Uncle Nick’s World -- Happy Holidays

My wife's uncle, Nicholas Herrnkind, was a remarkable man. He never graduated from high school, yet he grew to head the pay roll department of a major American corporation in New York City. On the way, he struggled through the great depression, unemployment and the loss of a young child. Throughout his entire life Uncle Nick drew and painted in whatever spare time he had. As a financial watch dog, Nick was a man of precision. He was equally exact with his art. His style was photo-realistic. In the era of Abstract Expressionism centered in the New York City area, Nick's work was out of sync. His sketches and paintings, mostly rustic landscapes, remained housed and much loved by Nick's friends and family. He died in December, 1970.

In 2010, my wife's sister Diane was downsizing for a move. In the process, she uncovered a bunch of Uncle Nick's old unused canvases. In the pile, there was an unfinished painting of an old farm house and barn, a winter scene. Nobody knows when he started the work, or why he never completed it. Diane gave me the canvases, including the unfinished piece, for me to use. At first, I just planned to paint over his incipient oil painting -- but I couldn't. Something in the detail and feeling in those two buildings demanded preservation.

I decided to attempt to frame Uncle Nick's precise images within one of my stylized and rustic relief paintings, using modeling paste and tarnished metals. I started by repairing a gash in the background sky. Nick had started to sketch in a tree to the left of the barn, so I developed my component of the painting there. On the right side of the farm house, the canvas had been damaged. I covered that space with an additional tree. In the fore ground, Nick had penciled in some details. I didn't attempt to develop them. Rather, I just piled up snow and ice to further strand the little farm in winter's grasp -- focusing the eye on my glimpse into Uncle Nick's world.

Old Bynum Bridge painting

I just finished a new painting to show at the Chatham Studio Tour Opening at CCCC on Friday December 3rd. It is a relief painting using modelling paste and tarnished metals on canvas. It is one of nearly 50 works by members of the Chatham Artists Guild who open our studios the first two weekends on December.
Click here for a tour map.

Art museum pioneer to judge works at Chatham’s 18th Studio Tour

Art-lovers have a lot to choose from these days, with the newly designed North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh and the new Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Dr Michael Mezzatesta, former Director of the Duke University Museum of Art, played a critical role in the creation of our region’s vibrant art scene.

During his tenure as Director, Dr.Mezzatesta restructured the museum, organized dozens of touring exhibitions with scholarly catalogues covering ancient to contemporary art, and significantly expanded the collections. He spearheaded the $30 million, multi-year campaign to bring a new museum building to Duke University, and served as a member of the architect selection committee that brought Rafael Vinoly to design the Museum building. He is now Director Emeritus, and in recent years, Dr, Mezzatesta has served as curator and private consultant to collectors, artists and museums in the US, Italy and Russia.

On December 3rd, Dr Mezzatesta will bring his extensive artistic knowledge and experience to judge works by the Chatham Artists Guild at the Opening Reception for the 18th Chatham Studio Tour at the Central Carolina Community College Pittsboro Campus. Samples of art by 49 artists working and living in Chatham will be on view starting at 7 PM. The reception is free and open to the public. A delightful array of hoers devours by well known artist and caterer Gretchen Niver will be served.

“I am excited that Dr Mezzatesta will judge our opening exhibit,” notes Edwin White, internationally recognized sculptor and President of the Chatham Artists Guild. “He will have a challenging job. We have many creative and expert artists in this year’s Tour.”

At the 2010 Chatham Studio Tour, 49 visual artists will open their doors to the public for art-lovers to experience the creative process. Painters, sculptors, photographers, potters, wood workers, jewelers, and fabric artists will share their ideal and offer their local artworks for purchase. Five artists are joining the Tour for the first time. Hand tool wood worker Elia Bazzarria, abstract painter Cassani, gemstone jeweler Billy Mason, home-grown gourd artist Carol Kroll Tinsky, and portrait and fine art painter Kim Werfel.

"The Studio Tour sets the standard for the emerging artists of Chatham County, notes Maggie Zwilling, the Guild’s Executive Director. “It puts the County on the map for being the place to come when one wants to purchase high quality art”. It is easy to plan your own personal Tour. A print brochure and Tour Map is available at local restaurants and shops and a digital map is posted on the Guild’s website: www.chathamartistsguild.org. The Tour Facebook link is: www.facebook.com/pages/Chatham-Studio-Tour-Artists-of-Chatham-County-North-Carolina/157885530911322


The Chatham Studio Tour, founded in 1992 to promote artists living in Pittsboro, Siler City and throughout scenic rural Chatham County, is one of the oldest in North Carolina and a prototype for other area studio tours. The Chatham Artists Guild, a nonprofit member organization, provides educational opportunities for its members and the general public through exhibit opportunities, demonstrations, and teaching workshops.

Caption: Willow, a painting by Chatham Artist Kim Werfel

Chatham County Line Story

We have a front page story in Chatham County Line
Please send this to your friends, colleagues, customers and other email contacts,
Thanks,
Forrest

Mark your calendars for Nov 2nd

Swing is the thing at the General Store!!!
Come on down and enjoy the music, food, drink and support your local artists.

Organic Forrestry: Recent paintings and sculpture by Forrest C. Greenslade, PhD Sincerely Gallery, Asheboro, NC Opening October 15th

New visions inhabit the mind of Dr. Forrest Greenslade. His organic sculptures and paintings, derived from a life-long love of nature and mythology, have a new look and feel. Greenslade’s work is highly stylized, bounding on cartoonish. His paintings are sculptural, built up with inches of thick acrylics and modeling paste to the point that they nearly jump off the canvas. His sculptures are enhanced with innovative coatings and patinas producing color, texture and an illusion of movement.

“I want people to experience motion and emotion in my art,” Greenslade asserts, “so my faces are seldom symmetrical and my figures just can’t stand still.” Greenslade’s use of materials is eclectic. “Because of my scientific training, I tend to be experimental in my choice of media,” he explains. “I use metal, concrete, clay, acrylics, wood, found-objects – whatever tells the best story.”

Best known for his whimsical animal sculptures and paintings, his new series presents an excursion into the mind of a much more serious artist. Greenslade’s highly stylized, sculptural treescapes are created in modeling paste and tarnished metals on canvas. They depict remembrances of special woodland places. Forrest Greenslade, educated as a molecular biologist, spent his working life as a scientist and organizational executive. Serious business has now been replaced by ventures into creative, playful expression. He creates art that feels to many as rather naïve, even childlike. Playing, it seems, is what Forrest does best. Whether his creativity leads to whimsical sculptures, or takes him on a journey to a “Petrified Forrest”, his work shares common threads. It displays the delight and playfulness of creating art, his unique scientific experimentation of materials and Greenslade’s life-long love of nature.
Leslie Palmer, Friends of the Pittsboro Memorial Library

Forrest’s paintings using modeling paste and tarnished metal coatings are a little reminiscent of Van Gogh in their sculptural surfaces and use of light.”
Philip Ashe, Director of the Central Carolina Community College Sculpture Program

Greenslade the scientist, in his dotage, has discovered his creative self. He doesn’t over intellectualize about his work, “Sometimes a duck is just a duck.” “After a lifetime of serious business, it’s nice to let the little boy out,” he smiles.

“It’s more fun that any old guy deserves.

Forrest Greenslade is a member of the Chatham Artists Guild, and opens his studio and garden the first two weekends each December during the Chatham Studio Tour. Free Tour guides and maps are available at Sincerely Gallery.

At the heart of a flourishing community of unique shops, galleries and eateries, Sincerely, is centrally located at 130 Sunset Avenue, in downtown Asheboro, a short drive from the Triangle or Triad.

Greenslade in Landscape Contest

Forest Greenslade has been Juried into a Landsacpe Contest at the Cary Gallery of Artists. His entries are relief paintings using modeling paste and tarnished metals on canvas.

"Perfect Mornin for Catchin Crawdads" is a remembrance of southern Louisiana. With the tragic events in the Gulf of Mexico over these last years, my thoughts have been on my days in the 1960s as a graduate student at Tulane University. I spent a lot of time in the wetlands and bayous, studying the animals and plants there. On weekends, my wife and I enjoyed cafe au lait and beignet in the French Quarter. We loved watching local artists paint bayou scenes. I created this idyllic bayou, free from hurricanes and oil spills.

"Somewhere South of Savannah" is a composite of views that my wife and I see on our trips from North Carolina to Florida to visit her sister. We always stop overnight in Savannah to break up the drive, and sample the wonderful seafood. We take the secondary routs out of the city, to meander through the wonderful salt marshes. Every bridge we cross, reveals a dynamic landscape.

The contest judge master colorist, Susan Sarback, is the founder of The School of Light & Color and has written two books, her latest being Capturing Radiant Light & Color in Oils and Soft Pastels. She has taught painting workshops and classes throughout the US and Europe. Her paintings are in private collections throughout the world and in the Cornell Museum of Art and History’s permanent collection. International Artist Magazine named her one of the Master Painters of the world.

The Opening for the Landscape Show is Oct 1, 2010, 6 – 9 pm, and runs through Oct 22.

Caption: Somewhere South of Savannah a relief painting by Forrest C. Greenslade.com

Less is More: A Little Potpourri of Art

A sampler of small works of art created by members of the Chatham Artists Guild are featured at the PAF Gallery of the NC Arts Incubator in Siler City, North Carolina. "This intimate gallery is a wonderful venue to enjoy the paintings, photography jewelry, sculpture and pottery created by our regionally and nationally known artists," says Maggie Zwilling, the Guild's Executive Director. "It is a nice little preview of what art-lovers will see at the 18th Annual Chatham Studio Tour December 4, 5 and 11, 12 2010"

The Chatham Artists Guild, a nonprofit member organization, provides educational opportunities for its members and the general public through exhibit opportunities, demonstrations, and teaching workshops. Our Guild is comprised of a variety of visual artists, many of whom are regionally and nationally recognized. We are the organization that produces the Chatham Studio Tour the first two weekends each December. The Chatham Studio Tour, founded in 1992, is one of the oldest in North Carolina, a prototype for other area studio tours, and a highly respected art venue. Since its inception, participation in the Studio Tour has grown from 32 artists to nearly 60 in recent years.

Caption: "Perfect mornin' for catchin' crawdads" by Forrest Greenslade

Sculpture in the Garden

Chatham Artists Guild Newsletter -- September

Studio Tour

The 2010 Chatham Artists Guild Studio Tour will open at CCCC Building Two in Pittsboro on Friday, December 3, from 7-9 pm. Artists studios will be open Sat and Sun, Dec 4-5 and 11-12.

See the Chatham Artists Guild website for more information and online copies of the map.

Paper copies of the map will be mailed in October and available locally in November.

Newsletter Sign-up

If you received this copy of the newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it directly at the Guild website. We only need an email address for the newsletter; if you give us your land mail address, we'll add you to the mailing list for the paper map as well.

Manage Your Subscription

Links to unsubscribe or change your email address are at the bottom of this newsletter.

Sculpture in the Garden, NC Botanical Garden

Chapel Hill

Guild artists Rita Spina and Forrest Greenslade have work in the 22nd annual Sculpture in the Garden show, which will be on display September 11 through November 13. The show opens on Friday, September 10 at 5:00-8:00 pm.

Rita's work is called "Flower Time Rework." Rita also has jewelry for sale in the Incubator Gallery in Siler City.

Carolina Brewery, Pittsboro

The September-October show at the Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro will have the theme, Recycled Art: Eco-friendly Art Made from Recycled Materials. The show will be installed on September 11. The opening reception will be Sunday, October 3, from 4-6 pm.

Mark Hewitt Kiln Opening

Mark Hewitt will be have his summer kiln opening second weekend on Saturday Sept 5 (9-5) and Sunday, September 6 (noon-5).

Shannon Bueker at NC Crafts Gallery, Carrboro

Shannon Bueker has a show called Local Motives at the NC Crafts Gallery, 212 W. Main Str, Carrboro (the triangle building) from September 1-30. She will be at the gallery for the Second Friday Art Walk in Chapel Hill and Carrboro on September 10, 6-9 PM.

Come Out and Play! at JimGin Farm, Pittsboro

Come out to the 9th annual Come Out and Play! party at the JimGin Farm for art, food, and music, every Saturday in September, from 4:00 pm till dark. Children, and dogs on leashes, are welcome.

Several Guild artists are among the 40 artists participating.

150 Wild Horse Run, Pittsboro, NC 27312 (919) 942-3252

Kim Werfel in NC Pastel Society Show

Kim Werfel has two pieces in the the Pastel Society of North Carolina's Art Exhibition. She won the People's Choice award on both of her paintings! (They tied in the voting.) The show runs through Sept 25th at the Halle Cultural Arts Center, 237 North Salem Street, Apex, NC 27502.

Joyce Bryan, Stone Crow Pottery

Joyce Bryan, at Stone Crow Pottery, invites everyone to her customer appreciation sale, September 18-26.

Kim Werfel teaching art marketing

Kim Werfel will be teaching This Business of Being an Artist: Resumes, Bios and Statements, on Thursday, Sept. 23, 7:00 pm, at the Halle Cultural Arts Center, 237 North Salem Street, Apex, NC 27502. The talk is free.

Coming in October

Julia Kennedy at the Open Eye Cafe

Join us at the Open Eye Cafe in Cary to view the richly textured, complex, and colorful paintings of Pittsboro professional artist Julia Kennedy. Julia's artwork will be on display for viewing and purchase from October 1-31.

The Open Eye Cafe is located at 101 South Greensboro Street, Cary NC. (919) 968-9410, M-Th 7 am-11 pm, F-St 7 am-midnight, & Su 8 am-11 pm.

Mark Hewitt featured in Craft in America

On October 7, potter Mark Hewitt will be featured in a nationwide broadcast of a new episode of the PBS TV series, Craft in America. Several viewing parties are being held to benefit the NC Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC.

Vidabeth Benson teaching screen printing

Vidabeth Benson will be teaching a workshop in screen printing at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro on Saturday, October 9 from 10 - 4 and also at the NC Art Education Staff Development Weekend in New Bern October 22 - 24.

Janet Resnik kiln opening

Janet Resnik will have a kiln opening on Sunday, October 17, from 1-6 pm.

Mark Hewitt Pottery Summer Kiln Opening this weekend

WHEN:
Saturday, Sept 4, 9am - 5pm
and
Sunday, September 5, noon - 5pm

Internationally recognized studio potter Mark Hewitt has fired the Salt Kiln for the 79th time, and the pots came out beautifully. A new glaze variation using the Chapel Hill grit fired to a soft, shiny gray, and the salt glaze is perfect. Mark also made a series of elegant new vases, inspired by classical Greek vases, but using Southern folk pottery glaze treatments.

DIRECTIONS at:
www.hewittpottery.com
or by calling
(919) 542-2371

Contact: Carol Hewitt
919-656-8889
carol@hewittpottery.com

Organic Forrestry: Recent paintings and sculpture by Forrest C. Greenslade, PhD -- PAF Gallery, NC Arts Incubator, Siler City NC -- Opening June18th

New visions inhabit the mind of Dr. Forrest Greenslade. His organic sculptures and paintings, derived from a life-long love of nature and mythology, have a new look and feel. Greenslade’s work is highly stylized, bounding on cartoonish. His paintings are sculptural, built up with inches of thick acrylics and modeling paste to the point that they nearly jump off the canvas. His sculptures are enhanced with innovative coatings and patinas producing color, texture and an illusion of movement.

“I want people to experience motion and emotion in my art,” Greenslade asserts, “so my faces are seldom symmetrical and my figures just can’t stand still.” Greenslade’s use of materials is eclectic. “Because of my scientific training, I tend to be experimental in my choice of media,” he explains. “I use metal, concrete, clay, acrylics, wood, found-objects – whatever tells the best story.”

Best known for his whimsical animal sculptures and paintings, his new series presents an excursion into the mind of a much more serious artist. Greenslade’s highly stylized, sculptural treescapes are created in modeling paste and tarnished metals on canvas. They depict remembrances of special woodland places. Forrest Greenslade, educated as a molecular biologist, spent his working life as a scientist and organizational executive. Serious business has now been replaced by ventures into creative, playful expression. He creates art that feels to many as rather naïve, even childlike. Playing, it seems, is what Forrest does best. Whether his creativity leads to whimsical sculptures, or takes him on a journey to a “Petrified Forrest”, his work shares common threads. It displays the delight and playfulness of creating art, his unique scientific experimentation of materials and Greenslade’s life-long love of nature.
Leslie Palmer, Friends of the Pittsboro Memorial Library

Forrest’s paintings using modeling paste and tarnished metal coatings are a little reminiscent of Van Gogh in their sculptural surfaces and use of light.”
Philip Ashe, Director of the Central Carolina Community College Sculpture Program

Greenslade the scientist, in his dotage, has discovered his creative self. He doesn’t over intellectualize about his work, “Sometimes a duck is just a duck.”

“After a lifetime of serious business, it’s nice to let the little boy out,” he smiles.

“It’s more fun that any old guy deserves.

Forrest Greenslade is a member of the Chatham Artists Guild, and opens his studio and garden the first two weekends each December during the Chatham Studio Tour.

At the heart of a flourishing community of artist studios, galleries and eateries, The PAF Gallery, at the NC Arts Incubator, is centrally located at 223 N. Chatham Avenue in the Historic Downtown District of Siler City, a short drive from the Triangle or Triad.

Caption: Petrified Forrest Autumn's Glow, a relief painting by Forrest C. Greenslade, PhD

Northwood HS Senior’s Metal Project on Display at CCCC Gallery

At the next 3rd Friday Art Walk in Siler City on May 21st, high school senior John Norwood will display his Senior Project metal table at the Central Carolina Community College Gallery. Pottery and Sculpture Program Director Phillip Ashe says, “This is a good example of how our program in metal and ceramic sculpture provides employment and life enrichment skills to our area’s communities.” “One of the students in our program, Forrest Greenslade, is active in passing his knowledge and skills on to younger students as a mentor,” he adds. “We are delighted to have his current student’s work on display in our May exhibit.”

Norwood, like every graduating senior in Chatham County was confronted by a requirement to complete a rather daunting project. He had to produce a product, write a research paper, assemble a portfolio, and give a brief talk about his work. Norwood has a strong desire to work with metal, and got a good start designing and constructing a forge from a garbage can, some scrap metal and an electric hair dryer. His dad supported and guided him with this stage of his project.

Then, Chatham County Together, a mentoring organization intimately involved with the Senior Project program, teamed John up with artist Forrest Greenslade. John thought that he might make some sort of weapon using his forge. He has an interest in the military. In fact, right after graduation in June, he will be off to Oklahoma for Army basic training. For their first step, Forrest took John to the studio of Tamera Mulanix, a renowned Chatham metal sculptor. Mulanix and Greenslade are both members of the Chatham Artists guild, the organization that produces the Chatham Studio tour each December. Tamera showed John the variety of artworks that she creates in her well equipped studio. Inspiration struck when John saw some of her elegant metal tables. He decided to design and produce a table to leave for his parents when he goes on to his military career. Tamera let John scavenge in her scrap pile, where he selected a metal round disc and an old saw blade.

In Forrest’s studio, John polished up his welding skills that he first learned at Northwood. Then he welded the metal disc and saw blade together to for the table top. Back in his yard, he then used his forge to bend three pieces of reclaimed rebar into the table’s legs. The final assembly was done in the Greenslade studio. Finally, back in the Mulanix studio, the John learned to apply Tamera signature finish to the Table.

“I am really impressed with John’s product,” notes Greenslade. “It has the esthetic of the late 19th century industrial period – masculine and functional.” I really like the way it came out, stresses Norwood – I’m proud of it. Mulanix says, “It was a pleasure to work with John. I hope he can continue on in his artistic endeavors. He is talented.”

While doing research for his paper, Norwood learned that blacksmithing, was once the major approach for industrial production, but as metal working techniques such as welding and casting developed, the smithy became relegated to produce artwork and decorative items. “How ironic that John, whose first thought was to use his forge to smith a weapon, decided to create such an elegant and decorative table,” Greenslade smiles.

Uncle Nick's World

My wife's uncle, Nicholas Herrnkind, was a remarkable man. He never graduated from high school, yet he grew to head the pay role department of a major American corporation in New York City. On the way, he struggled through the great depression, unemployment and the loss of a young child. Throughout his entire life Uncle Nick drew and painted in whatever spare time he had. As a financial watch dog, Nick was a man of precision. He was equally exact with his art. His style was photo-realistic. In the era of Abstract Expressionism centered in the New York City area, Nick's work was out of sync. His sketches and paintings, mostly rustic landscapes, remained housed and much loved by Nick's friends and family. He died in December, 1970.

In 2010, My wife's sister Diane was downsizing for a move. In the process, she uncovered a bunch of Uncle Nick's old unused canvases. In the pile, was an unfinished painting of an old farm house and barn, a winter scene. Nobody knows when he started the work, or why he never completed it. Diane gave me the canvases, including the unfinished piece, for me to use. At first, I just planned to paint over his incipient oil painting -- but I couldn't. Something in the detail and feeling in those two buildings demanded preservation.

I decided to attempt to frame Uncle Nick's precise images within one of my stylized and rustic relief paintings, using modeling paste and tarnished metals. I started by repairing a gash in the background sky. Nick had started to sketch in a tree to the left of the barn, so I developed my component of the painting there. On the right side of the farm house, the canvas had been damaged. I covered that space with an additional tree. In the for ground, Nick had penciled in some details. I didn't attempt to develop them. Rather, I just piled up snow and ice to further strand the little farm in winter's grasp -- focusing the eye on my glimpse into Uncle Nick's world.