John McLean’s Wetland’s in Watercolor April 3, 2009

In-Town Gallery presents “Wetlands in Watercolor”, a collection of paintings by the April Featured Artist, John McLean. His specialty is water and skies, which are both masterfully portrayed in this series. He is hosting an opening reception on the First Friday, April 3, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Come and meet the artist and see his fresh new work. Introduced to watercolor painting in his native Ireland by a caring high-school teacher, John dabbled with it for the next 40 years or so, while pursuing a career in consulting engineering. After retiring, painting took over, and now he strives to paint watercolors that will involve the viewer. His objective is to convey the message with as few brushstrokes as possible, saying more with less, and inviting the viewer to fill in the gaps from the wealth of their own experiences. Landscapes are McLean’s favorite subjects, particularly if they contain a water feature in the scene. “For many years I lived on salt water and sailed on it, so the shoreline, marshes, docks and associated watercraft have a special appeal for me.” His new series of wetlands illustrates this interest. “I love the process of laying washes of color onto beautiful watercolor paper … the uncertainty of just how those washes are going to interact,” McLean explained. “I’m inspired by today’s watercolor impressionists such as Trevor Chamberlain, John Yardley, Tony Couch, Judi Wagner, Bob Wade, David Taylor and Greg Allen. In 1999 I took my first watercolor workshop, taught by Australian Bob Wade. It was such a rewarding experience that I have tried to take at least one workshop each year since then.” McLean’s art education has come primarily from publications by Watson-Guptill and North Light Books, and he considers himself mostly a self-taught artist. Wishing to meet and interact with other artists who enjoy watercolor, McLean joined the Georgia and Tennessee Watercolor Societies. He participates in their group activities and enters his work in their juried exhibitions. He regularly attends the Mountain Art Guild weekly painting sessions on Signal Mountain.

Wetlands in Watercolor

Friday April 3rd John McLean will be at In-Town Gallery from 5 to 8pm to talk about his new series Wetlands in Watercolor.  John’s original watercolors will be featured through the month of April.  He would enjoy seeing you Friday evening.  Please stop by and enjoy some refreshments.

Studio visit with Stacie Florer

Mary Beth McClure, Mary Lynch and Linda White decided to visit jewelry designer Stacie Florer on Tuesday afternoon.  They recieved some lessons in making jewelry ear wires and how to use liver of sulfur to patina metal.

Mary Beth McClure and Eleanor Goodson in November

In-Town Gallery presents the artwork of Mary Beth McClure, whose collection of new pieces, “Creations in Glass” displays her innovative formation of warm glass, combining exciting colors and textures in multi layers and various shapes. The exhibit runs through the month of November. Gallery visitors can meet the artist at a special reception on the First Friday, November 7, 2008, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Sharing the evening, Eleanor Goodson will present her special annual showing of her newest custom-designed jewelry during the reception. Ms. McClure explains how she discovered this specialized artistic expression, “My fascination with glass started 25 years ago. Initially, I custom-designed work in foil-wrapped and leaded glass pieces. Then I caught the warm glass ‘bug’. Passion and an inability to stop learning has lead me to many workshops.” She has studied with Gil Reynolds, Avery Anderson, Brad Walker, Robin Evans, Jane Persico, Lisa Vogt, Tommy G, Philip Teefy, Patty Gray, and Richard LaLonde.
Fused glass art is created by layering different colors and types of glass and firing them in a glass kiln. Her work requires repeated firings at  temperatures up to 1500 degrees which produce the designs and textures for each unique piece. There can never be two identical pieces because of the unpredictable nature of the medium.
“My art is a pursuit that leads to my ‘burning the midnight oil’. I often think I’m ready to stop, but the glass has a mind of its own. As I pull, drag, and rake colors, the glass evolves; I can’t quit. The glass, its own master, leads me to follow.”
Regularly seen at the Chattanooga Market, Ms. McClure’s glass creations are also displayed at the Museum at Five Points in Cleveland, TN, and the Morris Gallery. She has been invited to participate in the TACA ( Tennessee Association of Craft Artists ) annual exhibition for many years, and has won awards for her special designs.
Featuring original fine art by more than 30 regional studio-artist members, In-Town Gallery was founded in 1974 and is one of the oldest cooperative galleries in the country. Members are selected through a double-jury process, and are required to produce all new work for the gallery’s semi-annual openings. In addition, the gallery’s Featured Artist exhibits introduce new work by a different member each month.

October’s featured artist is Maggie Vandewalle

In-Town Gallery presents the watercolor / gouache paintings of Maggie Vandewalle, whose collection of new work, “Minutiae: A Day in the Life of My Backyard” is a series that examines the easily overlooked miniature world in nature that is right at one’s feet. The exhibit, displayed on the front wall, runs through the month of October. Gallery visitors can meet the artist at a special reception on the first Friday, October 3, 2008, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

 

The focal point of the show is a massive landscape filled with minute details. Smaller, more intimate images have been taken from this and elaborated upon to show what the artist has discovered just outside her home. “ I find myself fascinated by all the stuff that’s out there, things I don’t notice unless I take the time to sit still and watch. It is amazing how much life exists and thrives, even in well-used spaces such as my backyard,” the artist explains.

 

Raised in Iowa, Ms. Vandewalle received an art scholarship in 1981 to the University of Iowa where she pursued a BFA in printmaking. After school she turned to painting, in part due to the expense of printmaking equipment, yet also to fulfill a need for immediate results. “I discovered that, much as I loved working with copper and etching materials, the steps involved to create a finished piece were taking a toll on my impatient nature. Painting became my new ambition.”

 

The artist feels a deep compunction to fill every inch of the painted surface with color and detail, be it a realistic landscape or a more loosely interpreted cityscape. “I have a need to include as much as possible, to tell a story of sorts with detail and color. At one point it was my ambition to be a children’s book illustrator because of my love for artists like Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, and H. J. Ford. Their illustrations were alive with details that made the story being told that much richer. What I discovered as I got older was that I didn’t want to illustrate someone else’s story so much as to create my own within the context of a painting.”

September Featured Artist Gay Arthur Press Release

In-Town Gallery presents the oil paintings of Gay M. Arthur, whose collection of new work, “The Promise of Place”, immortalizes the spaces in which we live, work, play, learn and worship that all hold a sense of promise. The exhibit runs through the month of September. Gallery visitors can meet the artist at a special reception on the first Friday, September 5, 2008, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

“Since graduating from UTC with my art degree in 2003 my work has focused mainly on structures that were slated for demolition. I am attempting to shift gradually from those spaces that no longer exist and their impermanence to those that have, up to this moment, survived. In this series of oil paintings there are still a few structures that were torn down but most of the places have been restored and are still standing. Perhaps this refers to my own aging process and my personal attempts to continue to improve and sustain myself!” Ms. Arthur explains.

There is a wide range of topographical topics in this series. There are houses from Hixson, St. Elmo, Highland Park, and Ft. Wood. The artist included the First Methodist Steeple, the Industrial YMCA, a firehouse and a barn or two. All of these are places that held some sort of promise, an internal dialogue of our human experience.

Ms. Arthur quotes Gaston Bachelard, “Inhabited space transcends geometrical space.” and “(A)house that has been experienced is not an inert box.” She believes that it carries a promise to those who live inside it. They enter the dwelling with the hope that their needs will be met, and search within for the answers. Some of these places so skillfully rendered no longer exist, but the memory of their existence has been recaptured on canvas.

In keeping with the restoration of the sites the artist has chosen to frame many of the works in old window frames from salvage. They hold the history of their respective spaces as well. Although challenging, she has enjoyed working within the specific requirements of those window frames, finding the parallel of our own personal limitations of space. Ms. Arthur hopes that the viewer will share in the motionless memories housed within these structures. “I invite you to share in the intimacy that these dwellings provoke. Come inside, cross the thresholds of promise. Perhaps they will awaken the dreams housed within you.”

Jane Yelliot’s “Family Zoo”

“Family Zoo” is a whimsical collection of watercolor portraits by Jane Yelliott, the featured artist for August at In-Town Gallery. These personal studies are of her relatives with their beloved pets, from dogs to donkeys. Jane expresses her preference, “Trees, flowers, mountains and lakes are all beautiful things to paint, but animals, and children in particular, are just incredible creatures to paint.”

The most prominent artwork in the “Family Zoo” exhibit on the front wall of the gallery is a life-sized tan and white cow named Esmerelda. Jane painted this on a sheet of plywood for the Cherry Street location of In-Town Gallery in 1984. It was hoisted up to the roof and secured above the entrance façade. When the gallery moved to its present location on Frazier Avenue in 1994, Jane gave it to her son, Grant, and daughter-in-law, Shula, for their farm in Ooltewah.

Esmerelda is the third in a series of six cows that Jane has painted. The first, a black-and-white cow named Mariah, went to Jane’s sister, Martha, who took it to Hawaii. The second cow was in the live auction at the Hunter Museum’s Spectrum. The fourth was commissioned by a patron who lost the bid for number two. Her fame as the “cow lady” led to her receiving a commission from the Smithsonian Institute to make a two-sided cow, in black and white, for a special “Think Tank” exhibit at their zoo in Washington, D.C.

During her 24 years at In-Town Gallery, as a versatile artist in many different mediums, Jane has produced portraits in pastel and oil, imaginative dragonfly and butterfly designs in ink and watercolor, and colorful figures on porcelain tiles. In the 1990s Ruth Holmberg commissioned her to paint the “Parade of Turtles”, a collection of colorful turtle designs on large black porcelain tiles for the floor of the Tennessee Aquarium, in honor of her husband, Bill. Later, Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC, commissioned her to create a series of murals made with hand-painted tiles depicting the evolution of food throughout history. Some years ago she won the Masonry competition with her brick-and-mortar design for a sidewalk bench on Market Street that features lively cats and fish painted with ceramic glazes on large slow-fired bricks.

written by Helen Burton

Ruth Holmberg with Truffle

Our faithful subs - Gail Rich and Doug McCoy

Jane talking with Verina Baxter

Shown with Jane Yelliott's "Family Zoo" exhibit at In-Town Gallery during the recent opening reception, are family members (left to right ) Susan Batten, Ryan Norris, Finch Yelliott, Shula Yelliott, and Jane Yelliott.

A Day at Gay Arthur’s Studio…

As an In-Town artist, one of the perks of membership is the instant art family you acquire. I had the opportunity to visit with Gay Arthur, the featured artist for September. I got a sneak peak at her new work.

Stacie Florer

Click Here for my post on Gay’s new work and my fun visit!

First Friday Artist Jane Yelliot

In-Town Gallery is pleased to present Jane Yelliott as the Featured Artist for the month of August. Her whimsical watercolors portray beloved family members and their animal pets in a collection of new paintings that she calls “Family Zoo”. Visitors to the gallery may meet the artist at an opening reception on the First
Friday, August 1, 2008, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.

A member of In-Town Gallery for 24 years, this versatile artist has displayed her expertise in many mediums over the years. She is equally ‘at home’ with watercolors or oils, and has more recently discovered the joys of direct expression with pastels. “Several years ago I fell in love with pastels when I took my first workshop with Margaret Dyer, and a whole new world opened up. I had no idea what depth could be obtained with pastels until then, and how much fun they could be!”

Jane is an accomplished portrait painter, so that this new series is very much in her ‘comfort zone’. Family members are often her subjects, including an assortment of beloved pets, from her own cats to her children’s dogs and farm animals. Especially appealing are young children, caught in their natural activities. She explains her preferences, “Trees, flowers, mountains and lakes are all beautiful things to paint, but animals, and children in particular, are just incredible creatures to paint. A sunlit flower or tree can be a vibrant subject, but the expression of a child … or an animal, is beyond compare.”

Best Buddies

Painting seriously for 30 years, Jane concentrated primarily on watercolors. Early instruction began with still lifes which she did not enjoy, as she preferred real life subjects. In the 90s Jane was introduced to glazing on tiles, and received several commercial commissions for large installations. In Chattanooga, the floor of the Aquarium is covered with her turtle tiles – brightly colored figures on black porcelain tiles of various dimensions. Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, NC , best known for its Culinary program, commissioned Jane to do a series of large tile murals depicting the evolution of food throughout history, from a caveman roasting a haunch of beef over a fire  to a French pastry shop. She created a series of “Cookapelli” tiles, changing traditional Southwest Indian kokopelli figures into chefs.

“I go from one medium to another when the mood strikes me, or if I seem to have a mental block with what I am trying to achieve. Each medium requires its own particular techniques which produce totally different results in the end.” Never at a loss for trying something new, Jane continues to produce an appealing variety of original artwork.

First Friday at In-Town Gallery: Eleanor Goodson

Eleanor presented her newest creations at the opening reception on Friday evening, July 11, as the featured artist for this month.

Called “Intricate Connections”, Ms. Goodson’s collection includes Etruscan-style chain necklaces and bracelets made with hand-formed wire of pure silver and gold. She introduced “granulated” details on several pieces, and added unique pendants to a number of her semi-precious bead and pearl necklaces.

Eleanor with Susan Batten, daughter of In-Town artist Jane Yelliot

A native of Chattanooga, Ms. Goodson is a self-espoused “rock hound” who began working with semi-precious stones when she was given lapidary equipment in fourth grade. Learning the qualities of the different gems led to her interest in jewelry design.

Eleanor with In-Town artist Amanda Farris

“I was fascinated by Greek jewelry and started taking Ancient Jewelry Design classes about 20 years ago, when I became a member of In-Town. I attend a class every year. I make a 22K alloy that is close to alluvial gold in composition, and I use that or fine (pure) silver for my chains. I enjoy making my own wire. There is something about going from a lump of metal to a finished chain or ring that’s exciting.”

Bob Jackson and Eleanor enjoy a good laugh!

Ms. Goodson’s original creations include rings, pendants, pins and even an occasional belt buckle. Necklace designs are distinctive combinations of semi-precious stones, pearls, gold or silver beads, with cast pieces and special clasps.

Eleanor shows a granulated necklace to Beverly Conner and Dr. David Conner