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June Issue 2008
Carolina Galleries in Charleston, SC,
Offers Works by George van Hook
Carolina
Galleries in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Charleston
Street Scenes by George van Hook, featuring new paintings,
on view from June 6 - 30, 2008.
A consummate plein air painter, van Hook has recently spent a couple of weeks in Charleston. Eschewing photographs, the copying of which he disdains, van Hook paints entirely on location. When asked about painting in New York in the winter, he laughs it off and says that even 32 degrees is not too cold to paint outdoors! The weather in Charleston was perfect when he was here in April, and the paintings show it. He typically paints one painting each day and sometimes manages to squeeze in a watercolor or two as well. Working in a high key palette for immediacy, he adds the details on his return to his studio.
van Hook grew up in the Philadelphia, PA, area where he spent a great deal of time studying the masters at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and immersing himself in the Bucks County Impressionist and the Brandywine art traditions from the early 20th century. From there he traveled extensively throughout this country and abroad, studying and painting in many of the great museums of Europe as well as the art traditions of the Far East. Upon his return to the US, van Hook quickly established his reputation as an award winning artist, garnering Outstanding Young Man of America Award in 1983, and becoming a Finalist in Portraiture for The Artist's Magazine Annual Art Competition in 1999. In 2000, he was awarded the Grand Award at the Grand Exhibition in Akron, OH.
van Hook's paintings have been exhibited in galleries in California, Washington, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and now Charleston. His work has been exhibited widely in the United States including exhibitions at Grants Pass Museum of Art in Oregon and The American Museum of Fly Fishing in Vermont. In France his work has been shown at Atelier des Peintures de L'abbaye and Le Mairie. In Japan van Hook had a solo exhibition of over 70 paintings at Gallery Enatsu in Hiroshima. In 2004, he was invited by the Italian Museum of Fly Fishing and the Archives of Rome to an inclusive three week stay on their behalf to paint the Italian countryside. van Hook has been featured in American Art Collector and American Artist magazines.
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/720-8622 or visit (www.carolinagalleries.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.