Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
October 9, 2008 issue
Gallery News
Morning Star Gallery Hosts Autumn Art Show
“Inspiration is all around us,” said glass artist Hermann Leonhardt, and seeing is believing. Leonhardt’s colorful glass bowls and vases capturing the colors of fall take center stage at Morning Star Gallery amid paintings, prints and sculpture also expressing the joys of this very special time of year.
Local painter/printmaker Wes Waugh is showing a collection of his favorite prints capturing the essence of the mountains in autumn. The brilliant display of leaves on Grandfather Mountain is aptly portrayed in his print Grandfather Peaks, Sumi Inks, as well as in several other prints expressing the many moods of Mother Nature during these splendid weeks of fall.
Painter Trena McNabb is offering a collection of paintings, including Seasons that portrays Mother Nature as she traverses the seasons on canvas. In two smaller paintings, McNabb shares a last look at her summer garden and an intimate moment with the beautiful winged creatures who live there. More paintings capture McNabb’s unique ability to share her world with us.
Visitors to the gallery will also see oil paintings featuring regional scenery and imaginative textural paintings on fabric from H.B. Berry, as well as Roberta Nosti’s vivid silk paintings capturing the color in the mountains.
One of the autumn highlights at Morning Star Gallery is certainly the shadowboxes of real autumn leaves in all of the colorful glory we expect of this time of year. It is very hard to improve on Mother Nature as these shadowboxes more than amply demonstrate. Design, color, depth, intensity: everything you expect from autumn is right there in these wonderfully constructed shadowboxes.
Morning Star Gallery invites the public to view the display of regional art as well as the collection of handmade items from artists throughout the United States. Morning Star Gallery has specialized in handmade in America arts since 1985.
Visitors to the gallery will also find artisan jewelry and painted silk accessories as well as wooden albums, bowls and small wooden treasures. Sparkling blown glass abounds, as well as pottery and ceramics and small, unexpected whimsies.
And as a special consideration for those who cannot let go of summer, Morning Star Gallery continues to offer the collection of giant flowers and garden accessories which delight the eye in every season.
Morning Star Gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The gallery is located at 257 Sunset Drive in Blowing Rock next door to Crippen’s Country Inn and Restaurant. Look for the giant flowers at the gallery’s entrance!
For additional information, call 828-295-6991.
Cheese House Gallery October Exhibition Is Cheese
The ten artists collectively known as ARTMIX have created a witty, imaginative take on cheese as the theme of their October show at the Cheese House Gallery.
Member Barbara Timberman explained that members “like to work on the same theme, but prefer to interpret it in their individual styles.” ARTMIX artists chose cheese to honor the gallery’s original purpose as a retail outlet for dairy products produced by Lees-McRae College students in the early years of the twentieth century. The artwork isn’t edible, but it is decidedly eclectic.
Amy Cooke’s silk, cotton and glass “fantasy cheese boxes” are “inspired by elegant and quirky artisanal cheese packaging”; Ann Burgess, who has illustrated for The New Yorker magazine, offers watercolors of a butler with a cheese tray and a cheese maker ladling curds; Judy Humphrey’s photo transfers Pretty Cheesy and Say Cheese present multiple layers of meaning. All of the artwork is small format, with media ranging from acrylic on cork to collage and prices ranging from $75 to $300. ARTMIX artists have also illustrated a collection of aprons that can be used for more practical purposes. The aprons are $25 each.
The Cheese Exhibit began Saturday, October 4, and continues through Friday, October 31. A project of the Avery County Arts Council, the Cheese House Gallery is located at 630 Shawneehaw Avenue (Highway 184) in Banner Elk. Gallery Hours are 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Saturdays. For more info, contact the Avery County Arts Council at 828-898-4292 or info@averycountyartscouncil.org.
Paintings of Grandfather Mountain at Carlton Gallery
North Carolina is now the proud owner of a major portion of majestic and picturesque Grandfather Mountain. As all residents and visitors to the High Country can attest, this beautiful scenery in the Blue Ridge Mountain range is a treasure to be valued and protected by all for the generations to come.
Grandfather Mountain is shown in many artistic interpretations as Carlton Gallery’s standing artists, Egi Antonaccio, Roy Nichols, Jim Crompton and Freeman Beard.
Antonaccio paints Grandfather viewed from the Linville side in a palette of autumn colors, as well as a meadow in spring with the profile of Grandfather in the background. Both are oils on canvas. His photo-realism with a touch of fantasy has captured many viewers’ admiration over the 27 years he has been a resident of the High Country.
Nichols’ en plein aire oil on canvas depicts a realistic creekside setting of Grandfather’s profile showing the many shades of green in mid-summer. Painted onsite at the former location of Carlton Gallery, Nichol’s painting captures the true ambience of an afternoon in late summer with just a touch of autumn in the air.
Crompton’s Shadows of Grandfather renders the mountain in vivid purple, blue and green in his signature impressionistic style. His picturesque scene of Foscoe, a 48- x 60-inch canvas titled Grandfather Mountain in the Autumn Dusk depicts a rainy early evening driving toward Linville on Highway 105 with reflections; the sun is going down and casting Grandfather in the muted colors of autumn at dusk.
Beard’s Fall for Grandfather watercolor in warm golds and browns artistically projects the gentle sloping mountain range. His precise and intricate work in watercolors with a realistic approach has earned him many awards and prestigious recognition.
Carlton Gallery celebrates its 26th Autumn Exhibition until November 15. The gallery is located on Highway 105 S, 10 miles south of Boone and 7 miles north of Linville with hours 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.
For information on gallery artists or events, call 828-963-4288 or click to www.carltonartgallery.com.
