May Issue 2002
Transylvania Co. Arts Council in Brevard, NC, Features Works by Ben Long
Internationally known fresco artist Ben Long will be featured in the Transylvania County Arts Council's 2002 Invitational Show, opening May 18 at the Transylvania Community Arts Center in Brevard, NC. The selection of Long's fresco studies, portrait paintings, landscapes and drawings will be on view through June 29, 2002.
Born in 1945 in Texas, Ben Long grew up in Statesville, NC, and attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He studied painting at the Art Student's League in New York and in 1970, fresh from duty with the Marine Corps in Vietnam, Long went to Florence, Italy, to apprentice with the master artist Pietro Annigoni. Long spent seven years in Florence mastering techniques, in oil, tempera and the ancient art of fresco, in which paint is applied directly to wet plaster.
Long is best known for the frescos he has painted across North Carolina since 1973, including The Prodigal Son in Montreat, NC; The Crossroads at Statesville's Civic Center, and two tiny mountain church frescoes in Ashe County. In Charlotte, his works have turned the city into a minor mecca for frescoes, with Long having completed frescoes in the Bank of America Corporate Center, the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Law Enforcement Center, First Presbyterian Church, and the Monumental Dome of TransAmerica Square. In addition to working on commissions for frescoes, Long currently teaches in an Asheville, NC, art studio maintained by Montreat College, sharing his vast knowledge and technical expertise in the area of classical, figurative realism.
Ben Long's grandfather is the focus of an exhibition currently on view at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, through Aug. 25, 2002, Rev. McKendree Long: Picture Painter of the Apocalypse. The son of a distinguished family in Statesville, NC, McKendree Robbins Long (1888-1976) gained lasting renown as both an itinerant Baptist preacher and as an artist specializing in Biblical scenes, particularly those drawn from Revelation.
The Transylvania County Arts Council's annual
Invitational Show features a notable regional artist or
group of artists each spring. Last year's exhibit, featuring three
South Carolina women artists, was named the best regional art
exhibit of 2001 by the Hendersonville Times-News.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings
or contact Jenny Quinn at 828/884-2787.
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