Painting On Location at the SCDNR Santee Coastal Wildlife Management Area - February 2014

The Santee Coastal Wildlife Management Area of the SC Dept. of Natural Resources is a great place to visit this time of year. The weather is cooler, the bugs are more manageable, and with the deciduous leaves down for winter, more expansive vistas are visable in the hardwood forests. I'm continuing to explore the many inspirational locations this diverse ecosystem provides... Here are a couple of areas I've been inspired to paint out in recently



An umbrella shields my canvas from the wind as I paint evening light
on a rice trunk gate at the SC Santee Coastal Reserve.











The Washo Reserve is a scene of seasonal color and migrating wildlife.

Installing Artwork for the 29th Annual First Federal People's Choice Art Exhibit, Charleston SC. 2013

Members of the Charleston Artist Guild Exhibitions Committee had a great time hanging artwork for the 2013 First Federal People's Choice Art Exhibit in Charleston, SC.


119 Exhibiting Members of the the Charleston Artist Guild have selected work to be included in this year's 29th People's Choice Art Exhibit sponsored by First Federal Bank. In addition to the judges awards and a Purchase Award, the artists are vying for the "Peoples Choice Award" determined by  popular vote from visitors to the show.  



If you're in Charleston, stop by the exhibit and cast a vote for your favorite artwork. The 2013 People's Choice Art Exhibit is open to the public Oct. 4 - 17, from 9 am - 4 pm at the Broad St. First Federal Bank Building, Charleston, SC.

Artist Katherine M Schneider's Painting "Gift of the Sea" Wins Award in the Piccolo Spoleto Juried Fine Art Exhibition 2013

Katherine Schneider
 is presented her art award by
David Scheffler (left) and Russell Buskirk

Katherine Schneider was awarded an Honorable Mention for her oil painting "Gift of the Sea" at  the Awards Ceremony and Artist Reception for the 2013 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Juried Fine Art Exhibition this evening at the Charleston Visitors Center.



The 2013 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Juried Art Exhibition showcased 90 artworks selected for the Show by a three member panel of judges from 345 submissions by 120 artists. This year the juror of awards for fine art is Jonathan Clancy, Phd - Program Director of American and Decorative Art at Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York City.


Dr. Clancy wrote in his comments about Schneider's painting "Gift of the Sea" - "The use of light and color in this painting is striking and well done."




Ms. Schneider's fine art photograph "Rainbow Colors in a Blackwater Swamp" was also selected
by the jury for inclusion in the exhibition. The image on display is one of sunlight refracted on the surface of the water in a lowcountry swamp in late winter.

Piccolo Spoleto Juried Art Exhibition 2013

 If you're in Charleston, SC May 23 - June 7, 2013, come by the Charleston Visitors Center to see the 2013 Piccolo Spoleto Festival Juried Fine Arts Exhibition.

Charleston Visitors Center
site of the
2013 Piccolo Spoleto Juried Fine Arts Exhibition
The Juried Exhibition, sponsored by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs and co-ordinated by the Charleston Artist Guild, is a highly regarded event in the festival's Visual Arts schedule.


I'll be the artist in attendance at the show today May 28th from 9am -1pm. I would enjoy talking with you and showing you the wonderful artwork selected for the exhibition from artists throughout South Carolina. 120 South Carolina artists submitted 345 artworks for consideration by a three judge panel.

The judges selected 90 artworks by 60 artists for this years exhibition. I am honored to have two works selected for the exhibition.   Hope to see you there.

The Piccolo Spoleto Festival 2013
Juried Fine Art Exhibition
Charleston Visitors Center
Charleston, SC
May-June 2013


Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings of Santee Coastal Reserve SCDNR Wildlife Management Area by Artist Katherine M Schneider on Display at Historic Santee Gun Club Clubhouse

An exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Katherine M Schneider entitled "From Dawn to Dusk" is on display

The Historic Santee Gun Club Clubhouse circa 1898
currently headquarters of the SCDNR at
Santee Coastal Reserve Wildlife Management Area
210 Santee Gun Club Rd. McClellanville, SC.
at the historic Santee Gun Club Clubhouse of the South Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources (SCDNR). The artworks on display are the artist's impressions of the habitats and wildlife of the SC Santee Coastal Reserve.

This diverse ecosystem is made up of 24,000 acres "including a variety of habitats including upland forests, freshwater, brackish and tidal wetlands and agricultural fields. The property is composed of Murphy Island, Cedar Island, The Cape, Washo Reserve and adjacent upland habitats.

Murphy Island, Cedar Island and The Cape are former rice fields managed for the benefit of breeding migratory and wintering waterfowl, shorebirds and wading birds. Loggerhead sea turtles nest on Murphy and Cedar Islands. Washo Reserve, owned by The Nature Conservancy, is a 1,000-acre sanctuary consisting of a cypress lake that supports one of the largest Wood stork rookeries on the East Coast and a surrounding upland buffer.


 Schneider's plein air drawing of wind blown spanish moss
in a cypress tree at a freshwater impoundment
 at the Santee Coastal Reserve  
The upland habitat at SCR contains a diversity of forest types, including a natural stand of longleaf pine, Carolina bays and mixed hardwoods. The long-leaf pine and other forested areas support many colonies of the endangered Red-cockaded woodpecker, songbirds, raptors, butterflies, fox squirrels and other small mammals." (DNR managed lands site)


Over the past 5 months, Schneider has sketched and painted on location (en plein air) at Santee Coastal Reserve studying the land and inhabitants of the long leaf pine barrens, freshwater impoundments, tidal wetlands, former rice fields and South Santee River.

The setting sun creates dramatic light patterns
in the broom sedge grass of a long leaf pine barren as
 Katherine Schneider paints on location at Santee Coastal Reserve 






The field studies created over this time period developed strong impressions of the seasonal changes in the landscape, native wildlife and migratory birds and have provided a store of material from which the artworks in the exhibit "From Dawn to Dusk" have evolved.  

                                                                                                 

The exhibit "From Dawn to Dusk" Paintings and Drawings of the Santee Coastal Reserve by Katherine M. Schneider is open to the public Mon.-Thurs. 9:00am to 4:00pm at the Santee Coastal Reserve Clubhouse, 210 Santee Gun Club Rd. McClellanville, SC. Phone (843) 546-6062.




Charcoal Drawings...Works in Progress

Charcoal is a good medium to use in developing artistic ideas on location and in the studio. I like the easy way drawing with vine charcoal enables me to adjust values and compositional elements when I'm doing field studies. 

Here are two charcoal drawings I've recently completed. Although I'm using them to develop the subjects into larger paintings, charcoal drawings such as these are often valued as collectable artworks on their own merit. 

"Cabin in the Oaks"
by
Katherine Schneider
Vine charcoal on paper
11"x14"

"Evening Shadows"
Charcoal on canvas
12x16

Brookgreen Gardens Presents Exhibit "Willard Hirsch: Charleston's Sculptor"

"Fighting Stallions" by Anna Hyatt Huntington (1876 - 1973)
at the entrance to Brookgreen Gardens
Pawleys Island, SC
A retrospective exhibit of select works by Willard Hirsch (1905-1982)  "Willard Hirsch: Charleston's Sculptor" is on view in the Rainey Sculpture Pavilion at Brookgreen Gardens from Jan. 26- April 1, 2013.

View of "Willard Hirsch: Charleston's Sculptor" exhibit
Rainey Sculpture Pavilion
 Brookgreen Gardens
2013

The exhibit, traveling from The Gibbs Museum of Art in Charleston SC, presents a variety of modeled, carved, and cast works from Hirsch's career spanning 50 years. 
Robin R. Salmon
Vice President for Art and Historical Collections and
Curator of Sculpture
for Brookgreen Gardens

admires Hirsch's red oak carving
"Joshua at Jerico"
circa 1950
(Collection of the Gibbs Museum of Art)

An opening reception held at Brookgreen Gardens on Jan. 25, 2013 was a opportunity for admirers to preview the exhibition and meet the sculptor's daughter, Ms.Jane Hirsch.

Susan Polack, Jane Hirsch (the sculptor's daughter), and Jane Fluet
discuss Hirsch's work near a model of Hirsch's
"Cassique of Kiawah"


A heroic size bronze casting of the figure representing a Chief of the Kiawah Indian tribe, the "Cassique of Kiawah" was installed in 1971 at Charlestown Landing State Historic Site Charleston SC.



Cheryl Reilly (board member) and Karen Korszeniewski (president) of the Friends of Huntington Beach State Park meet a new friend by Hirsch's beloved figure, "The Little Dancer". 



Pamela Belser, Alberta Lachicotte Quattlebaum, and Becky Sparrow 
enjoy the evening of art and good company at Brookgreen Gardens, January 25, 2013.