Art festival features local painter’s landscapes

Summer travel plans are starting to heat up like the days, so why not ease in gently by dipping your toes in the water with a day trip? If the lure of Lowcountry landscapes is what inspired you to call Daniel Island home, just up scenic Highway 17 North an hour and 30 minutes is a place that will have your heart.  
 
“Ever Changing, Simply Amazing” is the motto for Brookgreen Gardens, a gem combining Lowcountry history, American sculpture, botanical gardens, and a small zoo.  
 
Brookgreen has a constant, impressive calendar of special events. The gardens are a collection of color on their own, but June 5-6 a select group of regional artists will showcase their fine craftsmanship and quality art at the Brookgreen Gardens Art Festival. 
 
One handpicked artist on display is Daniel Island resident artist Betsy Jones McDonald, who captivates Lowcountry landscapes in the most remarkable manner: with a limited palette of just red, blue, yellow and white.
 
How many colors can you make from just red, blue, yellow and white? The answer evident in Betsy’s work: Unlimited! 
 
“My whole career, I’ve been painting for 30 years, from a limited palette. I do it all from primaries. When I started painting in college, they would give us this big supply list for each class and I couldn’t afford it so I started reading articles about working from a limited palette,” Betsy said. “I had to fool my professors into thinking I was using a full palette and using the colors they wanted.” 
 
Betsy studied art at Columbus State University in Georgia.
 
“I started mixing colors that way and never stopped,” she said.
 
This method has worked well for Betsy because she loves painting “en plein air,” a style of the original French Impressionists like Monet who loved painting in gardens or outdoors in settings that inspired them. It’s challenging working in an uncontrolled environment of sun, wind, and unexpected elements but the intention is to capture the light of the moment. When that happens, it’s magic. Betsy’s made a lot of magic. “It’s so much easier to just carry three tubes of paint and white! It lightens my load,” she said.
 
Betsy has been invited back to Brookgreen Gardens Art Festival each year since 2009. Post-pandemic, it will look a little different. This year, the festival includes 75 artists and craftsmen producing pottery, sculpture, original paintings and other original works which will be on display and available for purchase on the lawn adjacent to Live Oak Allée. Artists will be in individual, open-air tents. The two day juried event is included in the general admission price to Brookgreen Gardens, tickets are online at Brookgreen.org. 
 
Betsy shared with me her exact pigment colors in her limited palette, which is rather like a chef sharing her exact recipe for a famous pie, so in our world of art and imitation, some secrets are better left untold. What I can share is if you are unable to make the day trip to Brookgreen, her gorgeous designer home serves as her gallery where work is available by appointment to be viewed and purchased. Betsy is a true professional, working daily in her studio, which is on the third floor of her Codner’s Ferry home and enjoys some of Daniel Island’s most wonderful sunsets over the tidal creek. Collectors can also visit BetsyMcdonald.com.
 
Heather MacQueen Jones is a Daniel Island artist journaling life through oil painting. Follow her stories on Instagram @heARTpalette, on Facebook or online at MacQueenJones.com.
 

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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