Fifteen beautifully framed original paintings, prints  and photographic reproductions by prominent area artists will be sold at the Patterson School Foundation in Happy Valley on Saturday, June 1 from noon to 4pm. The public is cordially invited to attend, and purchase outright or bid during the afternoon on these works by  Evelyn Allen, Angela Bradburn, Dempsey Essick, Susan Powers, Nina Robinson, Dave Rufty, Jo Seila, Jim Steele and Pat Gwyn Woltz. Refreshments will be served, and the show is free to all.

The sale will be held in Palmyra Hall on the  campus at Patterson. A number of local landmarks will be featured, including Wilson Creek, Grandfather Mountain, Hibriten Mountain,  Edgemont Hotel, the Keyhole House, Fort Defiance, Chapel of Rest, Grandin Baptist Church, Mariah’ Chapel and Christmas on the old Lenoir  Square. A collection of four vintage Caldwell postcards is also included in the sale. All artwork purchased on the day of the sale can be taken with the buyers on that day.

Proceeds from the sale of this artwork by local artists will benefit both the Patterson School Foundation and the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM) : at Patterson, the sale will help support restoration, and at BRAHM, it will be used for the Permanent Collection Fund. For more information, please contact Liza at lizaplaster@bellsouth.net or call 828 / 758-0906.

About the Artists

Evelyn Allen (1906 – 2008) was born in Caldwell County and lived here for 101 years. She attended Lenoir High School and graduated from  Queens College in Charlotte. An artist for over fifty years, she was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Lenoir, and a founding member  of the Brush & Palette Club. An original watercolor of the Grandin Baptist Church and a print of her iconic “Christmas on the Square” are included in the sale.

Angela Bradburn was born in Lenoir, and lives in South Carolina.  She received a BS degree from UNC-G, and her predominant medium has been watercolor. She is a member of the SC Watercolor Society, the Southern Watercolor Society and the Georgia Watercolor Society, and teaches at the Columbia Art Museum School as well as in regional workshops.  A print of Angela’s “Hibiscus” is in the sale.

Dempsey Essick’s  featured print of the “Wilson Creek” watercolor reflects his hobbies which include hiking, camping and fishing, and one of his favorite spots is the Mortimer Recreation Area in the Pisgah National Forest, just south of the Edgemont Community. The  print features a view of the Yellow Buck Mountain from that site. Dempsey is a self-taught watercolor artist known as the “Hummingbird Artist,” for the hummingbirds he hides in his paintings.

Dempsey lives in the house where he was born on a small farm in Davidson County. A graduate of Forsyth Technical College, he has a degree in mechanical drawing but no formal training in art. His work has been routinely used by the NC Wildlife Commission in their annual calendars, and he is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society. As a former president of the NC Bluebird Society, he speaks to groups on the plight of the Eastern Bluebird, and feeds his favorite bluebirds daily meals of live mealworms morning and evening.   The Dempsey Essick Studio is in Lexington, NC.

Nina Robinson ( 1916 – 2007) was another founding member of the Brush & Palette Club. Originally the Club had a social focus, but in time the group evolved into primarily a professional artists’ group, and now members serve as mentors for each other:  group meetings focus on art education and critique. Nina’s studio was in the basement of her home on Robinwood Drive in Lenoir, with a view of Hibriten Mountain – one of her favorite subjects. The subject of her original painting in this sale is Grandfather Mountain.

Susan Powers had  other artists in her family: “I had some distant cousins who like to paint. “A student of geology,  Susan enjoys painting from the ocean to the mountains in North Carolina, and was a featured Artist in Residence last year at Blowing Rock’s Edgewood Cottage, presented for the tenth consecutive year by the Blowing Rock Historical Society. Susan works in oil, acrylic and watercolor, and

has been painting for about 35 years, claiming “there are endless things to paint!” The subject of Susan’s original watercolor in this show is Mariah’s Chapel.

Dave Rufty  ( 1924- 1996) left an extensive history of Lenoir and Caldwell County in his thousands of photographs, photographing  brides and weddings, family and school portraits, sporting events, local landmarks, parades and anything else he found of interest. The print in this show is a hand-colored reproduction of  his photograph titled “Christmas on the Square,” showing the 1950’s traffic circle that was once in the center of town. That circle and the monument were removed around 1964.

Watercolor painter Jo Seila ( 1921 – 2001) called herself a self-taught artist, who “got her creativity from her mother’s quilting art, and from the enjoyment of antique furniture. ”  A much-traveled painter, she lived in Lenoir but traveled in Europe to Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria, and spent six months in the Caribbean as a volunteer for her church. She also spent a year in the Southwest, and seven weeks in Chili, Uruguay and Peru. “I am only 75,” she said. “there is no telling where I will go next.” And then she was off to England for a month, for landscape painting.

Jo is a native of Selma, NC. She studied at Atlantic Christian College for two years, and then the Raleigh School of Commerce, specializing in stenography for court reporting, and worked as a court reporter for two years.  She was a member of the Brush & Palette Club, and her work was shown in the NC Watercolor Society Show. “Art has become a compulsion and a real challenge. I love painting, and I especially appreciate the friends I have made.”

The Caldwell Community College’s art gallery which opened in 2001 was dedicated to Jo, and displayed a retrospective of her paintings at the gallery opening. There are three paintings of Jo’s in the current show and sale, representing the Chapel of Rest, the Keyhole House and the old Edgemont Hotel.

Pat Gwyn Woltz  (1925 – 2011)was born in Waynesville. She attended St. Mary’s Episcopal College in Raleigh, and graduated from Randolph-Macon in Lynchburg, VA with a degree in economics. After graduation, she married and raised her family in Mt. Airy, where she was a civic and community leader, described as a “generous and often-anonymous philanthropist.”

In 1983, Pat started an art business to sell her original watercolor paintings, note cards and Limited Edition Prints of her work which reflected her love of the mountains, family life and all of nature in the Southern Highlands.  A successful gardener, she included a tiny bunny rabbit in each piece of her artwork. The print included in this show is of Fort Defiance.