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June Issue 2003
Hilton Head Art League in Hilton Head, SC, Features Works by Liz Rufenacht
Reflections...Near and Far at the Hilton Head Art League Gallery in Pineland Station on Hilton Head, SC, is an exhibition about reflections. They are reflections of artist Liz Rufenacht's life experiences, as well as many actual waterway reflections of chateaux, houses, trees, clouds, boats, etc. she painted from sites near her home on Hilton Head Island and on locations she visited in her travels domestically and abroad. Her works include pastels, watercolors, and watercolor and ink sketches done on location.
The exhibition
opens on June 10 and continues through July 5, 2003.
Because her mother was an artist and a teacher, Rufenacht grew
up with art. "It was more or less forced on me and my sister,"
says Rufenacht. "Because my father couldn't stand the smell
of oil paint, or the mess in the house, he converted the unused
servants' quarters in the back yard to an art studio. My mother
used it to teach ceramics, sculpture, sketching and oil painting
to local children, and, of course, we joined in on the fun."
In high school, Rufenacht won the Hallmark Cards Gold Key Medal
of Honor for a silkscreen print. She studied art at Mary Baldwin
College in Staunton, VA, and received her BSE with Honors from
the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Rufenacht did graduate
studies through Kansas State while teaching in a suburb of Kansas
City. She incorporated art in her elementary school teaching,
and began a program called "Art in the Afternoon" on
Fridays for the upper grades. Prior to relocating on Hilton Head,
she studied pastels at the Montclair Museum and watercolors and
life drawing with several instructors from the Art Student League
in NYC at the NJ Center for the Arts.
Rufenacht has ancestral roots on Hilton Head Island. Her great-great-great
grandfather was William Pope, a Hilton Head Island planter before
the Civil War. Here she has taken workshops with such well-known
artists as Charles Reid, Tom Lynch, Doug Dawson, Judi Betts, and
Sheila Parsons, who encouraged Rufenacht and several other local
artists to form the Apple Pie Painters. During the Pies' "en
plein aire" painting days and the many workshops through
the Art League, she continues to paint in various mediums using
a range of techniques. Pastels and watercolors are her favorites.
"It is always a challenge to be bold with my watercolors - laying them on intensely and without apprehension - because one big mistake, especially if using opaque or staining colors, and the piece is ruined," says Rufenacht. An early instructor in NJ encouraged her to be more boldly-expressive. He once asked her if she were "frugal" because she was "chintzy" with her paints. Pastels, however, like oils, are much more forgiving than watercolors because the paintings can be more easily modified to capture the correct effects.
Because Rufenacht loves to travel internationally and experience the beauty of the architecture, people, landscapes and seascapes of ancient countries, these often become subjects of her art. She has studied and painted in France, Italy, Portugal, and Mexico.
Rufenacht exhibits with the Hilton Head Art League, Bluffton Society of Artists, the Beaufort Art Association, and the Apple Pie Painters. Her lighthouse painting, Morning Light, adorned the cover of the Arts and Entertainment supplement to the Island Packet and Carolina News. Her works are in private collections across the country and in Europe. Rufenacht also designed the cover of Breaking Bread, the latest cookbook from St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Hilton Head, utilizing the l832 silver communion chalice her great- great-grandfather used as priest at St. Luke's.
Rufenacht
believes that anyone who has the desire and appreciates the beauty
and color in all things, can learn to draw and paint. "It
is not always a God-given talent. I am a living example of that."
For more info check our SC Institutional Gallery listings or
call 843/681-5060.
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