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.