NCWC News: Exhibit Opens November 8 in North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Mims Gallery

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October 29, 2002

Exhibit Opens November 8 in North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Mims Gallery

Rocky Mount—"McNamee and Saxon: The Two Realists Art Exhibition" opens at North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Mims Gallery in the Dunn Center at 7 p.m. Friday, November 8, with a free public reception for the artists.

Richard McNamee is a landscape painter from Charleston , South Carolina, who favors coastal subjects. Although he is a gifted oil painter who has exhibited extensively in the southeast, he is by profession a metallurgical engineer at Consolidated Diesel Co. in Whitakers, North Carolina.

McNamee says his passion for painting emerged "growing up in the low country of South Carolina, which instilled in him a love of the sea and the vast expanses of marshes and rivers." His oil paintings depict southern coastal vistas with a visual dialogue between sea and skies. Famous lighthouses such as Hatteras are frequent subjects.

Although largely self-taught, McNamee has studied painting with William Halsey, Charles Parnelle, and most notably Claude Howells of Charleston. He has been a member of the Charleston Artist Guild since 1964 and served as president from 1984-85. He is also a member of the Wilmington, North Carolina, Artists Guild. In 1970, his painting titled "C2" was among 48 paintings selected to be part of the South Carolina Tri-Centennial Traveling Exhibition. His paintings are found in many private collections in the eastern United States.

Roanoke, Virginia, artist Alice J Saxon is a photo realist pastel painter who specializes in portraits but whose creative impulse directs her to nature, whether it’s animals or flowers. Her realism is achieved by her masterful handling of light and shadow. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes subtle, her subjects can have either an assertive presence or a quiet intimacy.

Saxon studied at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore and took instruction from Anne Bernard. After her studies, she concentrated on her personal style of realism. She is a member of the League of Roanoke Artists and has exhibited and won prestigious prizes nationwide. Her pastel paintings are found in many private collections across the country and her portraits become valued family heirlooms.

Many of the pictures will be for sale. Purchases, information, and tours can be arranged with the gallery curator at (252) 985-5268. The exhibition will continue until Dec. 15; gallery hours are 9-5, Monday through Friday.

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