“Elemental Form”

On View May 27th - June 22nd

Opening Reception: Friday, May 30th, 6-9pm with music by Carolina Campfire
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 14th at 4pm

Featuring work by Ellie Reinhold, Nell Chandler, and Evelyn Ward

This month at Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, our featured artists Nell Chandler, Ellie Reinhold, and Evelyn Ward chose the title “Elemental Form” for their show. Those words connect with their work in some way, be it the lines, shapes, or textures in Evelyn’s pottery, the designs Nell etches into the metals of her jewelry, or a visual inspiration from nature for Ellie.

Ellie’s approach to painting is very loose and organic. The spark might be something very small and elemental, a particular color combination, a feeling of distance, more contrast, perhaps a goal. Beyond that, she often doesn’t know where she’s going when she begins. She seeks through painting. It takes a leap of faith. If a painting really develops from the act itself – application of color and line – then with each blank canvas, she starts from nowhere with nothing. As she says, “beginnings can be daunting.” With each new canvas she tries to soften the potentially crippling impact of starting nowhere with nothing by first adding random color, then random marks. If the paintings are for a particular exhibit, the title of it – usually chosen long before the work begins – can also be a guiding force. As she dukes it out in paint, words or phrases often come to mind. She collects them, and as the bits fall into place on canvas, they help the build to clarity. In the end, she tends to find her title in these words. For her the process is one of clarifying. Canvases begin chaotically, unformed, and she seeks the final image through the practice of painting. This spring the chaos in the world has followed her to the studio and the clarifying is not coming easily to her. She can’t say a lot about what will actually be in this exhibit, but it might be… very chaotic!

Nell, on the other hand, was originally a painter as well as a printmaker. Then she began creating jewelry. She was introduced to metal fabrication through a gift certificate from a friend for a beginning class in jewelry. She fell in love with metal during her very first class. She apprenticed with three established jewelers in Chapel Hill for a couple of years before going out on her own. Eventually she integrated her painting, her printmaking and her jewelry fabrication into the work she creates today. Over the years she has been exploring and learning many new and different techniques. She tends to try something new and moves on only to reach back and combine the different components into a brand new line. On her more abstract pieces she might incorporate pearlescent ink, acrylic paint, watercolor, enamels, etchings, or India ink. Many times, pieces will be embellished with semi-precious stones and freshwater pearls. She also has a line of narrative work where she tries to tell a story that is filled with meaningful recurring figures and symbols. Often the owner and wearer of a piece of her jewelry will share with her a story of their own. Those are truly special moments for her and affirm her choice of medium to share her art with the world.

Like Nell, Evelyn likes to also imbue her work with a story. This past winter Evelyn spent some time working through some new ideas and experimenting with a new palette but returned to familiar forms. She’s been playing with intersecting and overlapping colors, dissecting the forms, thinking along the lines of landscape and the built environment. She’s been looking at photos of old abandoned factories for inspiration because she’s so drawn to these hauntingly beautiful spaces. She loves what the passage of time and effects of weather do to surfaces. She’s using a printing technique called mono-print transferring to decorate the surfaces. She paints slip onto cut pieces of paper and then transfers them onto the pot making a design. She loves the imperfections that this process leaves on the surface of the pot with the underlying dark clay body showing through, as well as the clean lines she can get from the process. She started out as a printmaker and has always gravitated to the qualities of hand printed images.

Elemental Form runs from May 27th through June 22nd. Join us during Hillsborough’s Last Friday Art Walk, May 30th from 6-9pm for the reception. Come and enjoy amazing art, drink some wine, and hear the group Carolina Campfire performing Secret Songs from the American Songbook on the patio in front of the gallery during the reception.

If you’d like a chance to meet these artists and hear about their inspiration and process, their Artist Talk will be held in the gallery on Saturday, June 14th at 4 p.m.

About the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts:

The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is owned and operated by 20 local artists and represents these established artists exhibiting contemporary fine art and fine craft. The Gallery’s offerings include painting, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, glass, metals, encaustic, enamel, scratchboard, weaving, and woodworks.