BCAC opens exhibit
Published 12:31 am Thursday, January 26, 2012
Four local artists will have their works displayed as part of a Beaufort County Arts Council exhibit opening today in Washington.
The featured artists are watercolorists Gale Champion and Linda Boyer, photographer William Pitt and potter Maureen Davis.
The foursome’s diverse creations will be on display through March 8 in the gallery of the Washington Civic Center.
The exhibit opens with a reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. tonight at the gallery.
Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
The show is free and open to the general public, reads a news release from the arts council.
This happening is part of the arts council’s yearlong, 40th-anniversary celebration.
“All four artists have been patrons, volunteers, board members, and particularly, productive artists during the Arts Council’s history,” Joey Toler, BCAC’s executive director, is quoted as saying in the news release.
The show began to take form a little more than a year ago through conversations with Champion, Toler said in an interview.
Boyer and Champion are longtime BCAC artists, while Pitt has taken part in the arts council’s annual Fine Arts Show and photography exhibits, Toler related.
Davis is probably the most recent addition to this four-artist roster, but she has been affiliated with the arts council for years, selling her work in BCAC’s Lane Gift Shop and during its holiday craft show, he said.
In an interview, Champion said her repertoire includes landscapes of local scenes and scenes from her travels abroad.
“I just do a variety of subjects, but I really do love doing landscapes,” she said.
Champion has been a painter for most of her life, but began concentrating more intensely on her art five years ago after her retirement.
Asked what patrons might take away from the show, she replied, “They’ll take away paintings that are painted with a lot of feeling and emotion.”
Davis said she focuses primarily on raku, or Japanese-style, pottery.
“This is a type of firing process that people will see the end result is that the unglazed areas of the pots are black,” she said. “My body of work is all raku. I don’t do the stoneware.”
Davis fires her pottery in her driveway, and has a studio over her garage.
She built her own raku kiln in the late 1980s, then bought one 15 years later.
This is her first BCAC show as a featured artist.
“I’m very honored to be offered this opportunity,” she said.
Pitt and Boyer couldn’t be reached for comment immediately.
For more information on the exhibit, call the arts council at 252-946-2504 or visit its website, www.beaufortcountyartscouncil.org.