Art In Healing Gallery-3rd Quarter 2012-Foothills Visual Artists Guild
The Art in Healing Gallery is located within Caldwell Memorial Hospital at 321 Mulberry Street SW in Lenoir. Patrons may enter the hospital gallery from the Mulberry Street entrance between the hours of 7am-8pm. The exhibit is FREE to the public. For more information, please contact the Caldwell Arts Council at 828 754 2486.
JULY-SEPTEMBER 2012
FOOTHILLS VISUAL ARTISTS GUILD
The third quarter exhibit at Caldwell Arts Council's Art-in-Healing Gallery at Caldwell Memorial Hospital will feature a variety of artwork created by members of Foothills Visual Artists Guild.
In 1991, a group of artists joined together with the common vision of supplying a means for Caldwell County artists to exhibit and offer for sale fine art at an affordable price. They adopted the name Foothills Visual Artists Guild and although from many diverse backgrounds they soon formed a unified, harmonious and cooperative assembly.
With five regular rotating venues, other venues developing and many singular exhibits, Foothills Visual Artists Guild has met, exceeded its original vision and is growing still. The Guild operated the Foothills Art Gallery for twenty years and today is enjoying increasing success with locating new and prominent stages for displaying members’ work.
With a portfolio that includes artists using a multitude of media: painting, graphic design, professional photography, pottery and sculpture, and a Ringling School of Art graduate, a high school teacher, a signature member of the Watercolor Society of North Carolina, a panel judge for a 2005 Artist of the Year, this group promises a varied and exciting display – one sure to delight the visual senses! Each artist in the Guild carries on with work they are passionate about and have works in progress for this exposition.
Carole Childers says “Making art is my passion and my compulsion. I make art because I can’t NOT make art – I enjoy making art because it is FUN and satisfies my compulsive need to create!” Carole earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ohio University and worked as an art teacher for over thirty-two years in public and private schools both in the US and Saudi Arabia.
Lynn Downham enjoys many art forms, but upon exploring her grandmother’s case of oils she fell in love. She says, “I believe ‘all good things cometh from above’ -- I love being a painter and am deeply grateful for His gifts and the opportunity to use them.”
Sylvia Greene says, “Art for me is a passion. It is a journey that challenges the depths of imagination. It’s a journey that has influenced my being in the realm of Block Print, Discarded Items (beautiful junk), acrylic on canvas and fabric. The journey continues...”
Kristy Le’s medium of choice is jewelry-making, and says “I am very stimulated by vibrant colors and a variety of mediums and textures. I’m interested in altered art, neo-Victorian, and Steampunk designs, and I’m very eclectic in my jewelry designs.”
Shirley Lee began her career in art late in life. In working mostly in oil, and by painting mostly landscapes, she strives to share her appreciation for the beauty of God’s creation with the viewer.
Barbara Penning began painting in 1992, and her favorite medium is oil. She says, “I paint original art, taking my own shortcuts and license, capturing the beauty that is on this earth.”
William Rogers began drawing as a child, but was in his sixties when he began painting, learning by trial and error with no formal art education. He has painted murals in ten churches around Caldwell County. Using acrylic paints, William paints landscapes, seascapes and birds.
Matthew W. Strawn comes from a very artistic family, and attended Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida majoring in printmaking. He says, “I love the sense of anticipation at not knowing what you really have accomplished until you finally reach the end product. I also enjoy how challenging it can be because you have to think in reverse as far as the image is concerned, and there are so many different ways for putting an image on a plate. All of my etchings and most of my paintings are done from the world around me: historic architecture, landscapes, and some portraits.” Matt helped organize the Foothills Visual Artists Guild and open the Foothills Visual Art Gallery, a cooperative gallery that stayed in operation for 19 years.
Shirley Story says "I learned to see early with an artist’s eye. Much of this was because I was blessed with a mother and grandparents who were artists. I was encouraged to use and develop my creativity from the beginning. I lived in the country and learned to love, appreciate, and care for God’s creation. Finding ways to share this beauty with others has always been a part of my life. So now I paint and teach art as a way to continue that sharing. I fell in love with the spontaneity of watercolor many years ago and that is still my main medium. But since my daughter became a full time artist she has urged me to diversify and now I love to work in pastels and acrylics also.
I basically paint in a realist style but often take great artist’s license in improving composition, color and value to suit the emotions the scene or subject evokes in me. I am fascinated with light and shadows. I am drawn to light shining in a window, playing across a subject, or bathing a landscape. More and more of my subjects for painting now are chosen because of the quality of light I see in them. Painting and art bring such joy to my life that I want to share it with others.”
After retiring from a demanding career and raising her family, Lib Underdown took painting classes in acrylics, pastels and oil, and found a new love and new past-time. Having a great love of nature and the outdoors, she paints landscapes, birds, flowers and still life. In addition to traditional art materials such as canvas and paper, Lib paints on glass, fabric, wood and concrete.
Frank Wilcox works primarily in watercolor and various drawing media, and finds himself drawn to depicting older buildings and structures, some well preserved and others in varying states of decline. He says, “I am especially intrigued with neighborhood churches. I find them reflective of the people in the communities in which they are located. I am convinced that the purpose of art is to convey emotions as well as images. I take artistic license to alter the reality of the scene I am painting so that it remains recognizable, but instills in the viewer the same emotions that are inspired in me when I am actually present in the scene.”
