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June Issue 2003
Gallery 2 in Columbia, SC, Features Works by Bernard Martin and Peter Tarpley
Gallery 2 in Columbia, SC, will feature the impressionist paintings of international artist, Bernard Martin and the edgy images of South Carolina photographer, Peter Tarpley from June 6 - 28, 2003.
Trois en parc, Bernard Martin
"Bernard Martin's watercolors are a lesson in classic impressionism," gallery owner, Bunni Crawford said. "His ballet dancers are reflective of Degas's, full of color and life. He has a deliberate casualness in the positioning of his figures on the canvas; his subjects are off-center and accidental in arrangement and empty space creates the illusion of a continuous floor that connects us with the dancers and make a viewer feel as if they are standing on the dance floor too. Bernard studies the particular movements that make up motion."
Impressionism emerged in the late 1800s when contemporary life and landscapes became recognized as worthy subjects for serious art. The choppy juxtaposition of colors on the canvas can make a work appear unintelligible at close range; but images pop to life when one steps back and colors fuse at a distance completing the illusion of forms bathed in light and atmosphere. The intensive influence of light is a hallmark of impressionist painting, where for the first time painters realized that shadows were not merely gray or black, but were compilations colors influenced by reflections and angle.
"One stroke of color or line can define the character of a person or the nature of movement," Martin said. For three decades, he has painted the human form, not only in the studio, but also en pleine, with models in outdoor settings such as swamps or beaches. "I paint from live models, which takes hours, but it is essential for me to portray a person accurately."
Martin has studied art at both Creighton University and the Joslyn Art Museum in Nebraska. Martin has received awards from some of the nation's most prestigious art festivals and exhibitions and he maintains a permanent presence on Sotheby's Web site. Martin is currently working on a project painting one of the premier dancers from the Moscow Bolshevi.
"Bernard has graciously agreed to paint some of Columbia's own ballet dancers. That painting will be auctioned to benefit the Carolina Ballet and the Columbia Music Festival Association during the exhibit's opening on June 5," Crawford said.
Motion, Peter
Tarpley
Gallery 2 will also feature the photography by Columbia's own Peter Tarpley. An emerging artist, Tarpley, was intrigued by a chance meeting with a documentary filmmaker. He volunteered to help the filmmaker in exchange for the learning experience, kick starting his career behind the camera. Tarpley has been a medical photographer, a news cinematographer and he presently works as the video producer of the South Carolina Department of Transportation. Although he started his artistic career working with black and white film and hand printing, Tarpley now shoots medium format tungsten color film. He scans the negatives into a computer and prints on a continuous tone laser printer for high resolution. This manipulating of images through a computer started with a chance stop at a truck stop.
"I pulled into this truck stop off I-20 that had a giant sign that said EAT. It looked so lonely before dawn. I shot it and then set it on a black field to enhance the impact of that lonely feeling," said Tarpley, who is finishing a degree in media arts at the University of South Carolina. This image was the beginning of his latest series which projects solitude by taking advantage of negative space. Tarpley shoots with natural light outdoors, but inside he uses television lights instead of traditional flash photography. "I've always worked in television, so using television lighting is second nature to me."
Gallery 2 will feature more than a dozen of Tarpley's large photographs, some of which feature local ballet dancers. "I love to shoot dancers. They have such poise that I never have to articulate what I need as the artist."
For further infomation check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 803/771-6123 or e-mail at (Gallerytwo@aol.com
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