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Autumn Landscapes and Structures at Carlton Gallery

Oct. 6, 2014. The landscape in the High Country is comparable to the many landscape paintings found at Carlton Gallery during the Autumn Group Exhibition. Traditional and abstracted styles in oils, acrylics and pastels by Kevin Beck, Egi Antonaccio, Sharon Rusch Shaver, Linda Apriletti, Amy Sullivan and Andrew Braitman are rendered in a palette as stunning as Mother Nature’s. Carlton Gallery celebrates 32 years during this Autumn Group Exhibition which runs through Nov. 22.

Local plein air artist Kevin Beck paints places for which he feels a deep connection. He is very inspired by coming face-t0-face with the High Country’s mountain vistas and open fields in all their sublimity and glory. He is celebrated for his vibrant paintings that resonate with the soul of the landscape. Beck is one of the Southeast’s most collected artists and his new work exhibited at Carlton Gallery during the Autumn Group Exhibition reveals his excellence in ingenuity reflected in his landscapes both in oils and pastels.

Egi Antonaccio is a versatile painter who is also inspired by the area’s woodland streams, waterfalls, flora and majestic mountains. Always interested in new influences, Antonaccio continues to surprise the viewer with new techniques. From his realistic detail learned from his surrealist instructors or the manipulation of light from the impressionist school in Italy to his own interpretation of the landscapes of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Antonaccio combines his imagination with his remarkable skill of painting. Each painting evokes feelings of strength, grace and wonderment. His traditional oils are painted using brushes, while his more contemporary acrylic paintings are created with palette knives.

Relatively new to Carlton Gallery, Linda Apriletti is an avid outdoorswoman which suits her passion to paint nature every day. She works primarily in oils and prefers to paint plein air when possible. Apriletti also works in her studio from plein air studies, sketches and photographs. Her plein air and studio paintings bring a fresh and accurate portrayal of the many moods, quality of light and clarity of color of the changing seasons. Apriletti says, “I want to draw the viewer into my paintings and perhaps rekindle a personal memory.”

Plein air artist Sharon Rusch Shaver interprets the landscape in her unique perspective with subtle undertones. She has developed her own style by a particular means of communicating what she sees in the landscape while painting plein air. Her use of palette knives adds a unique texture that pulls the viewer into the painting as if experiencing the feeling the artist has as she paints.

New this season to the gallery, Amy Sullivan brings an intuitive exploration of simplicity in her large paintings of structures, close ups of old barns. Sullivan said, “I am fascinated with negative spaces contradicted by positive mark-making. I start with a very small, palm sized study in oil and wax. Then I select the pieces that contain the potential for paradox. Larger paintings, sometimes as large as 60″-by-96″, are designed to capture this intrigue and paradox. Carving into the wax and paint, penetrating masses of space with sharp edges, I respond to the tension of defining space and object in an almost sensual way.” A student of Andrew Braitman, Amy Sullivan has developed her very own unique style.

A brilliant use of color and composition are the prominent components of the abstracted landscape paintings of Andrew Braitman. He employs obvious and aggressive brush strokes, a variety of textures and conceptual shapes to render oils on canvas with subtle details to catch the viewer’s eye. Braitman’s unique color palette allows him to incorporate various triads of complimentary colors to create abstracted landscapes with a few strokes that hint of a familiar image – a barn or a cottage. His, “Leaving Banner Elk” or “Stream Side,” Both 48-by-48 inch oil and cold wax on canvas, exemplifies his brilliance of the autumn palette in landscape and structures.

Other gallery landscape artists working in the beautiful autumn palette include: Ray Byram, Freeman Beard, Roy Nichols and Jossie Fox Nichols, Jane Desonier and Holly Glasscock.

Visit Carlton Gallery to view the many styles of landscape paintings and diverse collection of fine art in the 32 annual Autumn Group Exhibition which continues through Nov. 22. View the ongoing “Art Songs of the Heart” by Toni Carlton which also continues through Nov. 22. Carlton’s acrylic mixed media paintings illustrate her interest in Asian art and philosophy, as well as a connection that connects creativity, wellness and spirituality.

The gallery is located 10 miles south of Boone and seven miles north of Linville on N.C. 105 in the Foscoe/Grandfather Mountain Community near the entrance to Seven Devils. For information on artists, exhibitions or workshops, call (828) 963-4288 or www.carltongallery.com.

Sharon Rusch Shaver
Sharon Rusch Shaver
Andrew Braitman
Andrew Braitman
Kevin Beck
Kevin Beck
Ray Byram
Ray Byram
Andrew Braitman
Andrew Braitman