Featured Artist for the Month of September

Ginny Versteegen
 

  The Charleston Artist Guild announces Ginny Versteegen as featured artist for the month of September 2014. 

     Award winning local artist, Ginny Versteegen will present her latest  series of oil paintings. Known for her dynamic and colorful oil paintings, this new series of paintings, "Sunrise...Sunset",  is a spiritual inspiration. The element of color, soft edges and form, as well as, the drama of the time of day come together in the compositions. From the muted colors of "Spirit of South Carolina" to the bright vivid colors of "Sunset on Shem Creek", Versteegen will unveil the majesty found in these spiritual places and inspiring moments of the day. 

Ginny Versteegen was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended art classes at Carnegie Mellon University. She continued with her art studies at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania where she received a degree in Art Education. Through the years, Ginny has painted and taught in the United Stares and Europe. Her advanced studies include Winthrop University in SC, Queens College in Charlotte, NC, as well as, the University of Oviedo, Spain. Having resided in Holland, Brazil and Spain, Versteegen's paintings exhibit an international flair.  A love of color and composition is evident in her work.

An opening reception is planned for Friday, September 5th from 5pm to 8pm at the CAG Gallery located at 160 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC. The reception is free and open to the public.

Come visit the Charleston Artist Guild Gallery during business hours, Mon-Sun 11am - 6pm.

    Were you busy creating art all summer long? I managed to paint one new oil painting and re-painted another. That was it. I had such good intentions too! I don't think I'm alone though. Many of us had lots of things going on this summer and artwork gets put on the back burner or the "to do" list.  

   Well summer is over and it's time to get back to the studio. The People's Choice Art Exhibit will be opening on October 3. This year it's the South State Bank People's Choice Art Exhibit. Registration information and more details will be available soon. You have a few weeks to get your artwork ready, so get busy!

   The Fine Art Guide magazine has expanded to both SC and NC. There are spaces available for your artwork if you have been juried in to the guild.  The cost is $40 per image. Let me know if you're interested in seeing your artwork in this magazine by emailing me at

   The holiday season is just around the corner! I will be putting together another silent auction this year. If you have any ideas or know anyone I could approach about a donation for our auction, please let me know. Last year we had some members donate items they received as gifts, but never used. We would welcome any "re-gifted" items to our auction to raise money for our community outreach programs. The silent auction is a lot of fun and is for a good cause.

I look forward to meeting you all at our September general members' meeting on September 9th!

John James Audubon, 1826

    John James Audubon was born on April 26,1785 in Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti, the illegitimate son of Jean Audubon, a French sea captain and his mistress, a 27-year-old French chambermaid named Jeanne Rabin. Tropical disease and complications of childbirth killed his mother within a few months.  Young Audubon was named Jean Rabin, and shared several carefree years growing up with two other illegitimate children of the elder Audubon that he had sired with a mulatto housekeeper. Saint-Domingue in those days was populated by 35,000 French settlers - and 500,000 black slaves. This did not make for a stable situation. After a 15-year struggle, the white settlers fled, and those who tried to stay were eventually massacred. Jean Audubon, the young Jean Rabin Audubon and his mixed-blood half-sister Rose embarked for France in 1791, where they were raised by the elder Audubon's wife, Anne.

         Young Audubon, now Jean Audubon, had shown an interest in wildlife, especially birds, and had started drawing them at a very young age. At age 11 he was enrolled in the naval academy, where he became an excellent musician, and learned to fence and to dance and to swim expertly. But the military training did not take and after three years he flunked out. While toiling as a sea captain, the elder Audubon had traded a shipload of sugar for a farm 20 miles from Philadelphia, called Mill Grove. In 1803, lead, a valuable commodity, was discovered on the farm at Mill Grove. At the same time, Napoleon was set to declare himself emperor, and was scouring the country for conscripts. It seemed a good idea to send the 18-year old Jean Audubon to America. Sworn to secrecy by his father about his illegitimate birth, young Audubon arrived in New York with documents stating he was from the newly-acquired Louisiana Purchase, and that his name was John James Audubon. He spoke little English.

         Yellow fever was a scourge in cities like Philadelphia and New York in those days, with outbreaks killing many thousands of people and causing populations to periodically abandon the city. Audubon arrived to deserted streets in Manhattan, and promptly contracted yellow-fever. He managed to survive, and made his way to Mill Grove.

         At Mill Grove, Audubon showed little aptitude for management or farm or mine work, and spent his time hunting, drawing and courting his neighbor's daughter, Lucy Bakewell. It was during this period that Audubon created his unique method of painting birds. Using thin wires, birds shot by Audubon were arranged in lifelike poses and secured against a mounting board with a background grid. The bird was then drawn and painted on paper with a corresponding grid. Every bird was painted actual life-size, which led to some rather large images. Audubon adhered to this method throughout his career.

Snowy Egret

         Audubon was almost completely self-taught. He liked to claim he was a student of the great French painter Jacques-Louis David. You will remember David by his famous painting of Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard. There is no evidence that Audubon was ever his student. 

         Audubon could not get along with the manager and half-owner of Mill Grove, Fran�ios Dacosta, and in 1805 returned to France. Danger of conscription still loomed. In just over a year, Audubon picked up a partner, Ferdinand Rozier, and went back to Mill Grove. After another year, Rozier and Audubon sold out some of his holdings to Dacosta and set out for Louisville to open a retail store. They returned to Mill Grove in April, 1808 where Audubon married Lucy. The three set out again for Louisville.

         Again, Audubon showed little inclination to focus on business and spent most of his time in the forests killing and painting birds. A son, Victor Gifford, was born in 1809. After two years in Louisville, in 1810, Audubon sold the rest of Mill Grove and, with Rozier and Lucy, moved the business to Henderson, Kentucky. The business, left almost entirely to Rozier while Audubon traveled in the woods, faltered. In 1911, Audubon and Rozier separated.

         Shortly thereafter, Audubon gained a new partner, Lucy's brother Tom Bakewell. Their stores in Henderson and Susquahanna did well for several years, after a significant slowdown following the war of 1812. Things went well for several years, then, tragedy struck. Lucy gave birth to two daughters, both of whom died in infancy. Audubon and Bakewell overextended and went bankrupt. Through all of this, Audubon continued to accumulate his bird paintings.

          Determined to complete a collection of all the birds of America, in 1821 Audubon traveled down the Mississippi to New Orleans. He arrived completely broke and supported himself by doing portraits and teaching drawing. After a year, Lucy and the boys joined him in New Orleans. Lucy secured work in various places as a teacher and governess, while Audubon painted portraits, taught and continued to paint birds. These were difficult years.

Blue Heron

         With a bulging portfolio, in 1823, Audubon traveled to Philadelphia in an attempt to find an engraver and sponsor to print and sell his prints. He met with no success, having alienated important members of the National Academy of Sciences. His backwoods appearance, his French accent, and his habit of stretching the truth worked against him. He did not fit in with the polite society of the scientific community in Philadelphia.

         Thus, in 1826, with Lucy's support, he took his portfolio to England, and met with immediate acclaim. The British loved him and his work, and he was able to raise enough money to publish his 435 paintings, each measuring 39x26 inches, as The Birds of America. It is believed that between 175 and 200 copies of the "double elephant" volumes were produced in the late 1830s. It is often regarded as the greatest picture book ever produced. Now in his late 40s, Audubon was finally able to support his family.

Brown Pelican

        At the end of the 20th century, it is believed that 119 intact copies still existed. In March of 2000, a copy was sold by Christie's in New York for $8.8 million.

         It is somewhat ironic that Audubon's name is now closely associated with conservation and the protection of wildlife. During his lifetime, Audubon killed many thousands of birds, including the Carolina parakeet, the carrier pigeon and the ivory-billed woodpecker.  In Audubon's day, the Carolina parakeet traveled in groups of millions, and the carrier pigeon in flocks of many millions, able to block out the sky for days. Audubon once wrote: "I call birds few when I shoot less than one hundred per day."  Who in those days knew the supply was not unlimited?

Roseate-Spoonbill

by Karen Gaag and Mila Garro

Co-Directors of Hospitality

   Hello to everyone, and welcome to a new CAG year. The hospitality committee had a good year in 2014 and hope this year will go as well. 

First, I'd like to invite anyone who is interested to join our committee. It is a great way to meet and make new friends and as you all know everyone appreciates what we do.

Second,  we'd like to remind you that we will need your help. Our meetings are always improved by the snacks and finger food that you all bring. You can cook but it isn't necessary since the grocery store has a wide variety of finger foods that you can purchase and that we will all enjoy.

Third,  there are several receptions and of course the Christmas party in which we will need some extra help.  Please sign up to help if you can at [email protected], or call 843.207.1222.

We look forward to seeing you at the September meeting. Please remember to bring a snack.