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Downtown gallery to host Craig Forrest's watercolors
By Lynn Hotaling
Watercolors inspired by local scenes will highlight a one-man show set to open Friday at a downtown Sylva gallery.
Paintings by Cullowhee artist Craig Forrest will be on display throughout December at It's by Nature, the Main Street art gallery owned by Sandi Cooper. The show's opening reception will be Friday, Dec. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. at It's by Nature, which is located next to Peebles in the former Sears catalog store.
Caney Fork Snowfall, the most recent watercolor by Cullowhee artist Craig Forrest, will be the featured paining in Forrest's one-man show at It's by Nature on Main Street. Forrest, known for his realistic renderings of local scenes, will be available to discuss his work during an opening reception this Friday, Dec. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. Signed, limited-edition prints of the painting, which features the old Hunter barn on Caney Fork Road, will also be available at the gallery. Forrest's watercolors will be on display through December.
The show's featured painting, titled Caney Fork Snowfall, is also Forrest's most recent. It depicts the old Hunter barn on Caney Fork Road, a subject Forrest has painted twice before.
"It's exquisite," Cooper said. "This is the third time Craig has painted this old barn – all from different vantage points – and they are all hauntingly beautiful and peaceful; this one ... I believe is even more so."
The exhibit marks the first time Forrest's work has been shown locally in seven years. Most of the paintings have never been displayed in Sylva before, Forrest said.
"We are delighted to have Craig Forrest as our first featured artist for the opening of our new exhibition space," Cooper said. "We have enjoyed his work in our own home for many years and his original work and fine reproductions have hung in our gallery since our opening last year.
Cullowhee's Craig Forrest, shown at his drawing board with his Brittany spaniel Kay-Cee, will be the featured artist in a monthlong exhibit at It's by Nature on Main Street. Forrest's watercolors, many of which depict Jackson County scenes, will be the first group of paintings displayed in a newly-renovated exhibit space created by gallery owner Sandi Cooper. An opening reception will be held Friday evening, Dec. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m.
"It seems only fitting that Craig, a local artist who has a strong following both in the region and nationally, should be the one to open this new exhibition space," she said.
A native North Carolinian, Forrest has been painting for more than 30 years. Describing himself as a "rural realist," Forrest said he roams the area with camera in hand, gathering ideas. The images he captures on film provide a starting point for his paintings, he said.
Forrest uses the term "artist's license" to explain his departure from an exact reproduction of the elements of a particular scene.
"When I begin a new painting it is usually about a subject with which I am very familiar and for which I have developed a strong feeling," he said. "My subject matter concerns my life experiences, where I live, who I know and what is of importance to me. For me a subject has to 'come in the back door.' As Andrew Wyeth says: 'It comes up and hits you in the back of the head' when you least expect it.
"That's why I like to work from photographs. Aside from the fact that I work slowly, I find that having a camera provides a way to capture a subject immediately," Forrest said. "Often there is just not enough time to develop a sketch or watercolor study fast enough before a scene changes. I can't help but feel that the camera is a wonderful tool for artists. I'm certain that great artists from the past would have jumped at the chance to work with the technology artists of today have at their disposal."
According to Forrest, composition is the most important aspect of his work.
"Using a camera gives an artist a certain advantage as far as composition is concerned," he said. "The viewfinder of the camera becomes the frame for the scene, and the strong artist is the one who can take that image one step further in the studio and crop the scene or add elements to a scene in order to strengthen a composition.
"People who are familiar with subjects I have painted are often disappointed because they are, in many cases, not literal representations of how they remember them. To me this is what defines the difference between the copy of a photograph and a painting. Photographs provide me with a point of departure. They are in a sense, my sketches," he said.
In addition to original watercolors, Forrest's limited-edition, signed prints will be available. These include his popular depiction of the historic Jackson County Courthouse as well as reproductions of Caney Fork Snowfall.
In recent years Forrest has turned his attention to perfecting a method of producing limited-edition prints of his work. He first scans his paintings in sections and then "stitches" them together using the computer program Photoshop. To complete the process, Forrest uses pigment-based inks to produce art-quality prints in his home studio.
"Prints made with pigment inks have a longevity of more than 100 years if they're properly framed," Forrest said. "I couldn't think of selling a print without longevity."
Such prints are called giclee reproductions because they reproduce art from another medium, Forrest said.
Two of Forrest's paintings – Broom-making, a portrait of the late Frances Nicholson and 10-10-10, which shows bags of fertilizer in Leo Cowan's Tuckasegee barn – are featured in a 2003 book written by Harald Johnson called Mastering Digital Printing: The Photographer's and Artist's Guide to High-Quality Digital Output.
Of the 18 digital artists included in the book, Forrest is one of only two doing reproductions of traditional art rather than photographs.
Though he pursued a studio art degree at Appalachian State University, Forrest initially turned to banking as a way to earn a living and moved to the mountains when he was named manager of First Citizens bank in Bryson City. He began painting professionally in 1979.
"The bank wanted to transfer me to Asheville, and I didn't want to go," he said to explain the career shift. His wife, Wanda, was a teacher with Jackson County Schools, a fact that enabled him to try painting full time.
After multiple sclerosis ended Wanda's teaching career, Forrest accepted an offer from Daniel Allison and spent 12 years working for the Sylva car dealer. When Wanda's condition worsened, he returned to art, a vocation he could pursue at home.
For more information about watercolorist Craig Forrest and his work, visit his Web site, www.sleepyhollowstudio.com.
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