Experiencing Newberry with Plein Air Newberry

NEWBERRY — Plein Air Newberry is an annual event that brings artists from all over to Newberry to allow them to pick a spot in Newberry County and create a work of art from what they see and interpret.

The South Carolina Watermedia Society coordinates this unique event and this year they opened it up to include other 2-D media (oils, acrylics, mixed media, pencil, pastel, charcoal, pen and ink). This year, the event brought about 24 artists as participants.

“This is one of our favorite events, we love this, this is with the S.C. Watermedia Society and we love that they opened up to other media, we very much appreciate that,” said Marquerite Palmer, program manager at the Newberry Arts Center.

The Newberry Arts Center (1200 Main Street, Newberry) displayed the art created during Plein Air Newberry following the competition. Once the art was framed and placed on display, Mark Anderson (an art professor with Presbyterian College) served as the juror for the event.

“I’ll tell you, judging art is my least favorite thing about art, it seems strange to me to have a competition for art. I get the point, it serves as encouraging if you try for something,” he said. “To me, we are so unique, everyone is so unique; if we are really present in what we are working on, we will make something absolutely unique to us. How do you judge that?”

With that being said, Anderson explained how he decided to approach the Plein Air Newberry pieces.

“I look to be sort of hit over the head when I walked in the room. Then I walk around and I’m looking to be surprised,” he said.

Anderson said it was a bit confusing to have a lot of paintings with the same subject — for example, the Newberry Opera House and Wells Japanese Garden. He said he tried to go back and see which pieces he liked more and which spoke to him.

The pieces that were honored with a ribbon for Plein Air Newberry were as follows:

• First Place: Mark Conrardy – “NOH Morning” – oil/charcoal on birch.

• Second Place: Karen Jamrose – “Garden Iris” – acrylic

• Third Place: Teri Carter – “Hwy 395” – pastel on u art

• Honorable Mention: Jodie Hatcher – “Morning Tea” – oil.

• Honorable Mention: Drake Powell – “Alley Cat by Poet Tree” – acrylic.

Renea Eshleman, with S.C. Watermedia Society, thanked Anderson for being the Plein Air Newberry juror and thanked the Newberry Arts Center for hosting and helping.

Palmer, in response, said this was the best gathering of Plein Air Newberry they have ever had and that they will have another one in the fall.

“Plein Air Newberry is very important to me and a lot of people in Newberry, it was a long-time passion of mine that there be a place in Newberry everyone can come and experience the joy of creating and the joy you all felt today,” said Palmer. “With that said, I’m going to say we have started a nonprofit called CREATE Newberry to support the program here, to provide scholarships for people of any age to take any class they want to take, we also offer free art programming and things like that.”