Guild, Guild and More Guild meetings 9 '10

All of the low country  Art Guilds seem to go into hibernation throughout the heat of the summer.  Come September, every last one of them are in a race to make up for lost time.  This past week has been a series of seemingly non-stop meetings  about upcoming exhibitions, shows, training, workshops, and fund-raising events.  It's a bit exhausting, but a lot of fun as well.

The month started off with an exhibition at the Prevost Gallery/Rice museum which was  sponsored by the Georgetown Watercolor Society. This event was followed  by the group's monthly meeting ... a video training workshop watched in the luxury of leather arm chairs.

That same weekend the Charleston Art Guild held its jury-in process, then two days later its monthly members meeting.  About half of CAG's 400+ members showed up to vote on changes to the Guild by-laws,

 

and watch a demonstration of palette knife painting by artist, Jim Pratt.

The CAG  meeting wasn't all serious business..   We got a hilarious Chippendale- like demonstration of how the Guild's fund-raising calendar "Southern Exposures" was made.

 

Not to be outdone by the Charleston Guild's strip tease, the Waccamah Arist Craftsmen Guild's monthly meeting featured a wet t-shirt contest... AKA -  Acrylic Sand Resist  workshop.  What fun!

The Sea Coast Artist Guild also held a heavily attended  monthly meeting the same week .

Our speaker was  the art director of the Chapin Museum, who gave an enlightening presentation on how she creates exhibits . 

 who gave an enlightening presentation on  the history of the museum how she creates exhibits .

This group is very civic-minded , so almost half the meeting was taken up with upcoming fundraisers..  book sales, logo shirts, mini canvases to be sold at Christmas,and of course  a luncheon held the next day at a local pastaria.  Pass the vino , please!

The door prize was a painting completed on the spot by Barney Slice..

Georgetown Rice Museum 's: Brushstrokes Exhibit 9 '10

The Rice Museum, known locally as The Town Clock, is located in the Old Market Building and is a prominent symbol of Georgetown County. Through dioramas, maps, artifacts and other exhibits, visitors to the Museum are enlightened to the history of a society dependent on the rice crop. In 1750, George Town became the center of rice production in the South Carolina colony. By 1840, the Georgetown District (later County) produced nearly one-half of the total rice crop of the United States. The 1850s proved to be the most profitable decade for the rice planters. The Rice Museum chronicles this most important American time line and its impact on not only South Carolina, but internationally as well.

The Prevost Museum Gallery is located next door to the Town Clock in the Kaminski Hardware Building. The upstairs museum contains maritime and colonial artifacts from the rice production era.  The downstairs gallery and  gift shop is filled with high end antiques and  locally made decorator items.  In addition the downstairs gallery walls regularly sponsor low-country art exhibits and judged art shows . It is a major center for art and culture in the community.

This month I entered an acrylic on watercolor paper scene of an egret into the Prevost Gallery's Brushstrokes Exhibit..  While it  and exhibit, not a judged show, there were some serious per-requisites for entry.   I was pleased  just to be accepted into the exhibit.

Many of our friends and neighbors showed up for the reception

( above: Jim Sullivan and Noreen Sneed. Below: Noreen Sneed and the Blades)

My artwork drew a lot of positive comments during the receptions and I felt honored to be in such good company.

Georgetown Watercolor Society at Dunn Acres 5 '10

The activity for the monthly meeting of the Georgetown Water-media Society was plein air painting at Dunn Acres. Out hostess, Pam Dunn, and her husband Max opened their lovely restored rice plantation manor (below) and all of its gardens for us to paint in.

 The manor sits on bank of the Black River with beautiful views in each direction

( Above: looking east) ( Below: looking west)

The front of the manor faces a series of aquatic gardens that Max has constructed out of what was once an alligator infested jungle of swampland. Max told me that when they bought the property, the grounds were so overgrown that it took a bulldozer to reach the manor house. He has turned it into a series of aquatic gardens that any public arboretum would be proud to own. (I my eyes, it was more beautiful than most public gardens).

From the manor house, well laid out paths and bridges lead off to the cypress ponds which right now are lined with several colors of blooming iris. At other times of the year, Azalea, and roses bring welcome color and contrast to the dominate green.

 

In addition to the cypress gardens, there are several beautiful waterlily and lotus ponds.

There were so many beautiful spots it was hard to know what to paint.I finally focused upon a lovely little statue of a little girl sitting on a cypress stump.

You'll be able to see the  two finished paintings on my website as soon as the paint dries enough for me to photograph them. (See also follow on posts about   plein air pain(t) ing.)

Georgetown Watercolor Society Meeting 4/2010

The Georgetown Watercolor Society met this month at the St Mary's Catholic Church in Georgetown.  One of the best things about belonging to art organizations is the incredible amount of support the artist give one another.   Here our President, Janice Coward is seen presenting a lifetime membership to Lib Ferdon in honor of her unending efforts in promoting the arts in Georgetown SC.

Georgetown Watermedia Society Meeting 11 '09

The Georgetown Water media Society met today for a presentation by two of our members on painting with Acrylic paints. Diann  Hammett led off  the presentation with a discussion of how she approaches  abstract and more traditional representational artwork  and the pros and cons of using acrylic paints in both.

This was followed by another member who  showed us how she uses acrylic paintings in  traditional subjects like this study of her son sitting on the beach

She then explained that as a buzy mother of several children she cannot spend as much time as she would like in the studio.  She maximizes her time, by painting on round table-tops that can be fitted onto the steering wheel of her car while she is waiting for her children to finish their  little league practice etc.  Needless to say the fast drying quality of acrylics is a real boon  under such circumstances.

Above:Initial pidgeon desgin on tabletop with small travel acrylic set shown in plastic bag on table. 

Below: Completed painting of pidgeon.

How clever!