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September Issue 2007
Green Rice Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Features Works by Jessie Lynn Courson and Kendra Baird
Green Rice Gallery in Charlotte, NC, will present the exhibit, Just Beneath the Surface, featuring works by Jessie Lynn Courson and Kendra Baird, on view from Sept. 1 - 29, 2007.
Courson's works on display are watercolor and ink on paper. This medium is a change from the acrylics on canvas she has typically used in the past. Although she initially feared the unforgiving nature of watercolor paints, Courson soon developed a love of the medium finding a freedom as well an immediacy in her new works.
In many of Courson's works the watercolors bleed over the "edge" she creates with ink into the pure white giving her paintings a slightly surreal quality. She considers her work inspirational and optimistic and hopes to reveal something divine through her art. Courson explains, "I don't want to preach to viewers, but have them feel God instinctually when they see the work. It's a lofty idea, but it's what motivates me."
Courson paints from memory and imagination seeking to express beyond what we see everyday on the surface. Inspired by artists Pablo Picasso and Andrew Wyeth, her recent works have a subtle and modern feel.
Courson was awarded her Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts with Highest Honors from the University of North Carolina in 2003. She now lives in on the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, near Washington, DC, with her husband.
Joining Courson's work are the paintings of Kendra Baird. Her works are acrylic on canvas and collage. Baird's works on display focus on the show's theme of Just Beneath the Surface as she reveals a subject and emphasizes texture and color. Her style is design oriented with a minimal amount of subject matter in each work. Baird often uses bold pigments and creates a wonderful color study that produces a wash of similar tones around a single object appearing as a glowing cloud or dream like sky. In fact she is inspired by the dreamy and surrealistic style of Charlotte artist, Duy Huynh.
"Creating work that has meaning and beauty has always been important to me," Baird explains. "I like to give each of my pieces of art a unique, incisive personality that will add to the style of someone's home or business."
Baird was born and raised in the small farming community of Plattsburg, OH. She graduated Savannah College of Art & Design in Savannah, GA, in 2004, with a major in graphic design and minor in drawing. Baird currently resides in Charlotte, NC.
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/344-0300 or visit (www.green-rice.com).
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