The Art of Giving

 Each holiday season the members of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts transform the gallery to showcase original ornaments and hand-made gifts. The gallery’s 22 members work in a variety of media, providing a wide array of art and fine craft for holiday shoppers. The glass art includes hand-blown vessels, ornaments, solar lights, paperweights, and jewelry. Fiber art on display includes framed collage quilts and hand dyed stitched cloth. The jewelry in the show covers a variety of styles and techniques, from copper and bronze to sterling and fine silver necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings, some with gold accents and stones. Visitors will also find metal sculpture, handmade art dolls, pottery, turned wood, and carved ironwood with turquoise and silver inlay. Fine art photography, oil and acrylic painting, scratchboard, and mixed media work festively surround the three dimensional pieces on pedestals.

Come explore the wonderful art exhibited at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts; you will find exactly the right gift for that special person.

Opening Reception

Friday Nov 24

6-9

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Parallel Play

While considering a title for their three person show, Jason, Evelyn and Ellie sifted through many words in an effort to evoke their creative commonalities. Many came from geometry: intersection, structure, converge, planes, parallels, and perspective. Words related to play such as natural, spontaneous, and essential were another common thread. In the end “Parallel Play” seemed a perfect combination of both themes.

Ellie Reinhold states, “Several years ago I inadvertently fell in love with using geometric grids in my paintings. I’d paint a spray of circles or rectangles, to both break up and hold together my landscapes. I fell in love with the balance these paintings struck between landscape and abstraction. In lucky moments, the representation that remained was stronger once it had been pulled away from convention. While my work is informed by elements from the natural world, (tree forms in particular), my process pulls it away from simple landscape into a different arena altogether. This process demands a playful, risk-taking approach. A constant willingness to let go of things I love– to destroy what’s on the canvas– in order to find the path to a better painting.”

Sculptor, Jason Smith, states, “As an artist, sculpture has always been my primary focus. Though I have worked in many mediums, I always return to metal because of its strength, malleability and inherent beauty. My sculpture is abstract. I manipulate form in space to create visual balance, combining rhythm, movement, and action to create compositions that convey the energy found in my work.

Potter Evelyn Ward creates pots that reflect the strength of a salt fire with the delicacy of a sepia photograph. Ward writes, “I like to make good, useful pots that someone will enjoy using every day.” Her process for creating them is far from simple. First, each piece passes through a labor-intensive salt firing. Then the pots are placed in a second electric kiln firing, which fastens ceramic decals of delicate plant drawings, or photographs to the rich, salt-glazed background. Evelyn designs and creates all of the images for the decals, which are derived from her photographs and drawings of botanical subjects.

Opening Reception

6-9

April 28

The Art of Giving

Each holiday season the members of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts transform the gallery to showcase original ornaments and hand-made gifts. The gallery’s 21 members work in a variety of media, providing a wide array of art and fine craft for holiday shoppers.

The glass art includes hand-blown vessels, ornaments, solar lights, paperweights, and jewelry. Fiber art on display includes framed collage quilts and hand dyed stitched cloth, knitted scarves; and fabric handbags. The jewelry in the show covers a variety of styles and techniques, from copper and bronze to sterling and fine silver necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings, some with gold accents and stones.  Visitors will also find metal sculpture, pottery, turned wood, enamels, and carved ironwood with turquoise and silver inlay. Fine art photography, oil and acrylic painting, encaustics, scratchboard, and mixed media work festively surround the three dimensional pieces on pedestals.

Explore the wonderful art exhibited at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts to find a special gift for that special person.

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Resolutions 2016

The Hillsborough Gallery Of Arts Celebrates NC Artists With A Statewide Juried Show

RESOLUTIONS 2016, the title of The Hillsborough Gallery of Art’s second statewide juried show, is an exhibition of the work of artists from across North Carolina.

The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, an artist-owned fine art and fine craft gallery located in historic Hillsborough, North Carolina, will celebrate the start of the New Year by hosting a juried fine art and fine craft exhibit from January 4 to January 24, 2016. Titled Resolutions 2016, the exhibition includes the work of two-dimensional and three-dimensional fine artists from throughout North Carolina.  All works are for sale.

Guest juror for the awards will be Dr. Peter Nisbet, Chief Curator and Interim Director of the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, NC. Nisbet has extensive national and international experience in collection development and exhibitions. Formerly Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum at the Harvard Art Museum, he was responsible for a collection of 39,000 works of art and played a leading role in the reconceptualization and revitalization of the museum. Nisbet holds a BA and MA from Cambridge University and a PhD in the History of Art from Yale Universiity

Opening Reception

January 8th

6-9

 

 

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In the Mind’s Eye

Jude Lobe

 

In explaining the inspiration behind her work for “In The Mind’s Eye”, painter, Jude Lobe says, ” Recently I had an explosion of new sun-drenched images imprinted in my mind on a trip to the big sky country in and near Santa Fe, NM. In this show, a majority of the artworks represent a visual adventure in expressing the glory and exuberance of these images I now find in my mind’s eye.  Some are representational of the natural environment and some are more abstract, but both exude the emotion of the moment and reference our strong connections to the earth. ”

 

 

 

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the art of giving

Please come join us for the Opening Reception at our Last Fridays celebration.

 

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Preview of the Orange County Studio Tour

Please come join us for the Opening Reception at our Last Fridays celebration.

 

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The Fifth Element

Pat Lloyd

This past year presented some challenges that temporarily limited my ability to turn wood. I needed to find new ways to express my frustrated creativity. Woodturning was set aside, while photography took the lead. Then, a chance encounter led to my discovery of Kumihimo braiding and braided jewelry design, a rather unexpected turn I must say; strange twists and turns.

While in Oregon last fall, I visited the Portland Japanese Gardens. The guide pointed out a large Japanese stone lantern and described the 5 traditional elements in Japanese Buddhism of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Void. I was most intrigued by this Fifth Element of Void. Void represents spirit, thought, creative energy and inventiveness, the “here,” or the center.”

Once I let go of the need to control the uncontrollable and accepted the “here” and found my center, I was able to release the creative energy and inventiveness resident in my inner spirit, in that Fifth Element of Void. The discovery and exploration of the ancient art of Kumihimo braiding gave me a new voice.

In this new year, I am back to woodturning, with a renewed energy and passion. And, the discovery of Kumihimo that energized that creative emptiness last year, has taken on a life of its own. Kumihimo design is filled with endless possibilities. Of course, photography continues to influence my everyday life. Some days it is just hard to know what to do first, it’s such a blessing.

HOPE LIES BETWEEN EARTH & SKY

Between Earth & Sky, Jude Lobe. Cold Wax & Oil, 20X20, $600.

The process in creating this cold wax & oil piece took me through many changes. I began remembering the beautiful color clays of Rousillon, in Provence, France and covered the birch board with terra cotta and mixed in sand I brought home from Provence.

Stage 1:  As I continued to build up colors, adding siennas and oranges I began thinking about the earth and the changes it goes through. Some naturally, others perpetrated by man. I remembered visiting an old mall in Baltimore that has since been abandoned and is returning to its natural state with grasses, sedges, small bushes and such springing up.

Stage 2: I began to add other colors in stripes with a brayer. Then began scratching through the colors to reveal what was beneath.

Stage 3: With all the sad news lately; fracking, soldiers in Afghanistan, kids shooting kids,  I was moved to add a dark linear object to symbolize the destruction of the natural balance. I also added a block of light with lines for energy that lies beneath that continues to emit positivity.  The energy will continue to grow despite what destructive activities man places on the earth.

Over the course of a few weeks, the piece finally made peace with me and a haiku evolved in my mind.

“In a world of despair,

expectations and hope lives,

between earth and sky.”

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My completed work at the top, somewhat abstract, is my representation that through wars, devastation, hardships, and even death, the earth and universe will continue to project positive energy and hope.

This new work of art will be in the exhibit, BETWEEN EARTH & SKY, a featured show of works by three Hillsborough Gallery of Arts artists, Arianna Bara, Chris Graebner and myself, Jude Lobe.

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Pam Isner’s Newest Technique

Fiesta Fish, Pam Isner, glass mosaic.

Every year I try to learn and utilize at least one new technique.  I think we can all agree that it’s fun getting ideas… imagining all the materials and methods that would be great to incorporate into our artwork.  However, putting new ideas into action can be daunting when there is a learning curve to slog through. Well, one of several techniques I have recently managed to incorporate into my mosaics is painting on glass.

Turns out the only major challenge to this was forking out for a kiln, and coming up with a firing schedule that was hot enough to fire the paint without devitrifying (creating an unattractive, dull surface) the glass.  I have settled on 1450 degrees for now.

The paint is made by Glass Line, and is available @ Carolina Stained Glass. It is water soluble-and ready to use right out of the bottle! This is a big deal, because in the old days it was necessary to use all sorts of vitreous powders, oils and chemicals.

Even though these paints come in many colors, I decided that black would suit my purposes best. I started out finger painting and texturing- then found that it was fun to scratch out designs.

These painted pieces were then cut out and used in the rooster’s tail feathers in ‘Mr. Big Stuff”:

Pros:  allows the artist to add fine detail, andcreates a beautiful old world effect in stained glass panels with light passing through.

Cons:  in stained glass panels, it looks dull and uninteresting when light is reflected off the surface. Some of the beauty is lost when light isn’t shining through (at night, for example).

Coming soon:  incorporation of jaw-droppingly beautiful blown glass scrap provided by our resident glass blower, Pringle Teetor!

Circus Clown Dogs

Mixed media (8″ x 10′) painting by Kimberly Wheaton for HGA’s current show, “Artists in Wonderland.” This show celebrates the wonder and imagination of childhood.

NATURE IS MY MUSE

By Jude Lobe, ONE OF 22 ARTISTS AT HGA

Click image to visit Lobe’s website.

Nature is my muse. I’m inspired by its qualities of rejuvenation and renewal necessary for survival. Since we’re all a part of nature, I believe we need to respect the connection we have with the natural environment. In nature things change over time, evolve. And we, as individuals, also evolve and are the sum of the bits and pieces of our experiences. This idea I want to translate in my art.

Cold wax and oil lends itself perfectly to expressing this idea. It affords the opportunity to show a history of the painting by building up layers, obscuring what’s beneath, and removing layers to reveal bits of past layers. It represents the history of a life that becomes an aggregation of our observations and experiences.

Cold wax was a widely used medium in Greco-Roman art beginning in the 5th century BC. Cold wax can be used to make oil colors thicker and more matte. The wax I use is Gamblin Cold Wax. It is made from naturally white unbleached beeswax, alkyd resin and odorless mineral spirits. It can be thinned to brush on or mixed 1:1 with oil paint and applied with a palette knife, brayer, or brush. It can also be used as a wax varnish over a dry oil painting. When I use a 1:1 ratio, I use a rigid support. If I used canvas or linen, the stretching and shrinking of the soft supports could cause cracking of the wax and oil. However, if you want to use a flexible support, mix the cold was with a Galkyd Gel 1:1 to add flexibility to the wax.

A nice advantage to using cold wax with oil, rather than just oil painting, is that you do not have to varnish, so you do not have to wait for the painting to cure, which could take several months. The cold wax paintings dry to touch within about a week. They would take more time to thoroughly dry, but because they don’t have to be varnished you can ship or exhibit them within a week or so. I do buff some of mine with a soft cloth after a week when I want a slight shine.

I’ve just begun to put some of my pieces on my website. I also have some pieces exhibited at Hillsborough Gallery of Arts including the image above.