September 2011

City Art Gallery in Columbia, SC, Features Works by Harriet Goode

City Art Gallery in Columbia, SC, will present the exhibit, Tall Girls, featuring oil paintings by Harriet Goode of Rock Hill, SC, on view from Sept. 8 through Oct. 1, 2011. A reception will be held on Sept. 8, from 6-8pm.

City Art Gallery Director Wendyth Wells describes the event as an interactive installation combining the historic authenticity of the building and the drama of the nearly 7 foot tall paintings of females.

“We are creating an atmosphere,” Wells said, “Those who experience it will feel the power of the paintings and the call of the historic architecture. It’s all about what one feels standing among these ‘tall girls’.”

All the paintings are oil on wood panels that Goode based on characters from short stories.

“If we allow words to flow freely in our minds, the experience of reading fiction is immeasurably enhanced,” Goode said. “My paintings are about the often overwhelming power written words have over us, and the rich imagery our minds can create when those words are set free.”

Goode has a life-long love of these stores. “Each month when my mother’s magazines arrived in the mail, I’d curl up in a big chair to read the short stories”, she said. “Even at an early age, I had vivid mental images of the fictional characters. And the dark stories were always my favorites. My own childish interpretation of the characters filled my sketchbooks, and now, many years later, I’m still finding subject matter for paintings in short story and poetry anthologies. I return to old favorites, Steinbeck, St. John, Cheever, and in the last few years have added new names to the list, like Raymond Carver and Alice Munro. Each painting is a short story or one-act play. The viewer has to figure out the plot.”

Goode says she paints because she cannot imagine her life without painting. “I invent women,” she said, “some with vulnerable personalities and some with the strength to transport them to another world; but they all tell a story.”

Goode has had a distinguished career as a gallery director, free lance illustrator and advertising director. She currently lives in Rock Hill where she is a fulltime painter, commercial art consultant and art competition juror. She attended Converse College and later studied with William Halsey in Charleston, SC, and at the Silvermine School of Art in New Canaan, CT. Her paintings are part of museum and private collections through out North and South Carolina. In addition she has work in corporate and private collections in Mexico, Europe and China. Goode has been featured on SC-ETV and her paintings have been on the cover of The Evening Reader Literary Journal, Artifacts, Best of Watercolor: Painting Color among other publications.

The Main Exhibition Gallery, where we feature our solo and group exhibitions, is the central focus of our 17,500 sq. ft building, located in the heart of the Congaree Vista area of Columbia. This huge room boast 14’ exposed beam wood ceilings balanced by turn of the century brick walls. The full 2,800 sq. ft of floor of hardwood floor space with 14 ft. brick walls allows us to display even the largest of works. A 19th Century baby grand piano serves as a focal point to the gallery. Rental of this space is also available for corporate parties, wedding receptions, rehearsal dinners, etc.

For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, contact Wendyth Wells, City Art Gallery, at 803/252-3613 or visit (www.cityartonline.com).

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