Major exhibit by Chesley will fill entire Sumter County Gallery of Art

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Works by Southern regional artist Stephen Chesley will fill both galleries at the Sumter County Gallery of Art from Thursday through April 19. The exhibition opens with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Primarily a painter of landscapes, Chesley is a passionate environmentalist in the spirit of Thomas Cole, the 19th-century painter and founder of the Hudson River School art movement, according to SCGA curator Cole Miller. The exhibition, titled "Stephen Chesley: Field, Trees, Sky," reflects this.

Mostly self-taught, in his painting, the artist's influence by George Inness, Albert Pinkham Ryder, J.M.W. Turner and Edward Hopper can be discerned.

Chesley is a New York native, who grew up in Virginia, and received degrees in Urban Studies and Urban Planning from Clemson University. After working in city planning for some time, he became dissatisfied with the lack of creativity in the job, threw his wristwatch away and spent five years painting mostly sea islands, swamps and rivers without any consideration of time.

"I lived by my natural biorhythms," he said. "I wanted to paint and still be free."

It was this time, while painting in solitude with nature, that shaped Chesley's perspective on overpopulation and the fragility of the planet as it exists today. He found it increasingly difficult to achieve a sense of solitude in modern times, and he was gripped by a sense of urgency to paint landscapes, to record their unspoiled beauty for posterity.

Recognized in 1981 by the Columbia Museum of Art as an emerging talent, he went on to win a top 100 in the first National Parks competition of 1987, exhibiting at the Smithsonian, and in 1996 a National Endowment for the Arts, Southeast Regional Fellowship, Southeast Center for Contemporary Art. Chesley has continued his work, which he characterizes as poetic realism, along with welded and carved sculptural pieces in addition to book illustration, including W.S. Merwin's poem "Palm" for the Thomas Cooper Society. Chesley is a fierce conservationist and naturalist. He continues his creative journey at the new Stormwater Studios in Columbia.

Critics have described Chesley's landscapes as "dark and moody," and the artist acknowledges he uses a darker, earthy palette of natural umbers and ochres: "You need to stay true to the art."

While Chesley's paintings are realistic and representative, they often have an abstract quality. He combines colors of similar values and avoids sharp lines, forcing the viewer to study the soft-edged planes to discover what they represent. Though he primarily paints landscapes, he seldom paints via plein air any more. One reason is the increasingly crowded planet. He said, "I used to paint early in the morning when there was nobody around."

These days, he often does field sketches or takes photographs and later paints at home or in the studio. Over the years, however, Chesley has discovered painting from memory to be the best method because, "when you remember, you remember why the place was important - not how it looked but how it felt."

In many scenes, the flames of a distant nighttime fire or the dramatic backlighting of the sun behind dark clouds seize the canvas, making it seem to glow from an inner light. He uses the technique to create a sense of "temporal ambiguity" that can leave the viewer unsure whether it's morning or evening, coming or going. Chesley often titles his paintings using a straightforward descriptive - "twilight" or "trees, field" - a one-line haiku. He states, "You don't know whether the day is starting or ending. You see the tree, but when you get up close to it, you see it's an abstraction. That is something I strive for. I really don't want to paint the tree, per se, I am after a narrative."

Like the serpentine wanderings of the fluvial swamps depicted in Chesley's well-known paintings of the American South, so too does his approach to color, form and composition seem to meander through the history of American painting while striving to "keep that earlier, wilder image" at the heart of his artistic purpose.

SCGA Executive Director Karen Watson has known Chesley for more than 25 years. She said, "We have been talking with Stephen for two years about an exhibition in Sumter, and we are thrilled that it is finally happening. This is going to be a major exhibition and will occupy the entire gallery space. Chesley paints on a massive scale in keeping with the style of the old masters, so the exhibition will be visually appealing to our audience.

"He will be at the opening and will give an artist talk TBA in March. We could not present such an important exhibition without our community partners. Special thanks to Century 21 Hawkins and Kolb, The Glenmore and May Sharp Trust and The Mouse House Framery and Gallery (in Columbia). Flowers are courtesy of the Azalea Garden Club and the Council of Garden Clubs of Sumter."

Stephen Chesley: Fields, Trees, Sky opens with a reception Thursday. The public is invited to attend from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Members are admitted at no charge, nonmembers for a donation of $5.

For more information, contact Watson or Miller at (803) 775-0543, or visit the website, www.sumtergallery.org.