The Landscape In Painting

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History will be presenting three new exhibitions from June 23 through August 16, 2012.Please join us from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 23 as we host a reception to meet the artists featured in “The Landscape in Painting: works by John Brecht, Cathy Zaden Lea, Carla Padgett & Bill Updegraff”. Also opening that evening will be the exhibits “American Drive: An Exhibition of Works by Steven Bleicher” and “Selvage: New Works by Jim Arendt”. All three exhibitions will continue through August 16, 2012.

John Brecht is a native of Michigan and former resident of Baltimore, Maryland.  He is presently lives in Aiken, SC and has done so for nearly 27 years. He is a Principal Video Producer for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC. John graduated with honors from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. He is also an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. Mr. Brecht enjoys going into the environment to paint on location.

About his work, Brecht refers to Helen Frankenthaler’s quote, “There are no rules. Let the picture lead you where it must go.” He continues, “In that, I believe our best works happen -- create themselves. It is what I strive for in my work; to let it guide me. I am a facilitator for the art.  If I respond honestly and instinctually to what resonates with me, the work will guide me. The best I can do it to let it happen, the worst is to get in the way. That being said, the struggle is to let it happen. All too often an artist over thinks or over executes, killing its spirit and its strength. All art comes out of struggle -- and magic.” 

Cathy Zaden Lea, a southern painter who works primarily in oils, has spent decades considering and creating a sense of place. Raised in southern Florida, Lea received a degree in Arts Administration from the University of Alabama and then pursued a graduate degree and studies with Hawthorne-trained professors from the Cape Cod School of Art. Her attention to the details of art and place led to work in arts administration and then to a career as an acclaimed event planner, but she remained at heart, a painter.

About her work, Cathy says, "When I paint, I'm trying to capture the true sense of a natural moment and place -- from the subtle asymmetry of a cloud to the meandering flow of a stream or path."

Now a full-time artist residing in Greenville, SC, Lea’s paintings still reflect the discipline and restraint characteristic of her training in the classical, Cape Cod style — yet they impart a warmth and grace that is decidedly southern. Whether plein air landscape or traditional still life, her work does convey the intended, and compelling, sense of place.

Carla Padgett, now living in Liberty, SC, is a native South Carolinian who grew up in Columbia, SC. She began her appreciation for the arts at a very young age, studying music, drawing and painting, and dance. She took classes in art at school and participated in occasional summer courses taught by local professional artists or at the University of South Carolina. She graduated from the University of South Carolina where she earned a B.S. degree in 1989 and a M.S. in 1991, both in Statistics. She has lived and worked mostly on the east coast of the United States, but has spent a fair amount of time traveling, particularly in Europe where she developed an appreciation for French impressionist painters and the beautiful region of Provence. She started painting and drawing mostly in watercolors and pastels, but over the past 18 years has preferred oils and most of her current professional work is in this medium.

Describing her work, Padgett said, “I paint in a realistic style. Although animals and nature are my favorites, I do paint a variety of subjects. After spending eight years on the South Carolina coast, I now find inspiration in the rocky landscape of the upstate.” She continued, “I strongly believe that beauty is all around us in everyday things – trees and flowers, birds and sunsets – we just have to take time to look around. I paint things that I see everyday in an attempt to show their beauty and encourage the viewer to marvel at the wonders that nature shows us every day.”

Now living in Savannah Lakes Village near McCormick, SC, with his wife Sally, Bill Updegraff has been painting watercolors for over 29 years and is strongly dedicated to the medium. A retired professor of Commercial Art and Design of Vincennes University in Indiana, Bill has attended many watercolor workshops and has taught many adult classes in watercolor techniques. Supporting several watercolor societies, Updegraff is a signature member of the Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina Watercolor Societies.  He currently exhibits his work at the Artist Haven Gallery in Ft. Lauderdale and at his own studio gallery. His works are in private and corporate collections as well as the permanent collection of the Sheldon Swope Gallery in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Speaking of his work Updegraff said, “My ‘artist statement’ has changed many times over the past twenty-five years.  My first great successes were to capture the ‘realism’ of my subject and I attacked each work with the goal of creating a photographic image in paint. It took several years of stress induced by the tightness and tension in each work for me to break away from pure dependence on photographic reference.” Continuing he said, “I have found through my teaching of watercolor techniques and subsequent demonstration paintings, that my greatest joy are the ‘accidentals’ of watercolor. I have tried direct painting, resists, and lately the pouring techniques. When that magic glow somehow evolves from my efforts, it is then that I feel rewarded. “

“In summary,” Bill added, “Light and mood are the key goals of my latest works. Being able to create that feeling without having to find that perfect photograph is a joy in itself. I strive to get that "feeling" across to the viewers of my works. Every painting is a learning experience, and one should never stop learning new things.”

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Located at the corner of Hwy. 178 at 307 Johnson Street in Pickens SC, the museum is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcomed.

 For more information please contact the museum at (864) 898-5963.