Serenity In Color

The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts presents Serenity In Color, work by Helen Bower Jones, Ellie Snow and Pringle Teetor, in the gallery September 23rd through October 26th. There will be an opening reception on September 26th from 6-9pm. During the reception, Jody McCall and Carolina Campfire will play music on the patio in front of the gallery.

The show will include an artist talk by Helen Jones and Pringle Teetor in the gallery on Saturday, October 18th at 4pm.

Helen Bower Jones, a fiber artist, finds the title of her show represents just how she feels about weaving. “For me,” says Jones, “the word serenity conjures up images of peaceful glowing colors, light and shadow and reflections, softness, and quietness. Weaving is a very meditative, focused and ordered process that makes me feel calm.”

Cloth is essentially a mass of tiny holes surrounded and connected by threads. It is solid but also full of air. I’m very interested in the way that light interacts with these gaps to create shadows and secondary patterns, and because of this I am drawn to creating work that has a lot of open space in it.

Jones creates color in her work using various painting and dyeing techniques on the threads before putting them on the loom, and is currently exploring the use of earth and mineral pigments. “I like to use natural, elemental materials, and I love the relationship between the plant fiber that I use, linen, and the colors made from the earth.”

Even before she started weaving, Jones was fascinated by the photographic process of cyanotype, which harnesses the chemistry between certain iron compounds and UV light to create a negative image of an object on a surface. She has been finding ways to create images both of her weavings and on them using cyanotype to capture the shadowy nature of light interacting with cloth.

Ellie Snow is an artist based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Her acrylic paintings explore emotional themes through abstracted gardens and landscapes. Her works often begin with nature photographs taken around her woodland home, often while exploring with her two children. These images are collaged and edited to create a rough draft for the painting. Snow’s main interest is the external landscape as a metaphor for the internal landscape, often referencing her experience of motherhood. The paintings that result are emotive and sometimes dream-like, balancing the beauty and complexity of being human.

Much of Pringle Teetor’s inspiration comes from world around her - from her garden, with the wildlife and the woods surrounding her home and from the colors of clouds at sunset. In the bleakness of last winter she felt uninspired and decided it was a good time to simply concentrate on practicing one of the most difficult forms in glassblowing, the “low bowl”. “These are very tricky because they are so shallow – the entire piece stays very hot, so it is challenging to keep it stable. “I started in clear glass so we could recycle it if it went badly. Finally, I began adding a little white to look like clouds. By adding a few more bands of color here and there, I ended up making a series of what I call Cloud Bowls. They are meant to be used – for fruit, ice cream, popcorn, or about anything you can think of!”

“Once spring came - filled with color – I saw art everywhere! My muse returned and I put impressionistic dogwood, azaleas and wisteria on vases. Working with hot glass is physically demanding, combining artistry and technical skills. Every time I take a gather of fresh molten glass, I fall in love with what I do. The heat radiating from it, the light reflecting through it make it come to life in my hands. With limitless in combinations of color, pattern and form, it is like dancing in a rainbow!”

The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is owned by 21 local artists featuring painting, sculpture, glass arts, jewelry, fiber art, handcrafted furniture, pottery, scratchboard, and mixed media. 121 N. Churton Street, Hillsborough NC. Hours: Monday - Saturday 10-6, Sunday 12-4. For more information about the show visit www.HillsboroughGallery.com