrait now hangs in the Library of the new wing of the Justine V. R. Milliken Art Building Addition.
For 31 years, Mary Ellen Suitt traveled the
world as a cartographer for the US Soil Conservation, composing
and drawing maps of various countries for the Army and the Air
Force. A native South Carolinian, she received her formal training
at Stratford College and the Ringling School of Art and Design,
with post-graduate work at Converse College and the University
of Arizona. Her prints are most easily recognized by blue people.
"In many of my paintings," she explains, "the people
are
blue to give them more anonymity. It removes any identification."
Suitt's works have won awards throughout the US, and her work
can be seen in galleries across the Upstate.
Carol Augthun has traveled the world to study art. "In 1996, I earned a Fulbright Memorial Fellowship to study in Japan," she says. In 1994, she was awarded a Smithsonian Fellowship to study the Harlem Renaissance in Washington, DC. Aughtun's works run the gamut in terms of mediums. "I use mixed media, drawing, ceramics, and painting," she says. Among her recognitions are seven Best-In-Shows and more than 20 first prizes in extensive juried shows; the Portfolio Award from the SC State Fair (1995, 1998, and 2002); and numerous awards from the Spartanburg Art Association.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Milliken Art Gallery at 864/596-9181.
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