Moments Captured
Coastal photographer Elliot MacGuire shares what it takes to excel behind the lens
Painting Partners
Being a painter is a reclusive profession. How each one sees their surroundings is unique and isolated by definition — picking details interesting to them and ignoring others. Even creating a piece of art by laying a brush thick with paint on a board or canvas is a solo pursuit. But some are lucky enough to have another artist near, encouraging and pushing them forward to new and better work. Two professional painters living in Berlin, Lynne Lockhart and Kirk McBride, have an almost idyllic situation. They have found a way to paint alone — together.
Artistic Journey
Few art mediums are as elemental as clay, wood and pigment. Some artists transform these basic materials, intentionally hiding the intrinsic nature and the rawness from the observer. But Chris Richard creates works of art that never obscure the substance of the medium. Instead, he transforms those elemental things with a unique style and vision.
Now living on the bank of the Choptank River in Denton, MD, Chris grew up in New Jersey. His mother was a gifted artist — a sculptor who created realistic work in plasticine and later bronze. But it was a high school ceramics teacher and her husband, also a ceramics teacher, who patiently inspired Chris to explore the craft and develop an important early aesthetic.
After earning his master’s degree from Edinboro University in PA, he first considered teaching. But when a solo exhibition at a prestigious gallery unexpectedly sold out, Chris became a full-time studio artist, focusing on creating work for collectors.
Twists and Turns: An Artful Path
Ideas spread out through generations, like twisting tributaries of a river. It is an artist’s joy to navigate a sinuous course, absorbing various influences and leaving others. Some, like painter and sculptor Will Hemsley, fluidly move through ideas and bring them together. And the knowledge he gathers from each impacts how he treats the other.
Will is interested in the world around him and not only the Chesapeake Bay region and his art but also how all disciplines — science, literature, economics — connect. He is a keen observer and thinker. The water coursing through the Eastern Shore is an apt metaphor for the influences coursing through his work.
A local Eastern Shoreman, Will is originally from Kent Island and descends from the venerated American Revolution veteran and aide-de-camp of then-general George Washington, Tench Tilghman. His father, Tilghman Hemsley, is an artist and charter boat captain. Undoubtedly, he learned much from his father, inheriting both the love of salt water and the love of creating.
Naturally autodidactic, the compartmentalized way he received information in high school frustrated him. But during college and early in his career, as he saw connections everywhere — it changed things for him. “In art, experimentation rules,” he says. The freedom he found in exploration would be crucial early in his career.
While attending St. Mary’s College, Will trained as a painter, only taking one sculpture class. Later, a client who had purchased paintings explained that he was looking for a sculpture of Canada geese and asked if he could create what he was looking for. Without pausing, Will said, “Yes.” Improvising, he took geese from his freezer and used the birds as models for the new commission. Though his sculpture experience was limited, he ignored the obstacles, creating a celebrated work.