39 Members in AAC’s 2024 Juried Show

The Anderson Arts Center’s 2024 juried show opened with a reception on April 19 and will run through May 31. The juror was Roxanna Albury.

Thirty-nine Anderson Artists Guild members had works in the show: Elaine Bailey, Evelyn Beck, Larry Bennett, Matthew Brophy, Dale Cochran, George Crown, Barbara Crown, Melody Davis, Nathan DePue, Michael England, Barbara Ervin, Sherron Fergason, Alice Franzella, Carolyn Gibson, Ginny Gillen, Andrea Harper, Mary Ann Horn, Sally Hunter, Julie Lamp, Chet Lawson, David Locke, Brenda McLean, Beckey Miller, Kathy Moore, Al Morris, Vicki Mountz, Wesa Neely, Stan O’Bannon, Donna O’Hara, Kate Salley Palmer, Ray Richards, Debbie Rote, Diann Simms, Alan Smith, Lori Solymosi, Jan Sparks, John Urban, Diana Walter, and Leslie Wentzell.

Eight members had pieces selected for Art on the Town: Aubrey Coffee, Andrea Harper, Dawn Hayden, Hamed Mahmoodi, Kathy Moore, Annie Skakun, Jan Sparks, and Jess Stone.

Eleven AAG members won awards.

Chet Lawson won the $1000 Callie Stringer Rainey Award.

Merit awards went to Evelyn Beck, George Crown, Melody Davis, Alan Smith, and Debbie Rote.

Purchase awards were given to Larry Bennett, Barbara Ervin, Andrea Harper, Wesa Neely, and John Urban.

Here are reflections by some of our members on their award-winning pieces.

Chet Lawson’s In the Garden of Ruin (oil)

“I am deeply honored to receive the Callie Stringer Rainey Award this year. That it will become part of the permanent collection of the Anderson Arts Center and be viewed by visitors well into the future is very moving. I want to extend my thank you to the Rainey family for this award, but more importantly, for all they have done in support of the arts and education in Anderson.

“I have been fascinated by the crumbling ruins of this old mansion and studied them many times over the years before I began this series of works. Many of the pieces are constructs and not completely accurate to the reality of the subject.

“In the Garden of Ruin was painted as an exercise to demonstrate how warm hues tend to project forward and cools tend to recede. Working with a very simple composition and contrasting areas of light and dark, the most challenging aspect was trying to capture the overall feeling of decay on the building materials and contrast that with the fresh green foliage.

“This piece, painted in 2024, is part of a collection of ten works inspired by the ruins of Tanglewood Mansion located in Pendleton, SC. It is the only oil painting in the collection; the other works are watercolors and pencil drawings. The entire collection can be viewed on my website: https://clawson.faso.com.”

Evelyn Beck’s Rush Hour (fiber)

“I hate to drive and despise traffic, yet there is something about pictures of traffic jams that hypnotizes me. Using an old photo that featured small European cars, I manipulated it until everything looked kind of alien or robotic. Then I chose bright and soft colors as a contrast to both the topic and the style. Then I set to work creating this piece with fabric. I ended up with something appealingly remote from the original inspiration.”

George Crown’s Shore Line (watercolor)

“My painting was inspired from a photo that I took on a trip to Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. I love rocks and water. I wanted the challenge of creating this scene in transparent watercolor. I had to pull every ounce of experience to create the textural quality of the rocks and the preservation of whites in the water. It all starts with design and composition.”

Melody Davis’ Garden Party (acrylic)

“My uncle died a couple of years ago. He was a wildlife painter who painted on wooden rounds, mostly birds and deer. My aunt gave me a hundred of those rounds he hadn’t gotten to. I painted big birds: cardinals, bluejays, goldfinches, and crows. I had a lot of fun. They weren’t the portraits of people that I usually do, so there wasn’t that stress.”

Alan Smith’s Hillside Retreat (transparent watercolor)

“For this painting, I was trying to paint a value pattern of a large dark with a small white which I think I did fairly well. I was also trying to paint on a larger scale where I had more than one mountain or hill in the background. I also tried to introduce more color into the landscape and was pleased with the outcome of the grass in the foreground. I think this was the third iteration of this design that I have been trying to produce and I think the light aspect of the front face of the barn came out better than I expected. Again, design and value continue to be my biggest challenge, but I feel that keeping to a consistent value pattern with this one helped it out!”

Debbie Rote's Aerial View (acrylic)

"My inspiration was an industrial ceiling."

Next week, read about the works by members who won purchase awards.