High school music appreciation classes served as my early background in classical music when we listened to Walter Damrosch give commentary during an hour of recorded music on radio in the 1930’s.

Listening to the recorded Symphony No. 3 EROICA last year on the radio, I began to visualize how sounds could lead me into a painting. Beethoven’s EROICA is composed in four movements of contrasting moods and change of keys. This break away from the classical style was occurring in other arts of the 18th century Europe in painting, sculpture, architecture, drama, dance and poetry. 

The first movement is fragile and tenuous, the second is set in variations, the third is based on grand themes and the fourth movement is a climactic theme so grandiose to make one want to stand at attention. The composer’s struggle between harmony and disharmony is dramatically fought, but harmony is always achieved in the end.

It was in these movements I began organizing basic art elements to provide the visual content. The four paintings are made in large colored vertical panels with abstract shapes, textured lines and a certain tension throughout. Reading about and listening to the Symphony had a great control over my interpretation of the sounds, more than I anticipated. Color had played the most valued element.

Other paintings in the exhibition carry abstract qualities also, but from a different source of inspiration. No longer depending on music or objects, the source of color and form are created from inner feelings – a psychic, aesthetic experience generally called nonobjective painting.

Teknicolour Re-Runs:

 

Paintings, drawing and Hand-toned Photographs by Lindsey Jenkins. Influenced by 1950s Pulp art and B-movies.

 

During the 1950s, art containing atomic nightmares and invaders from outer space sublimated the fears of the Cold War era. My paintings are a chance for catharsis, a kind of journal, and a way of sublimating my own fears and anxieties. My work is figurative, representational and expressionistic, surreal, and sometimes bordering on cartoony. Color is used intuitively; inspired by the Fauves use of jellybean brushstrokes, the illustrations of pulp comics, and Technicolor movies.

Heather Benton maintains a deep and profound love for the picturesque, agricultural nature of the Southeast. Her childhood offered her a great deal of travel, living in Murphreesboro, Virginia Beach, Chapel Hill, as well as more recently, Statesboro. She began her career in photography at the age of 15 while living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Almost immediately, she began to show a preference toward photojournalism and documentary style work. Within two years, at the age of 17, she began to teach introduction classes to grade school children through the Durham Arts Council, which led to her introduction to her early mentors, John Cowan and York Wilson. Through the connections made at the council, Heather began working on projects for the Duke University Documentary Center, on location in Mexico, covering the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan peninsula, and later to New York City for a personal documentary on street life.

Heather’s appreciation for agricultural imagery originates from her lifelong fascination with gardening and exotic flowers. From her early childhood, she was introduced to many different forms of agricultural methods and gardening for both sustenance as well as pleasure. This manifests her preference for natural settings wherever possible in both her artistic expression as well as her professional photography. Where photography is her truest passion, cultivation of plant life runs a very close second.

Being mentored by photographic purists, Heather’s primary focus is to always allow the image to speak for itself, crediting herself only with “documenting the inherent beauty of the event or subject.” Heather currently works in and around the Statesboro area, always with camera in hand, seeking out moments of impact.

** All photos for sale and available in different sizes. Pricing depends on print size. Contact for more info.

About the Artist
California born artist Drew Cottril is a graduate of the Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles. Though his early role models for his interest in art were the California plein air style, at Chouinard, he was introduced to a “wide open world of ideas, styles, and opinions” during the 60s. He studied with Emerson Woelffer, Herbert Jepson, Ed Reep, Nobuyuki Hadeishi, Watson Cross and Don Graham. As he began his third year at Chouinard, he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army and served as a helicopter crew chief from 1968-1969. During his service, he continued to draw and paint, winning first place in the All Army Art Competition for the Pacific and Best of Show for the Western Pacific. These paintings currently hang in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

Drew is an amiable painter who loves life and laughter and thoroughly enjoys his passion for painting. His art has been inspired by travels along the coast and inland valleys of California, mountains and deserts of Arizona, and the light and images of the southwest. Drew currently resides in Statesboro, Georgia, where he continues to be inspired by the world around him—the forests, fields, and landscapes of Southeast Georgia.

Many of his art works are produced through commissions received from private individuals and organizations, which are usually plein air landscapes, portraits and paintings of various vintage and present day military aircraft.

He has shown his work in various galleries in California including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, and San Diego. His work has also been shown in Tucson, AZ, Atlanta, GA, Kansas City, MO, and Rome, Italy. Drew’s work is on display on line at http://www.pleinaircollection.com/ Drew may be contacted at dc1808@bulloch.net or phone 912.852.2042. He is a member of Southern California Plein Air Painters Association, La Jolla, CA, and the National Society of Acrylic and Oil Painters.

Artist’s Statement
I have spent my life appreciating and trying to understand the magical power inside a seed that becomes a tree that can split a boulder. There is no concept of time there--it simply does what it must do. I draw or paint every day. I will until I reach my end; it is what I must do; it is my passion. During the 70s and 80s, I painted in the style de jour—hard-edge; non-figurative. I found this to be unsatisfying. Painting in this style was nothing more than being a house painter with your roll of blue tape in hand. I could not see myself wandering through city dumps searching out “Art Objects” for an installation to protest whatever. I think Shakespeare’s Line “Full of sound and fury signifying nothing” best describes my feeling with regard to this style of so-called art. I am most alive out of the studio, in a field feeling the image I see flow through my eye, down my arm, into my fingers, and through the brush onto the canvas. Painting oil on canvas--just the smell of it excites me--the spring of canvas at the end of the brush, feeling the viscosity of the paint change in the warm summer sun and stiffen up in winter winds, adding the season to the canvas.

Having never been an angry young man--let alone an angry old man--I accept the world as it is, warts and all; I couldn’t care less about the latest political philosophy of the day or the latest international cause. Life is too short to waste on such things; for they have been with mankind for eons. I choose to paint the beauty of life, the earth filled with unbelievable natural beauty surrounding us all. I find it in cities and open fields; it is a never ending invitation to paint. I find myself overwhelmed with life when I paint. There is a joy in painting that one can never put into words, one must just do it.

About the Artist                            

Leslie Manning spent most of her childhood living on bases in Germany. She tells of memories rich with German woods, castles, wildlife, and hours of play in the forests around the Army bases. In addition to the European exposure via the military, Leslie’s family was from Sweden, where she was able to spend glorious summers on her uncle's farm. According to Leslie, “Television, and much of what was American culture, played no part in those days, as it was nonexistent there.”

Returning to America to live in New England, Dallas, Texas, and finally on the Half Moon River in Wilmington Island, Georgia, near Savannah, Leslie says she spent ten years “quitting high school, acquiring a Chemistry degree and a license as a Respiratory Care Practitioner.” After her schooling, she returned to Europe to backpack for a month before going to Switzerland to stay at L'Abrii, a Christian community, founded by Francis Schaeffer. She views this as a turning point where she was influenced by Dr. Schaeffer’s views on faith, transcendence, and living.

She eventually moved to Bulloch County, married and became a mother of three. She and her husband live on twenty-five acres in Brooklet, Georgia, where they raise various animals including goats, sheep, rabbits,  horses, peacocks, chickens, geese and ducks.

She feels that her time in various countries and cultures has had a strong effect on her art. She is especially drawn to the natural world--woods, oceans, backpacking. Her dear friend, Diane, asserts that artists must "feed" their eyes. Leslie states that she believes it, and cannot help it anyway.

As an artist, Leslie has the following credits:

1980, Series of Savannah prints for sale in various venues.
1981, Designed logo for "Drop Zone" military supplies store in Savannah.
1984, Commission for Savannah Red Cross, rendering of the facility, pen and ink.
1985, Series of architectural renderings of Savannah's old homes. Commissioned.            
1986, Created body of work displayed in SCAD Gallery B, Bull Street, Savannah.
1986, Workshop with Peggy Cone, watercolors.
1995, Taught art, Trinity Christian school.
2000, Workshop, Dan Cole, stained glass, one year.
2004, Art show, Memorial Medical center, Mixed media.
2005, Averitt Center, studio. "Mixed Expressions" five artists show in main gallery.
2006, Kiwanis Ogeechee Fair, first Place ,pastels.
2006, Averitt Center, " Mixed Expressions", Main gallery.
2007, West Main Art Gallery and Studios, LLC, co-owner and artist in loco.
2008, Kiwanis Ogeechee Fair, second place, pastels.            

Artist’s Statement

All art expresses the belief system of the creator. The work in progress continues to develop until it resonates with the internalized point of view of the artist. All is personal. I want to find my work moving in the direction of otherworldly reflections and patterns, superimposed on what is familiar. Surreal landscapes, beasts, skyscapes and waterworlds awaken that which sleeps, that which is forgotten. Complexity encourages the mind’s journey. Naming art limits the personal journey of the viewer. Works can be the creation of the viewer--shared, recognized, and claimed. The viewer is important to the art--as unviewed art is stillborn.