Betsy Hughes

 

My love of colorful fabrics and threads goes back to my childhood…… watching and learning from my very patient mother who taught me to use a needle and thread and a sewing machine. Although I have experimented and worked in various other forms, I’m always drawn back to fabric because there just seems to be something very gratifying about working with the colors, textures, and versatility of cloth and thread.

Creating fabric collages is my passion, whether it be art quilts or  fabric pieces collaged onto canvas with no stitching. The most fun is collecting the perfect fabrics and threads and putting them all together so that the finished piece, when viewed from a short distance, almost becomes a realistic painting. I like to describe the process as therapeutic and at the same time challenging and rewarding!

This exhibit is my series called ANIMALS & THEIR PEOPLE. Included are the late Jane Goodall, the late Steve Irwin, friends and their horses, and more! I was inspired to do this series because I wanted to try to capture the expressions of love, communication, and sometimes whimsical interaction between pets and their humans.

I want the viewer to take a look, stand back, wonder, and smile!

Jerri Phillips

 

“Art must instill a sense of beauty, nostalgia, appreciation, or other connection that sparks the mind into an artistic adventure.”

 

Jerri Phillips is a Windsor, SC, resident and equestrian originally from Palmetto, Florida. Her lifetime love of horses, cattle and nature with an emphasis on conservation are expressed in her paintings. Her artistic mission is to preserve the history of such for future generations. She paints primarily in acrylic and oil on canvas or board, recently expanding her repertoire to include life-sized fiberglass horse and cattle statues as well as concrete jockeys.

She participated in the “Ponce DeLeon Herd of Seven” art project juried by the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art for the Great Florida Cattle Drive and Florida Cow Culture Preservation Committee to Celebrate 500 years of cattle in America. Her painting depicting the history of cattle is displayed on a life-sized Florida Cracker Bull statue named “Quinientos” along with six other bulls painted by artists. Her current mobile “Windsor Bull Art Project” was funded in part through the Greater Augusta Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts so that it may be shown to the public for art enrichment. This project is a restored life-sized statue of a Bi-Lo grocery store Hereford bull painted with scenes of Windsor.

She is a member of Aiken Artists Guild, Aiken Center for the Arts and Greater Augusta Arts Council. She is Past President of the Parrish Arts Council in Florida. She attended courses at Ringling College of Art & Design and St. Petersburg College in addition to taking master painting workshops. Her work has been exhibited in Aiken, Windsor and North Augusta as well as Sarasota, Anna Maria Island, Bradenton, Parrish, Palmetto, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Gulfport, Arcadia, Micanopy and Kissimmee, Florida. She and her husband, John, owned and operated “Artistic Florida” guitar and art studios with an art gallery before relocating. Jerri has resumed teaching private art lessons and plans to hold artist workshops in the future.

Learn more on artistichoofbeats.com!