Feature Articles


May Issue 2001

Summer House Gallery in Highlands, NC, Features Works by Lucas and Piscitelli

The Summer House Gallery, in Highlands, NC, will begin a series of exhibitions featuring a painter and a craftsman on May 19. The first in the series will feature Mase Lucas of Scaley Mountain, NC, and Robin Piscitelli of Highlands, on view through June 13.

Mase Lucas graduated from the School of Visual Arts, New York and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD. She has been included in many prestigious juried exhibitions across the country; Historical Museum of Southern Florida, Lowe Museum of Art, Bass Museum of Art, Lowe-Levinson Museum of Art, The Austin Museum of Art Fiesta Festival, The Winter Park Arts Festival, Milwaukee Art Museum, Cherry Creek Arts Festival (Denver) and many others.

Lucas' horse portraits are large, to put it plainly, most average in size of 60x60 inches. She utilizes the dry brush acrylic genre, a very unique composition style, and a warm, earthy color palate for these horse portraits. On a more traditional scale, Lucas specializes in portraits of women; not women you know, but certainly wish you did. The anatomy and composition of both portrait subjects are praiseworthy; one can feel the power of the horses and the genteelness of the women.

Robin Piscitelli first saw the wooden vessels of Kentucky turner, Paul Ferrell, in 1993 and the raw, gnarled, twisting, burled wood intoxicated him. At that time he knew he would turn and that Paul Ferrell would be his teacher. Piscitelli met with Ferrell one time, and taught himself from that time on. Working primarily with native woods (cherry, oak and maple), and in many cases with discarded wood, stumps, burls, and twisted logs. Although 20 percent of his pieces are turned using camphor, mahogany, mango, avocado, etc. Generally speaking, Piscitelli feels that the more gnarled and unattractive the log is, the more beautiful the grain patterns are.

There is nothing more thrilling to Piscitelli than taking a discarded and partially rotten log and watch as its inner beauty is released - as it spins and is cut and shaped on the lathe. He rarely has a plan for a piece other than a basic height and width. "It's all up to the wood as I watch the grain patterns and cut the way they seem to want to flow, I just follow their lead. I particularly like to turn natural edge pieces, leaving the bark on the rim and incorporating natural voids in the piece. I seem to get into the best zone for turning late at night while listening to Mozart," says Piscitelli. His works are collected internationally and are exhibited in only a few regional galleries, including the Signature Gallery in Atlanta, GA.

For more info check our NC Commercial Gallery listings or call 828/526-0028.

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