Distant View, oil/canvas, 44 x 36 inches, 1998

Art in the Open: Professor Takes His Art onto the Barter Green

Washington County Bureau

(The Bristol Herald Courier, Bristol, Virginia, August 5, 1998, p.B1)

"The thing about being a painter is taking a risk,The satisfaction is ending up somewhere you didn't think you would end up -- when you've come up with something that astonishes you. And it might also be good."-- Charles Goolsby Chairman of the Emory & Henry College Art Department

ABINGDON - Artist Charles Goolsby braved the heat and the curious stares Tuesday as he brushed oil paint on a canvas.

His easel was set up beneath a tent on the Barter Green, which is home to the Virginia Highlands Festival juried arts and crafts show through Aug. 16.

Goolsby's turn under the demonstration tent gave him time to work on a painting of a local hamburger joint. The day-long stint also made him a tad self-conscious, Goolsby said, as festival goers peered over his shoulders while he worked.

"I guess I'm doing it so in some way someone in the community might benefit" he said.

The strong smell of oil paint filled the air.

Goolsby is chairman of the Art Department at Emory & Henry College. He's accustomed to working in solitude, in a studio. So plying his art for spectators under the mid-day sun was a novel experience.

Several works-in-progress were positioned around the demonstration tent, illustrating how Goolsby approaches a painting. He often begins by taking photographs of a subject from several different angles, then Goolsby scans the images into his computer and manipulates them with software. The results can produce a new perspective that that the artist will translate onto canvas.

"I shoot a lot of pictures," he said. "It's like taking notes."

"Using a photo as a guide, Goolsby begins some paintings with a charcoal rendering, which is later embellished with paint. He often doesn't have a clear image in his mind of what the finished product will look like. That's what makes the work enjoyable, he said.

Each painting "will reveal itself to me" as the work progresses, he said. "Painting for me is like life - its a many layered process. "

By that, Goolsby said he wants his paintings to deliver multiple meanings to the viewer.

His themes tend to focus on transition, longing, the verity of mortality. Conveying such ideas in a static environment - canvas and oil paint - represent a key part of the challenge any artist must face. To do so under the scrutiny of people eating hot dogs and wandering the festival grounds, must really take skill.

"I feel a little self-conscious, honestly, to be out here painting in the open," Goolsby said "This morning one kid sat here for 15 minutes and just watched. when he got up to go, he said, 'I want my dad to buy one of these.'"

As Goolsby spoke, tourists ambled up to the demonstration tent and appraised the painting in progress. Sometimes they offered a comment, or asked a question. Sometimes they merely wandered to the next tent.

Goolsby is among more than a dozen artists offering demonstrations of their work during the festival. a different artist is scheduled each day. One of Goolsby's friends, a festival volunteer, asked him to do the demonstration.

The artist seemed somewhat amused by his situation.

"The thing about being a painter is taking a risk," he said. "The satisfaction is ending up somewhere you didn't think you would end up -- when you've come up with something that astonishes you. And it might also be good."

A Michigan native, Goolsby has been painting 22 years. He came to E&H four years ago from Harrisonburg, Va., where he received a master of fine arts degree from James Madison University.

A one-man show of Goolsby's paintings is set for Sept. 25 at the William King Regional Arts Center.

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