Feature Articles

September Issue 2002

Summit One Gallery in Highlands, NC, Introduces Six New Gallery Artists

Summit One Gallery in Highlands, NC, would like to welcome six new artists to the gallery.

Jean-Pierre Mocci lives in the south of France and he personifies the painter of Provence and has perpetuated the tradition of the Provencal painting. His painting can be defined in three words: atmosphere, emotion and texture. With luminous pigments and a mixture of strength and emotion, Mocci's paintings are faithful witness of this unique landscape and of its traditions. His compositions are meticulous and show a deep understanding of the harmonious relationship between color and light. All of his works express an emotional and visual poetry. Mocci is the most recognized impressionist in the Provence region.

Dorothee Milia was born in 1978 in Aix enProvence, France where she studied art history and painting. She began her career as a painter in 1999. Her landscapes and still lifes have blended two styles, figurative and abstract, where texture and bright colors are dominant without lacking details and depth.

Jean Louis Avril writes, "When one discovers Milia's paintings, one feels immediately an ambient freshness mixed with an undefined sense of disorientationHer palette is soft with old pinks hemmed with purples, vibrant of the Provencal exuberance that surrounds her, with fawn yellows, ultramarine blues, punctuated with carmine reds. The perception of her environment agrees with her free interpretation where are expressed, her own design, her own language, her own technique and the simplicity of form for the benefit of color. Milia confronts colors between light and dark up to the core of the texture. Each landscape, each still life emerges from the canvas with a natural ease where texture and color hold to powerful luminous contrasts and pastel breathing. Already, in France as well as in the United States, collectors have shown great interest in this young talent who conjugates the creative strength with charm and fantasy, poetic metaphors of sculpted colors." Milia is the daughter of Jean-Pierre Mocci.

Ann DerGara says, " And what is artexcept a way to express ourselves when our thoughts and feelings catch in our throats and fail to transfer into a sound that is heard." The enthusiasm with which she approaches her art is a life long passion. Being proficient in printmaking, which has been described as 'remarkable', her first love remains painting, a vibrant testament to her profound talent.

Santiago Leon of ARTEFINO speaks for many admirers that DerGara's work is typical of an artist assured of her own talent: it is unconstrained, blending great skill and maturity with the free spirit of a child. DerGara is intent on achieving the original, the unique, the different - but only as it celebrates what is positive and beautiful. Her brilliant use of color expresses the passionate respect for the harmony of nature - a recurring theme is a body of work that brings her growing international acclaim.

DerGara was born in Greenville, SC, and attended Georgia State University and the Atlanta College of Art, where she studied under Dick Williams. She is exhibited and is collected extensively here and aboard.

Ernie Howard is a self-taught artist. Born in rural Louisiana, he later lived in the magnificent desert and mountain regions of the American Southwest. Those vistas provided and unending array of artistic inspiration. His abstract and folk-inspired paintings show a dramatic fascination with Pueblo Indian and Hispanic art and religion. He started his art career more than twenty years ago with a series, which were mostly rendered within the confines of a circle, a tribute to Native American ideas of the Sacred Circle. Having Lived in Asheville, NC, for more than a decade, his abstract paintings now show great influence from these beautiful mountains. His paintings display vibrant color and energy.

Cathryn Miles is grounded in tradition, her paintings are not portraits of places, but are her response to the natural world. She is especially sensitive to the effects of light, the power of which suffuses all of her work. Her style is quasi-abstract and painterly and derives its impact from a strong underlying structure and richly varied tonality. Initial influences include 17th century Dutch painters, with their use of wide horizons and large expanses of sky, and the dark, moody colors of northern European art. Through experimentation Miles has developed a process of starting each piece with an undercoat of intense color and allowing the edges of the numerous top layers to show through. The compositions are a combination of painterly surfaces, color and slightly abstracted landscape reference. By focusing on everyday scenes, rather than the picturesque or monumental, and by using a dark, luminous palette, her art evokes a sense of mystery and a spiritual connection between the earth and the sky.

Miles received her MFA from the University of Houston in 1979 and has taught throughout Georgia. She has exhibits in galleries throughout North America and aboard.

Benn Johnson is a Southerner. He was born in Alabama in 1952 and his life long work is to preserve the American South. "Southern Art is more than magnolias and old barns. Even though I studied painting in Paris and my work is influenced by Post-Impressionism, I want everything I create to celebrate the American South", Johnson says. He feels the southern tradition of 'timeweaving' in his art. He employs fresh, modern colors and a 21st century perspective, but his paintings often evoke the Old South. His use of color blocks recall Southern quilting. Just as Southerners seek and give enjoyment, his paintings are buoyant. It has been said of him and his work, "he is pure Southern joy that lifts one's spirit like a tall glass of sweet tea." Southerners are rooted in the land and his paintings are of Southern landscape or the botanicals he grows on his farm.

Johnson has his Masters degree from the University of Alabama and continues to study art in France. He is exhibited and is represented in numerous private and public collections here and abroad.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 828/526-2673, and e-mail at (summitonegallery@aol.com).

Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: info@carolinaarts.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.

Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2002 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2002 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.