| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
August Issue 2003
Wilkes Art Gallery in North Wilkesboro, NC, Features Group Exhibit by Area Artists
From Aug. 1 through Sept. 6, 2003, the Wilkes Art Gallery, in North Wilkesboro, NC, will host the exhibit The Art of Blowing Rock. This special exhibit features the work of nine artists living and working in the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Tim Miller, owner of Blowing Rock Frameworks and Gallery, has served as guest curator and sponsor for this exhibit.
Raymond
Chorneau
Each of the represented artists work in their own unique style and medium. Participating artists are Kevin Beck, Nancy Brittelle, Noyes Capehart, Raymond Chorneau, Tony Griffin, Paul deMarrais, Pat Pilkington, Ed Szymd and Steve Willingham. These artists and their works are new to the Wilkes Art Gallery.
Kevin Beck is a naturalist/realist "plein air" painter with the majority of his work completed on location. His art is regularly described by his collectors as "painting with heart," and his subject matter encompasses all aspects of the natural world: voluminous cloudscapes, soulful landscapes, luminous watery reflections, and deep woodscapes. Beck draws on his direct painting experience and his immersion in the environment to achieve a sense of serenity, change, and continuation in his paintings. His paintings are included in private, corporate and gallery collections throughout the US and Canada.
Nancy Brittelle portrays landscapes, structures and florals in a dramatic manner through the bold use of color and a high contrast of light and shadow. Her extensive travels have brought her a great variety of subject matter, especially her travels to France. She most often works on location and from her own photographs, attempting to capture those moments when the beauty of nature can inspire us to pause and reflect on the "wonder that surrounds us...those moments that are so perfect and exquisite, they take your breath away."
Noyes Capehart is a retired university art professor with nearly forty-five years of professional experience as an art practitioner and exhibitor. He works in a number of media, including watercolor, mixed media, printmaking, and drawing. The art of Noyes Capehart was featured on the October 1995 issue of American Artist, and his works have been exhibited on local, regional, and national levels. A major retrospective exhibition was held at Appalachian State University's Cultural Museum in Boone, NC, in 2001. Capehart's most recent visual accomplishment is a suite of fourteen original woodcuts depicting the Stations of the Cross, Jesus' final journey down the Way of Sorrows in Jerusalem. These works are permanently installed in The Church of the Holy Cross in Valle Crucis, NC.
Raymond Chorneau is considered one of North Carolina's 20th Century Masters as a painter. His technique of layering oil pastels allows the hidden images and shadows to emerge. His figurative works suggest a view into the subconscious. Whether Chorneau is painting on canvas or paper, using oil pastels or oil and wax, the viewer will find his art intriguing.
Through his expert draftsmanship and richness of vision, Tony Griffin gives us water and poetry, the sustaining elements of life. His landscapes are tranquil, thoughtful, and poetic, as if stumbled on by the viewer for the very first time. Griffin uses landscape as a means of exploring the color spectrum by breaking down each hue into its component and playing them against each other to see what results. Griffin is especially adept at using complementary colors to intensify his palette.
Paul deMarrais is a "plein air" artist residing in the pastoral mountains of Tennessee. He captures the "true color" and feel of his subject matter. His color is unique in that he makes his own paints. This allows him to create the color palette he desires and not be limited to the standard selection. A unique individual, deMarrais gets up close to his subject. This is exemplified on his canvases.
Lively color, texture, light, and movement
are what draw Pat Pilkington to paint mostly "en plein air"
and what better place to do so than in the mountains of North
Carolina. "I love the way each new day is a different painting,
as the atmosphere and seasons change so dramatically. Painting
the landscape either in oils or pastels has become my voice -
my way of expressing my gratitude and enthusiasm for life."
Pilkington's paintings are included in private and corporate collections
as well as many shows within the US.
One of America's most established realistic oil painters, Edward
Szmyd, has delighted collectors and admirers for over five decades.
After growing up in Pennsylvania, he spent most of his art career
in Florida. While there, he grew many varieties of flowers in
order to study the true color and transition of the plant from
budding to flowering beauty. Szmyd's treatment of color results
in capturing light so effectively that he creates a three dimensional
effect upon the surface of his canvas. Having collectors from
coast to coast and many from abroad, Szmyd is considered as one
of America's top 100 artists in the twentieth century. Considered
an American Master of color and light, most everyone will agree
that Szmyd's paintings make life better.
Steve Willingham has explored several mediums including charcoal, pen and ink, and watercolors, but his preferred medium, oil, showcases his talent. Willingham's paintings have been featured in designer showcase homes, galleries, and have found their way into many collectors' homes across the US, England, and Bermuda. He meticulously prepares all his own linen canvases, insuring his collectors a work of art that will endure through centuries of admiration.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call WAG at 336/667-2841 or visit the website at (www.wilkesartgallery.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2003 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© 2003 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.