July Issue 2002
Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC, Features Works by Richard Fennell, Eric Lawing & Elizabeth Matheson
Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC, announces an exhibition of new artworks by three of North Carolina's finest. Paintings by Richard Fennell and Eric Lawing will hang side by side in the gallery's main space, while in the west gallery photographs by Hillsborough, NC's Elizabeth Matheson will be exhibited. All three bodies of work will be on view through July 27, 2002.
Richard Fennell
Richard Fennell comes to Chapel Hill from the piedmont region of North Carolina, bringing with him a quietly dazzling group of new paintings which offer rich views of Carolina's piedmont landscape. As he once again reminds us of our state's breathtaking natural elegance, Fennell's rich color and active brushwork become rolling hills, cedar trees, and mountain skies. Now and again he includes a stately example of early twentieth century architecture: two-story southern homes which sunlight and shadow play over in various ways, depending upon the season during which Fennell painted.
Born in Durham, NC, Fennell now resides in Whitsett, NC. He holds a master's of fine art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in painting, printmaking, and sculpture. He earned his undergraduate degree at East Carolina University, studying painting and printmaking. Fennell's post-impressionistic style emphasizes active brushwork and brilliant color, as he applies paint to canvas in a way that suggests a loose hand while yielding landscapes that are warm and lifelike. He has won numerous honors including multiple exhibitions at the NC Museum of Art, a Best in Show award at the Atlanta Arts Festival, and dozens of one-man exhibitions across the state.
Eric Lawing
Coming to Chapel Hill from the east is painter Eric Lawing of Carolina Beach, NC. Lawing brings coastal Carolina to the walls of Somerhill. Best known for his heavy impasto and thickly textured painting, Lawing works on heavy wooden panels, layering copious amounts of paint, sand, pumice, and occasional found objects into the work. His work is stimulating and active, bordering on the abstract in its loose interpretation of a landscape, a sky behind treetops, or a front porch in Carolina Beach. A viewer having a close took at one of Lawing's works may be captivated simply by the color and texture of the surface, gaining the added visual pleasure of seeing his subject matter coalesce only after taking a few steps back from the work.
Lawing is a professor of art at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he also received his bachelor's of art in 1979. He has a master's of fine art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and has participated in many exhibitions across the state. Among honors he has garnered is a North Carolina Artists Fellowship, a Visiting Artist's Lecture Invitation from Wichita State University, and participation in the acclaimed "No Boundaries" international artists' colony on Bald Head Island, NC.
Elizabeth
Matheson
In addition to the two painters, Somerhill is overjoyed to welcome Hillsborough, NC, native Elizabeth Matheson to the West gallery. For decades the masterful photographs of this Carolina daughter have brought beauty and inspiration to our region and beyond. The eloquence of her images and grace of her camera work are virtually unsurpassed. Photographs of Hillsborough were published in Sense of Place; A Hillsborough Memoir in 1991, but her camera's eye has captured many sights far from Hillsborough, as the well-traveled Matheson has brought home portfolios from Venice and Rome, as well as the countryside of England, Wales, and Ireland.
Matheson has once again recently returned from Venice, and visitors to Somerhill Gallery will be delighted by her most recent collection of photography. Matheson's work is also included in the collections of Duke University, The NC Museum of Art, the Ackland Museum, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work has been published in a half-dozen books, including the very handsome volume by the Jargon Society, Blithe Air: Photographs of England, Wales, and Ireland. She has won grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council, and has been invited to exhibit throughout North Carolina and Virginia.
For more information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 919/968-8868 or email at (somerhill@mindspring.com).
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