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