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Meet Artists at Carlton Gallery During Avery Tour de Art; Arlene Mandell, Lynn Shallis and Joe Mareka

Aug. 18, 2014. The sixth annual Avery Tour de Art Continues on Saturday, Aug. 23, at Carlton Gallery as well as other local galleries and artists’ studios in the Watauga and Avery County areas. The Tour de Art is a monthly event, held every fourth Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. June through November where artists open their studios to the public and galleries hold special art events. Maps can be picked up at each location on the Tour.

Participating galleries this year are: Alta Vista Gallery, Carlton Gallery Fine Art and Toni Carlton Studio, Kevin Beck Studio, Linville River Pottery with Patti Conner Greene, Sally Nooney Studio and Gallery, Art Purveyors with the Studio of Mike Hill and Studio 410 – Kent Paulette and David Banega.

Carlton Gallery continues to celebrate its 32nd year in the community of Foscoe, surrounded with lively creative spirit. Join Toni Carlton in honoring three new emerging artists that are excellent in their various mediums. Carlton Gallery is known for the diversity of fine art along with beautiful handcrafted 3-dimensional artwork. Please welcome Arlene Mandell, Lynn Shallis and Joe Mareka for the “Meet the Artists” during the Avery Tour de Art on Saturday, Aug. 23 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Join us and connect with the artists demonstrating basketry, needle felting, playing Native American-style flutes and enjoy the eloquent expressions of their creative process.

Reflections from the Artists:

Arlene Mandell

“In the 1960s, I was teaching full-time in Manhattan. To relax at night, I began sketching the plants on my windowsill. Wanting to learn more about how to draw still life, I signed up for a Saturday “LIFE” class at the nearby famed Art Students League. However, when I walked into the “LIFE” class, I was astonished to see a nude model posing on a platform. The instructor told e that “LIFE” meant the live model, and not still life. He urged me to try the class because he felt there was nothing more exciting than working from the live model. I stayed for the session and was hooked! After that day, there was nothing I wanted to do more. That love has continued. It was transmitted to me from that instructor, Arthur Foster, who became my teacher. In time, I discovered Arthur Foster had worked for many years with his father, Hal Foster, to produce the ‘Prince Valiant comic strip. The people you see in my artwork are people from all walks of life in my community. They come to pose at the Miami Art League, where I do the work. I listen to the stories of their lives and try to enter their world for a while to put down an impression. I do not use photographs, but rather try to remember their physical being and personality in case I want to continue working on the picture after they’ve left. There is a whole world to explore in every face, I love to explore that world.”

Lynn Shallis

“The goal of my work is to create a form that is striking to view on many levels. Color, shape and size each play their part. Inspiration comes somewhat from life’s experiences and images impressed upon the mind. Using some and discarding others, a basket coalesces as this process takes place. My art is a gift from God and I can only hope that the end product is pleasing to Him and to the viewer in their eyes and in their souls.”

Joe Mareka

“I have been honing my skills in creating Native American style flutes for several years. Thirty years of woodcarving, making furniture and basket weaving has been a natural segue into this art form. My interest in Native American culture and artifacts grew from my childhood in southeastern North Carolina and my studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Visits to the southwest introduced me to the beauty of flute music which has fed my passion to share my art.”

This 32nd annual Mid-Summer Group Exhibition continues at Carlton Gallery through September 15 along with Andrew Braitman’s solo exhibit, “Expanding the Edge of Color.”

The Mid-Summer exhibition includes fine art in glass, wood, sculpture, clay, fiber and fine jewelry by the many talented and dedicated artisans represented by the gallery along with contemporary and traditional paintings in oils, acrylics, pastels, water color and mixed media. Paintings by standing gallery artists Connie Winters, Kevin Beck, Roy Nichols, Warren Dennis, Egi Antonaccio, Mary Martha McKinley, Kate Worm, Sharon Rusch Shaver, Michael Grady, Helen Farson, Edie Maney, Linda Apriletti, Marion Cloaninger, Alan Gordon and Debbie Arnold fill the gallery with landscapes, non-objective abstracts, figurative, still life and humorous caricatures. New to the gallery this season, Kevin Aita’s photo realism of dancers superimposed creatively to represent the figures in motion are breathtaking and Amy Sullivan’s oil and cold wax on plaster exploring the structures of regional barns brings the interior/decorative design elements into a fine art arena.

Andrew Braitman’s exhibition, “Expanding the Edge of Color” clearly demonstrates his passion for exploring and creating through a focus on the relationship of texture and color combined with lost and found edges. With sizes ranging from 5’x7″ to 50″x70″ his explosions of artistic expression come bursting forth into form gracefully yet powerfully through the rhythm of creative cycles of layer upon layer of the blending of a collection of brilliant colors. This excellent use of color is a prominent component of Braitman’s paintings. Many are almost abstract except for a few strokes that hint of a familiar image.

Enjoy a day filled with music, light refreshments, demonstrations and community spirit while visiting with Arlene Mandell, Lynn Shallis and Joe Mareka for the “Meet the Artists” during the Avery Tour de Art on Saturday, Aug. 23 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. View the artwork of gallery artists in the Mid-Summer Group Exhibition along with Andrew Braitman’s solo exhibition.

The gallery is located ten miles south of Boone and seven miles north of Linville or Banner Elk on N.C. 105 in the Foscoe/Grandfather Mountain community. For more information on artists, exhibitions or workshops, call 828-963-4288 or visit www.carltonartgallery.com.

Arlene Mandell - Cabaret Girl - 14x11 - oil.51.51

Joe Mareka - 7 flutes

Lynn Shallis - Cat Head Basket with stones Turquoise and Green 2

Lynn Shallis -Green Hare 2