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August Issue 2003
Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash, NC, Features Works by Ramona Bendin
Sunset
River Marketplace in Calabash, NC, is featuring the work of representational
artist Ramona Batsford Bendin this month. The exhibit, entitled
Coastal Memories, runs from Aug. 1 - 31, 2003.
The North Carolina artist, originally from New York, has been painting for 45 years. She works primarily in oil and is best known for her seascapes and marshland scenes. Her keen understanding of water movement and the effects of light can be seen in every painting.
In order to keep her painting simple, Bendin uses a limited palette, very rarely using black. Instead she grays colors by blending them with their complements. Often she underpaints a canvas with transparent iron yellow oxide, which can show through slightly and add a glow to the painting.
The collection being shown includes seascapes, harbor views and other waterway paintings that were inspired by her travels along the coasts of Maine and California, as well as the Carolinas' own unrivaled beach lands.
"I love capturing a moment in a day when late afternoon shadows are long across the marsh or when day breaks on the Waterway," says Bendin, "I want the viewer to experience that moment with me."
The artist is the daughter of cartoonist Ben Batsford, known for the 1920s comic strip, Little Annie Rooney and Edgar Bergen's pre-World War II Charlie McCarthy strips. She attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and later studied at the School of Visual Arts and Art Students League in New York City.
She has continued to explore concepts with other artists including the late sculptor/painter George Gach, still life artist David Leffel, pastel artist Joe Hing Lowe, portrait artist Ferdinand Petrie and, most recently, plein air painter Perry Austin.
Bendin
is a lifetime member of the American Artist Professional League
and was also elected to New York's Hudson Valley Art Association.
In North Carolina she belongs to the Wilmington Art Association,
Waterway Art Association and the Associated Artists of Southport.
Her peers have awarded her many prestigious honors, among them Best In Show from the National League of American Pen Women, Honorable Mention at the Associated Artists of Southport National Show, the Mrs. John Newington Portraits Award from the Hudson Valley Art Association and the Award of Excellence at the annual Art League of Nassau County Show.
Ginny Lassiter, who owns Sunset River Marketplace with her husband, Joe, says, "Ramona's work whether it's a painting of pounding surf or a peaceful, quiet creek makes me feel as though I'm right there. That takes a special artist."
Bendin teaches oil painting for all levels at Sunset River Marketplace. The class is on hiatus for the summer, but will start again in the fall.
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 910/575-5999 or visit the
website at (www.sunsetrivermarketplace.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
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Copyright© 2003 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
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