"Peace by Piece" #1
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Rhapsody in Blue

Abstract Fibers and Paintings at Carlton Gallery’s 26 Annual Spring Exhibition

The Blue Ridge Mountains in the High Country are very lovely this time of year, as spring turns into the hazy, relaxed days of Summer. The beautiful Blue Ridge indeed has many shades of blue on its horizon. To compliment this scenery, Carlton Gallery’s walls are filled with abstracts in blue by artists, Debbie Arnold, John Gunther and Charlotte Foust.

Local artist, Debbie Arnold, describes her painting as a stream of consciousness method from which emerges inner landscapes. Her use of rich color, strong contrast and bold patterns make her paintings unique and recognizable. Arnold uses many different techniques – sponges, pallet knives, spattering, collage and imprinting, along with pouring layers of thinned colors onto the canvas. Her abstract landscapes are in acrylics or oils. She uses extremely thin washes of paint with as many as 15-20 layers of transparent washes in each piece. The light shimmering through the many layers of warm and cool colors and textures makes the complex paintings glow.

Arnold states that living in the lovely environment of the Blue Ridge Mountains is a constant source of inspiration for her art work. The energy for her paintings is derived from her feelings for these beautiful mountains and their daily changes due to development and growth. Arnold states “It is my hope that by painting my love for these beautiful mountains I can help them to live and encourage others to cherish them also”.

Debbie Arnold studied Commercial and Fine Art at Appalachian State University. Her accomplishments include several one and two person shows and entry in numerous juried and invitational exhibits. Arnold’s paintings are in over two hundred private and corporate collections internationally.

Fiber artist, John Gunther’s interest and energy is derived from nature. His contemporary fiber designs combine a geometric, woven design that becomes superimposed over a hand dyed layer. The subtle harmonies and dimensional effects created by shifting color graduations reflect Gunther’s observation of the natural phenomena found in the landscape, tundra, water and sky. His Amazon Valley and Teton Valley woven fiber designs on exhibit at Carlton Gallery are beautifully rendered works of art which reflect his love and respect for nature. Gunther’s hand dyed, hand woven contemporary designs are exhibited and represented nationwide and abroad in many private and public collections.

The art of Charlotte Foust is a distinctive style of her own. Her abstract paintings of red flowers in a blue vase on exhibit at Carlton Gallery are thought provoking and expressive. Self-described as a gestural artist, Foust is influenced by diverse elements that find complimentary ground in her work. Her abstract works on canvas, as well as her gestural drawings on paper have a serene, calming energy.

Foust earned a Bachelor Creative Art from the University of North Carolina Charlotte. She has won several awards for her art work and has had one person and group exhibits in New York. Foust has taught workshops as well as exhibited work at the Mint Museum in Charlotte. Her art work is in many private collections.

While appreciating the beautiful scenery of the High Country, visit Carlton Gallery and
enjoy the Rhapsody in Blue, paintings in many mediums and varied subject matter on exhibit by the gallery’s local and regional artists. The gallery’s 26th Spring Exhibition runs through July 15th in their new location at 10360 Hwy 105 S – 10 miles south of Boone and 7 miles north of Linville.
 

Fine Art of Bill Farnsworth and Freeman Beard at Carlton Gallery

Oils on Canvas and Watercolors on Paper Abound

Carlton Gallery continues its 26th Spring Exhibition showcasing the art of Bill Farnsworth and Freeman Beard. Whether it’s rivers, mountain streams, waterfalls, old barns, farm scenes or the Blue Ridge Mountains, each artist depicts the landscape in an individualistic style with color, texture and emotion.

Born in Connecticut Bill Farnsworth spent most of his life in New Milford, Connecticut where he painted landscapes of the rural area. He is now a resident of Florida, but often makes trips to the High Country where he paints waterfalls, old barns and rural scenes.
Farnsworth states “My goal with my work is to paint what I love and convey that honestly so the viewer can feel that as well”.

A graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design, Farnsworth creates paintings for magazines, advertisements, children’s books and fine art commissions for landscapes and portraits. His figurative work on exhibit at Carlton Gallery is quite stunning with an ethereal quality. Farnsworth’s painting titled “Madeline” won the OPA Eastern Regional “Best Figurative Painting”. He is a member of the Society of Illustrators and the Oil Painters of America. Farnsworth has illustrated more than forty children’s books and his realistic paintings have appeared in many national shows. His en plein aire artwork is also in many private and public collections.

Water color artist, Freeman Beard’s paintings capture the color and mood of his subject matter. He paints landscape, seascapes, florals and figures. Beard captures the subtlety of mist hanging on a mountainside and the bright colors of a flower in broken light. He says that painting the roaring water hitting an immovable boulder in a mountain stream or the mirror image of trees in a river to the dappled shade on a mountain road inspires him immensely.

Beard grew up in rural North Carolina, gaining an appreciation for the land and changing seasons. He studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design and after retirement from a career in television, Beard now devotes full-time to painting. His art is in many private and corporate collections throughout the United States, China, Japan, Holland and Switzerland.

While enjoying the mountain scenery of the High Country, visit Carlton Gallery to view the wonderful scenery captured on canvas and paper by the gallery’s local and regional artists working in all mediums and covering myriad subjects during the 26th Annual Spring Exhibition which runs through July 15th.
 

Local Artists, Eloise Pope and Louise Pinto Featured at Carlton Gallery

Spring Exhibition Continues with Variety, Inspiration and Opportunity

The 26th Spring Exhibition continues at Carlton Gallery with new works by the gallery’s many talented artists. Large weavings, mixed media collage, traditional and abstract landscapes, woodworking, eclectic jewelry and blown glass are all found in the 26th Spring Exhibition. This art work graces Carlton Gallery’s walls at it new location in an aspiring blend of color, texture and subject matter.

Carlton Gallery is pleased to feature new oils on canvas by standing gallery artists Eloise Pope and Louise Pinto. The subject matter of their colorful paintings ranges from still lifes, the Parkway, boating scenes to roosters, and showcases the talent of these two local artists.

Eloise Pope is a long-standing artist at Carlton Gallery whose love of travel recently took her to Italy where she spent time in Tuscany. She took engaging photographs for her paintings, and the gallery, as well as collectors of Eloise Pope’s work, await her artistic interpretation of the beautiful Tuscan landscape.

Born in Atlanta and educated at the High Museum School of Art, she continues to study in painting workshops. Her art has been published in five national art magazines and one book. The fine art of Eloise Pope is in over thirty corporate and many private collections.

Louise Pinto earned a doctorate degree in Psychology from Fordham University and sustained a successful career in this field. Her painting talent and her love for painting is life long, having emerged at a very young age. As a resident of the High Country, Pinto continues to express her affection for serene local landscapes, flowers and still lifes.

Pinto studied at the Art Student League in New York and at the Scottsdale Artist’s School in Arizona, and continues to take workshops with notable artists/instructors. Louise Pinto and her beautiful art was featured in the May issue of All About Women magazine.

The workshop series is also a great reason to visit Carlton Gallery. A variety of outlets for one’s artistic expression is offered. One can find traditional landscape painting from photographs, mixed media collage and figure painting in watercolor. Each workshop is designed to help overcome obstacles in creating art or to use a brighter color palette.

Visit Carlton Gallery to enjoy the fine art of Eloise Pope and Louise Pinto during the 26th Spring Exhibition which runs through July 15th.


Carlton Gallery is Moving Across the Highway

After twenty-one years in the Creekside Building, Toni Carlton is planning to move Carlton Gallery across Hwy 105 once again. She started in 1982 as a weaving studio called Woven Works. In 1987 she changed the name to Carlton Gallery and moved in the upper level of the Creekside Building which was known as The Kiln Room. Toni Carlton states, "After many floods, challenges with beavers, raccoons, and a leaky roof
it’s a little sad to say good-by to the Creekside Building, but our move into the gallery formerly known as Antonaccio Fine Art is exciting, energizing, and exhilarating".

Toni Carlton wishes to thank the many artists, literally hundreds, who have helped to create, inspire and support the gallery, originally known as Woven Works Art Gallery and Studios and then Carlton Gallery. Over the years their fine art and contemporary crafts have graced the walls, pedestals, jewelry cases, shelves and gardens. Beginning with weavers and moving into potters, painters, sculptors and jewelry designers, Toni Carlton has selected artists internationally, nationally, regionally and locally known for their talents and expertise in their fields.

One of the first painters to join Creekside Gallery was Warren Dennis, an Art Professor of Toni Carlton when she was attending ASU, who still exhibits his art at Carlton Gallery. Some early gallery artists included Debbie Arnold, Martha Gimlin, Tim Ford, Kathryn Burrows, Wayne Trapp, Norma Murphy, James Kerr, Richard Walters, R.T. Morgan, Stoney Lamar, Bill Brown, Pat and Will Pilchard, Barbara Timberman, and Gary Beecham, just to name a few. Many of her professors from ASU besides Warren Dennis showed their work over the years including Noyes Capehart Long, Bill Dunlap, Marianne Suggs, Peggy Polson and Ron Propst. As a tribute to those gallery artists who have passed…Anne Wilder, Sharon Kuhne, Dean Adylott, John McLaughlin, John L. Neff, Jerry Clemons, Linda Phillips, Dorothy Williams, Joe Czarnecki, Robert Broderson, Anita Wooten, Margaret Consley and most recently, Tao Strong Stein and David McCaig, Toni Carlton acknowledges their gifts and presence they had in the gallery as she says good bye to the building known as Creekside.

Carlton Gallery has been a landmark for many visitors, artists, and friends of the community. The energy and spirit of Carlton Gallery is continuing in a new location just across Hwy 105 in the Antonaccio Fine Art Gallery building. Carlton Gallery will open in this gallery space for the Memorial Day weekend and is pleased to exhibit the art of Egidio Antonaccio. The last days will be Mothers Day weekend.

Toni Carlton plans an artist studio sale on May 25 and 26 from 11:00 to 4:00 in which her art work from her private collection, including her grandmother Nellie Carlton’s weavings, art and weaving supplies and loom, frames, gallery display items, futons and miscellaneous furniture will be for sale.

Everyone is extended a warm welcome to visit Carlton Gallery when it opens on May 23. The fine art of the gallery’s standing artists including Andrew Braitman, Jim Crompton, Mary Dobbin, Vae Hamilton, Holly Glasscock, Gina Strumpf, Kate Worm, Eloise Pope, Louise Pinto, Freeman Beard, Roy and Jossie Nichols, Jack Stoddart, Bill Farnsworth, Janice Gay-Maker, Jane Desonier, Elwin Porter, Mia Katrin, Laura Fly, Tana Acton, Carol Francis Goode, Ursula Shuler, David Finck, Bobby Phillips, Keith Allen, Robert Crowell, Donna Craven, Holly Fischer, Harry Seng, Bob Wager, John Littleton/Kate Vogel will fill Carlton Gallery’s attractive new space with both traditional and contemporary upscale fine art.

Almost full circle, back across Hwy 105 Toni Carlton is moving Carlton Gallery to reopen May 23, Memorial Day weekend.

New Artist And New Art At Carlton Gallery

Carlton Gallery continues its Winter Exhibition, but is eagerly awaiting Spring’s arrival in the High Country. The gallery walls are graced with the bold and colorful landscape paintings of Egidio Antonaccio and Andrew Braitman as a preview to the wonderful art of Spring.

Egidio Antonaccio is a new addition to Carlton Gallery’s roster of talented local, regional and international artists. Antonaccio or "Egi" as he likes to be known by has called North Carolina home since 1981. He is an exceptionally talented fine art painter whose impressionist landscapes show his love of nature. His paintings of vast panoramic views of hillsides and valleys, paths filled with flowering shrubs and azaleas, woodland waterfalls with native rhododendron and dogwood, pastoral farm scene with barn and cows to a softly rendered Grandfather Mountain exemplify his ingenious imagination.

Antonaccio’s technique is light and delicate, while his subject matter is romantic and gentle producing paintings evoking strength, grace and wonderment. Born in Italy, Antonaccio studied with some great Italian masters of fine art. He received his degree from the Institute of Fine Art in Castrovillari, Italy and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy with honors.

New landscapes by Andrew Braitman (oils on canvas) reflect his brilliant use of color and composition. A palette of turquoise, blue, green, and yellow in his paintings of a mountain trail, a woodland waterfall and a mountain lake showcases his extraordinary methods of capturing light and color. Born in Wyoming and educated at the University of Maryland (where he earned the Warton Award Grant for being the Outstanding Senior Artist), Braitman has paintings in galleries across the United States, Holland and Brazil. Along with notable artists such as Frank Stella and Andrew Wyeth, Braitman was chosen by First Lady Nancy Reagan as one of America’s Leading Artists.

Braitman is a professional exhibiting artist and dynamic teacher for over 25 years. He conducts painting workshops at Carlton Gallery where the participants praise his ability to bring out each individualistic style and to instruct all skill levels. His "Paint with Trust" oil painting workshops on June 9-13 and September 16-19 will teach participants how to achieve elegance and sophistication in painting a landscape.
 

Eighth Annual Inspiring Workshops at Carlton Gallery

Celebrating its 26th year, Carlton Gallery is planning the 8th annual insightful, entertaining and inspiring painting workshops in various mediums in the downstairs studio of the gallery. Make plans now to attend a workshop taught by Gallery artists to enrich, challenge and expand creativity as Carlton Gallery begins another great season of "making art".

Jim Crompton, a teacher of painting for over 35 years and a life-long artist, starts the 8th annual painting workshops on May 5-7 with "Clay Sculpture-Portrait Head in Clay". This 2-part series explores the details of portrait painting by first creating a clay sculpture. This application taught by Crompton allows thinking in three dimensional form. The series continues on May 19-21 with a "Portrait Painting" Workshop which allows techniques learned in making a three dimensional clay head sculpture to be painted onto canvas. Crompton’s "Creative Paintings from Photographs", distinctive 3-day workshops concentrate on teaching the four steps of painting: drawing, color, form and detail. These monthly workshops enable participants to reach a new dimension in painting, as Landscape Impressions are explored in June, Southwestern Impressions are demonstrated in September and July, August, and October are open to any subject matter.

Talented artist and teacher, Andrew Braitman, instructs aspiring artists to "Paint with Trust" in his workshops on June 9-13 and September 16-19. Braitman’s intensified color palette and bold brush strokes allows participants to paint an elegant and sophisticated landscape. Braitman’s unique painting style awarded him to assist notable artists Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Braitman’s painting, "Path at Bass Lake" was featured on the cover of "Art of Well Being" in the Spring of 2007. He was chosen by First Lady Nancy Reagan as one of America’s leading artists and asked to decorate for the White House an Easter egg which is now on display at the Smithsonian Institute.

Artist Mary Dobbin in an art instructor at Caldwell Community College in Lenoir and teaches many workshops. Dobbin instructs beginners to draw well in pencil, charcoal, and graphite. Her combination of right brain methods and techniques allows participants to draw with ease in subjects as portrait and still life in her 4-day workshop of June 3-6. Dobbin received her MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and her BFA from the University of NC at Charlotte. In 2004 she won the Satie Broyhill Award at the 28th Annual Caldwell Visual Artist Competition for her mixed media piece titled, "Indigo Dreams".

Mixed media collage artist. Vae Hamilton, emphasizes exploration, freedom from stress, and enjoying the experience of allowing one’s creativity to come forth in her "Brush and Beyond" workshops beginning June 16-18. Hamilton is a full time artist with over 30 years experience. She teaches workshops throughout the Southeast and has won many awards for her unique art. Hamilton’s workshops on August 26-29 and October 15-17 are sure to enhance and perfect one’s personal painting style by incorporating nontraditional media, such as acrylic gels, texturing mediums, collage transfers and "collected" materials. Hamilton’s focus on value, design, composition and vibrant energy in these workshops allows for greater individualistic creativity in mixed media collage.

The 1-day figure painting workshops of artist Kate Worm emphasize composition, color and good drawing, as it relates to painting the female form. Participants work with an unclothed model using non-traditional drawing and painting techniques to express energy and abstraction within a traditional context. The Summer 2006 issue of American Artist Watercolor magazine featured the exquisitely rendered nude figures of Kate Worm. Worm is presently an instructor at the Hickory Museum of Art and welcomes all levels in watercolor at her "Let’s figure It In" workshops on August 6 and August 7 at Carlton Gallery.

Looking forward to seeing you in the gallery for an adventure in artistic expression.

Click here for the 2008 Workshop Schedules