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Evensong - Franklin County, North Carolina

WILSON, N.C. — Barton Art Galleries will host the work of acclaimed painter J. Chris Wilson in an exhibition titled "From Murphy to Manteo-An Artist's Scenic Journey." Although a native of Georgia, Wilson has resided in North Carolina since the early 1970s and brings to the audience a serene visage of natural wonder found in the state.

"From Murphy to Manteo-An Artist's Scenic Journey" will be on display from November 8 to December 9. The opening reception is Sunday, Nov. 8, from 2 - 4 p.m. This event is open to the public free of charge, and the community is invited to attend. J. Chris Wilson will present a lecture on his work immediately following the opening reception. The lecture is open only to members of the Barton Friends of Visual Arts. For membership please call 252-399-6357, or join the Friends of Visual Arts at the event.  The exhibition will run until December 9.

In his paintings, Wilson presents an intimate detailed view of the splendor of the North Carolina landscape. Such an endeavor has often been the subject of photographs and etchings, but never before has there been as diverse a look at the natural environment undertaken in oil. The breadth of images in the series reflects an intense devotion to the state and the ideology of being from North Carolina. "I suppose, in retrospect, this entire journey began when I started to see myself as no longer a South Georgian and began feeling that I was now a tried-and-true North Carolinian," said Wilson.

The paintings in this series did not materialize overnight, but have been developing for over a decade. Wilson's intention is to produce 100 scenic views of North Carolina stretching across the state following US-64, literally from Murphy to Manteo. "My objective," said Wilson, "was to seek what I considered to be the most visually impressive and interesting natural scenery whether that scenery was created totally by natural forces or by the hand of man."

Wilson's paintings began to take shape after returning from Japan, where he taught at a sister institution to Barton College. Having been previously exposed to Japanese wood block printing, Wilson found inspiration in the work of Ando Hiroshige, who produced serial prints focusing on scenic views along important rivers in the country. Returning to America, Wilson felt driven to produce his own series of works eliciting his home environment.

Rivers have had a long-standing history for serving as transportation routes. Wilson contemplated this notion and considered painting scenic views along the Tar River, which runs past his Edgecombe County home. Deciding there was not enough visual variety along the Tar, however, Wilson looked to a different artery of transport for his inspiration: US Highway 64.

The exhibit displays both studies for the monumental series as well as completed paintings. The latter of these are tremendous in scale, completely covering some of the galley walls. These large canvasses draw the viewer in filling their visual field creating the sense that one is actually there, standing in nature.

"Wilson has captured the essence of land," said Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions at the Barton Art Galleries. "From rolling hills, to rushing water, to pensive mist-filled fields, one can become lost in the scenes as a Romantic poet might in their own introspections."

In the paintings, Wilson has highlighted the grandeur of the land and also captured the emotion of bearing witness to the land. The result is a quite personal yet telling portrayal of North Carolina. It is Wilson's hope that the viewers of his works will walk away with a heightened awareness of their state. "Perhaps these works may contribute to a new sense of appreciation for the essential good of the North Carolina landscape," he said.

Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of holidays.  For additional information, please contact Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions, at 252-399-6475 or email: glange@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - The Barton College Friends of Visual Arts and the Barton Art Galleries will welcome J. Chris Wilson, artist and art professor at Barton College, to lecture on the legendary North Carolina native Hobson Pittman and his paintings on Tuesday, Oct.20, at 2 p.m. The event will be held in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery in the Case Art Building on campus. The event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is encouraged to attend.

Originally by invitation only for the Friends of Visual Arts, this program has been opened to the general public because of increased interest in the "Hobson Pittman: At Home & Work" exhibition currently on view at Barton College. The exhibition will be on display in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery until Friday, Oct. 30.  Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of holidays. For additional information, please contact Gérard Lange, director of exhibitions, at 252-399-6475 or email: glange@barton.edu.

Hobson Pittman -
Born in the rural Edgecombe community of Epworth near Leggett in 1899, Pittman showed artistic promise at a very early age and was encouraged to pursue his creative talent by his first art instructor, Molly Rouse. He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1925, continuing his studies at Columbia University. In 1928, Pittman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and traveled to Europe for the first time, where he visited major art museums and completed a series of watercolors. From that point forward, Pittman traveled between the United States, Europe, and the Orient, teaching and studying painting.

Although he never lived in Edgecombe County again, Pittman took the memories of his home-place with him. Often devoid of people, these paintings of spacious Victorian rooms and southern gardens are romantic and nostalgic, and hearken the sense of a distant memory. "He often would exaggerate the massive windows and doorways he remembered from his childhood, that seemed larger than life," shared Buddy Hooks, director of the Hobson Pittman Memorial Gallery in Tarboro. The stark wooden homes with 10 and 12-foot ceilings, enormous doors and windows provided strong elements to mix with Pittman's imagination creating compelling and somewhat mysterious scenes. Pittman once shared, "I have always been interested in painting things of the past - things I have loved and still do. Things I feel and understand." The quiet ambiance of the scenes is often deafening in the solitude, which is depicted. Charged by the subtle mix of interior and exterior lighting, one gets a sense that the world has stopped turning in a moment where a youthful recollection is pondered by a mature mind.

From the late 1950s until the end of his life, Pittman used a riotous palette of color. Throughout the course of his life, blue-greys, fawns and taupes, muted greens and wines gave way to tangerine, watermelon, turquoise, hot gold and chartreuse. Likewise, his subject matter waxed and waned covering all sorts of styles and genre. It was for his floral still lives that Pittman won notoriety in the 1920s and 1930s. In these canvasses, one can sense the influences of Henry McFee, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Fernand Lèger, and the German Expressionists. "If I have made any contributions to painting, I firmly attribute it to a concentrated study of the masters," said Pittman. "I try very hard not to be biased in my opinions or in my appreciation, but to be tolerant of all types and periods of good painting."

Pittman earned high regard throughout the United States for his oils, pastels, and watercolors. He was also considered one of the best art instructors in the nation and was sought by numerous colleges, universities, and art organizations to lecture and teach.

Pittman's career was sparked by numerous awards, and his works are included in many public collections including the Corcoran Gallery and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Philadelphia Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Works in this exhibition are on loan from the Hobson Pittman Memorial Gallery, located within the Blount-Bridgers House in Tarboro.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - Barton Art Galleries is pleased to announce the opening of two painting exhibitions for the month of October. Jennifer O'Connell's "Familiar Places" exhibition and the "Hobson Pittman: At Home & Work" exhibition will be on display from September 27 to October 30.

An opening reception for these exhibitions is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27, from 2 - 4 p.m. in the Barton Art Galleries located in Case Art Building. This event is open to the public free of charge, and the community is invited to attend.

On Friday, Oct. 2, the Barton College Friends of Visual Arts (FOVA) will host a dinner and lecture featuring Massachusetts artist Jennifer O'Connell from 6-8 p.m. and, on Tuesday, Oct.20, at 2 p.m., J. Chris Wilson, professor of art at Barton College, will present a lecture focusing on the late North Carolina native Hobson Pittman and his paintings for members of the Barton College Friends of Visual Arts. These two events will be by invitation only for members of FOVA. Those interested in joining the Barton College Friends of Visual Arts may contact Frances Belcher, in the Office of Institutional Advancement, at 252-399-6357.

During the month-long exhibition, recent works by O'Connell will be on view in the Virginia Thompson Graves Gallery, and the Pittman paintings will be featured in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery. Despite being separated by generations, the work of these two exceptional painters creates a tranquil harmony in the solidarity of their domestic interiors.

O'Connell's work presents scenes of rooms in her colonial home in Hadley, Mass. Rather than depicting these intimate spaces in natural color, the rooms and furnishings are highly saturated - a rich visual symphony where colors are wrought with emotion. "These scenes are inspired by what the mind conjures, (where) perception is influenced by contemplation," shared O'Connell. Through the color saturation, one begins to ponder the emotional state of the artist during the time each painting was executed. This contemplation is reinforced by the sense and evidence of habitation, without actually seeing any people. "Despite the vacancy, there is the feeling that the room has been frozen in the midst of action, and the occupants have simply vanished from view," said Gérard Lange, director of exhibitions for the Barton Art Galleries. "There is a sense of life and activity, but the scene appears to be a moment in which the artist's mind may have begun to wander."

As rooms are presented repeatedly, one can witness changes in decorating and, therein, the passage of time becomes apparent. "As I paint in my home, I am witness to everyday changes which reveal stories," O'Connell continued. Completed over the span of days and weeks, the compositions reflect natural changes occurring daily. Objects in the paintings appear to have been touched and moved, yet the person responsible is absent. In her working and reworking of the scene, O'Connell's rooms cease to be mere domestic genre and start to live and breathe of their own accord. In these paintings, she transforms the images of her unoccupied private spaces into a self-portrait, where not only her life but also the act of living is placed on display.

O'Connell earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing from the University of New Hampshire and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from SUNY Plattsburgh. Additionally, she studied fine art at the University College Chester in England. She has received numerous awards, grants and fellowships, and has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is represented by Adam Cave Fine Art in Raleigh, Left Bank Gallery in Wellfleet, Mass., and Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, Mass.

Born in the rural Edgecombe community of Epworth near Leggett in 1899, Pittman showed artistic promise at a very early age and was encouraged to pursue his creative talent by his first art instructor, Molly Rouse. He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1925, continuing his studies at Columbia University. In 1928, Pittman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and traveled to Europe for the first time, where he visited major art museums and completed a series of watercolors. From that point forward, Pittman traveled between the United States, Europe, and the Orient, teaching and studying painting.

Although he never lived in Edgecombe County again, Pittman took the memories of his home-place with him. Often devoid of people, these paintings of spacious Victorian rooms and southern gardens are romantic and nostalgic, and hearken the sense of a distant memory. "He often would exaggerate the massive windows and doorways he remembered from his childhood, that seemed larger than life," shared Buddy Hooks, director of the Hobson Pittman Memorial Gallery in Tarboro. The stark wooden homes with 10 and 12-foot ceilings, enormous doors and windows provided strong elements to mix with Pittman's imagination creating compelling and somewhat mysterious scenes. Pittman once shared, "I have always been interested in painting things of the past - things I have loved and still do. Things I feel and understand." The quiet ambiance of the scenes is often deafening in the solitude, which is depicted. Charged by the subtle mix of interior and exterior lighting, one gets a sense that the world has stopped turning in a moment where a youthful recollection is pondered by a mature mind.

From the late 1950s until the end of his life, Pittman used a riotous palette of color. Throughout the course of his life, blue-greys, fawns and taupes, muted greens and wines gave way to tangerine, watermelon, turquoise, hot gold and chartreuse. Likewise, his subject matter waxed and waned covering all sorts of styles and genre. It was for his floral still lives that Pittman won notoriety in the 1920s and 1930s. In these canvasses, one can sense the influences of Henry McFee, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Fernand Lèger, and the German Expressionists. "If I have made any contributions to painting, I firmly attribute it to a concentrated study of the masters," said Pittman. "I try very hard not to be biased in my opinions or in my appreciation, but to be tolerant of all types and periods of good painting."

Pittman earned high regard throughout the United States for his oils, pastels, and watercolors. He was also considered one of the best art instructors in the nation and was sought by numerous colleges, universities, and art organizations to lecture and teach.

Pittman's career was sparked by numerous awards, and his works are included in many public collections including the Corcoran Gallery and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Philadelphia Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Works in this exhibition are on loan from the Hobson Pittman Memorial Gallery, located within the Blount-Bridgers House in Tarboro.

Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of holidays. For additional information, please contact Gérard Lange, director of exhibitions, at 252-399-6475 or email: glange@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

Wire-wrapped vase by Mark Gordon

WILSON, N.C. — The 2009-2010 exhibition season for the Barton Art Galleries begins with Mark Gordon: Recent Works.  The ceramics exhibition will open on Monday, Aug. 24, and will run until Friday, Sept. 18. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Sunday, Aug. 30 from 2-4 p.m. This event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.

A professor of ceramics at Barton College, Gordon fills the Virginia Thompson Graves Gallery with many of his iconic vessels. Forms in the exhibit, placed on individual pedestals and lining the walls, create a monolithic display evoking a quiet reverence as if in a place of worship.

"Clay is a universal medium; potters' vessels have formed an essential part of material culture, shared Gordon. "Often, in the vessels, Greek or Chinese forms seem to be echoed in my clay shapes." Works presented range from more traditional smooth-surfaced vessels to composite, coagulate encrusted versions. In these latter pieces, the surfaces retain a comfortable tension somewhere between chaos and structure. Their forms resemble things one might find in nature, but on the molecular level.

Gordon's inspiration is often derived from an eclectic mix of nature and plant growth, animal skeletons, machinery, scrap yards and through travel. He sees his artwork as a melding of idea and action, of inspiration and impulse. "I approach claywork as the creation, pulling form out of inchoate matter, as an ongoing experiment in seeking new direction through variation," Gordon said. "The physicality of clay, along with its remarkable ability to freeze action and respond to physical impact or retain any fleeting impression, immediately and permanently captured my interest."

From 1980 to 1983, Gordon taught at Altos de Chavón in La Romana, Dominican Republic, creating a vocational workshop for local youth. He later traveled throughout the Mediterranean observing and documenting traditional pottery and brickmaking.  "Knowing these traditional clay artisans has contributed to my education," Gordon added. "I continue to make ceramic vessels to celebrate and maintain a connection to traditional potters worldwide."

In contrast to the vessels, Gordon's installations in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery refer to architecture and industrialization. For Gordon, these works represent fragments, combined geometries, and biomorphic musings. "Geometry, being a form of math, has always served as a universal language for sculpture," shared Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions at Barton. "Gordon's use of these pure forms has placed the work in a global context, where many interpretations can be drawn by evaluating the sculptures from different cultural points of view. Influence of his time spent abroad is clearly evident in Gordon's complex manipulation and integration of these otherwise simple forms."

Gordon has presented over 100 lectures and workshops in 19 states and seven foreign countries. He has been recognized with numerous awards and grants and has held numerous art residencies across the nation as well as in Caracas, Venezuela; Cairo, Egypt; Madrid, Spain; Jerusalem, Israel; and La Romana, Dominican Republic.  In 1991, Gordon was a Fulbright Lecturer at the Facultad de Artes, Universidad Nacional in Obera, Argentina.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations at Barton College, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - "Oculus," the 2009 Barton College Senior Art Exhibition,  opens on Saturday evening, April 4, with a reception from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. in the Barton Art Galleries. This event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.  The exhibition will run until Friday, May 8.

Art works by seniors Sarah Stoia St. Martin and Cameron Basil Gooch will be on view in the Virginia Thompson Graves Gallery. Gallery talks by the artists will be held during the reception with St. Martin and Gooch, at 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. respectively.

St. Martin is the daughter of Navy Chaplain Commander Peter St. Martin and Judy St. Martin, stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. She plans to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Graphic Design.

Ceramics by Sarah St. Martin

She has combined her love of photography with her creativity in graphic design to develop several unique pieces for the senior show.  Influenced by a period of residency in Japan, St. Martin has incorporated Eastern aspects throughout her works in the exhibit, including an Asian-inspired dressing screen that depicts a self-portrait as well as friends' portraits.  Another intriguing piece is a miniature book of poetry she has created to showcase various forms of typography.

St. Martin also has created a proto-type application of a letterform design project that included research in merchandising and product display.  "The letterforms have been hand painted on china as a successful proto-type for china that one might see in a store like Pier 1 or The Pottery Barn," shared J. Chris Wilson, professor of art and senior advisor.  "The design is intended to appeal to a young audience and plays with the number '8′ as a major design motif on the dinning china, making a pun of 'ate' as an implied design motif."  In addition, St. Martin has designed banners with related letterform designs that would function as merchandising elements in the commercial arena for the line and could also function as table runners for a comprehensive design statement in the home.

St. Martin eventually hopes to earn a teaching certificate, but looks forward to working in the field of art and design upon graduation.

Cameron Basil Gooch is the son of Deborah and Basil Gooch of Elon.  He also is scheduled to graduate in May with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Graphic Design and Photography.  His works in the exhibition will feature designs for recreational equipment including skateboards, snowboards, snow skis, and a skim board that are intended to appeal to a young, grunge-style consumer. Gooch's clothing designs also showcase his comprehensive approach to a product design campaign.  His inspiration, fueled by travels to New York City and other metropolitan areas, provides a strong urban theme for his art.

Designs by Cameron Gooch

"Cameron's work has greatly matured, and his urban theme with a young target audience is focused and successful from both a design perspective and an understanding of the need in today's economy to seek a market niche," said Wilson.  "The work is exciting and dynamic and should successfully hit its intended mark."  Photographs and design letter projects by Gooch are also included in the exhibition.

Following graduation, Gooch anticipates a career in commercial design and looks forward to developing his own signature product line.

For additional information about the exhibition, please contact the Barton Art Galleries at 252-39-6477 or J. Chris Wilson at 252-399-6476.  The Barton Art Galleries are located in Case Art Building on the Barton College campus. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.