Artist Mary Shobe

111 Bear Track Rd, Walhalla, SC 29691

www.foothills-gallery.com

email:

Bio:

Mary has been doing crafts most of her life. “I remember as a young girl going to home economics and the teacher asking if anyone knew someone who could do different crafts. I would raise my hand and say that my mom could, or say I can show you how my mom taught me.” She received her first art lessons in the fall of 1999, taking a basic drawing/painting class in acrylics from artist Vivian Edwards.

“As an amateur photographer, I learned that the ability to see a good picture also allowed me to be able to recreate a good picture from pen and ink. I also had been doing cross-stitch for many years using my own colors on the patterns. So I had a good working knowledge of color. With my teacher as my mentor, she encouraged me to continue learning to use pen and ink. Since pen and ink and watercolor work well together, I naturally progressed into doing watercolor paintings. With Vivian encouraging me to try different techniques I learned Scratchboard which has become my main media. I also work in acrylic and color pencil.”

Born and raised in Florida, birds became a very large part of Mary’s life. “My mother raised parakeets, finches and lovebirds. I learned first hand how beautiful birds are. Being raised in a tropical environment I had plenty of wild birds to study and enjoy. The time spent around birds gave me the ability to paint birds easily. I enjoy watching birds and nature. I love to hike the Blue Ridge Mountains of my adopted home state of South Carolina and North Carolina.”

Media: Acrylic, Color Pencil, Watercolor, Pen and Ink, and Scratchboard.

Scratchboard or Clay Board is a unique art medium where as the artist renders the picture on a Masonite board, which has been covered with a fine white china clay, then covered with black ink. The artist then "scratches" through the black ink, to the white clay to render unbelievable detail in the artwork. A very striking Black and White, which can also have color added. After the entire engraving has been completed in black and white, several layers of transparent watercolor or Ink are applied. The engraving is then re-scratched to blend and highlight certain areas and additional color may be added to reach the final result.

Scratchboard is a wonderful medium to represent wildlife because of the intricate detail, sharp contrast, and wonderful texture that can be achieved--the subject comes alive before your eyes as the engraving progresses. The completed scratchboard engraving really combines the best of two worlds: the beauty of a full color painting and the detail, texture and precision of an engraving.

The History of Scratchboard

Modern scratchboard as we know it originated in the 19th century. Originally, cardboard was coated with chalk, but this quickly progressed to the use of India ink in parts of Europe which prevails to this day. Scratchboard became popular for its "finer" line appearance, and could be photographically reduced for reproduction easily without losing quality. Up until the 1950s it was used mainly for advertising and editorial illustrations. In more recent years it has made a comeback as an appealing medium. More recently Claybord or Scratchboard, a finer medium, has been created to provide easier and more detail works

Notable scratchboard artists

John Schoenherr has been famous for his scratchboard work since the 1960s and has been successful commercially in this respect. Carol Biberstein, while better recognized for her use of watercolor, has also utilized scratchboard in her art. Canadian illustrator, Mark Summers, is one the most talented and commercially successful in the scratchboard medium today.

Digital Art

The digital cards are created by using cuttings of real flowers and scanning them on a computer scanner with cloth for the background. Any flower can be scanned and made into a digital imager (Originally used to create fabric for quilting.)

Artist June Shobe

111 Bear Track Rd, Walhalla, SC 29691

www.foothills-gallery.com

email:

Bio:

June is a Fabric artist whose media is quilting and embroidery. She attended the Boston School of the Arts as a young girl. She and her husband Harold worked in ceramics at her studio in Massachusetts in 1962 thru 1965, and at The Wishing Well Studio in Naples, Florida from 1966 thru 1969.

While living in Florida in 1969, she painted murals for the Big Cypress Center, located in Naples. She won numerous awards for her ceramics. June and Harold made the trophy for the beard growing contest held at the Swamp Buggy weekend in 1968 and 1969.

June has been doing fabric art for 45 years. She has won many ribbons on her embroidery and quilting. June is a quilting and Brazilian embroidery teacher in South Carolina. “Brazilian Embroidery is a lost art in which I am trying to encourage more people to learn. The more people I teach, the better chance that they will teach others to ensure the embroidery will pass down through generations and not be lost with this one.”

June was the first place winner in the Original Sewing & Quilt EXPO 2004 People's Choice Embroidery Challenge, presented by Stitches Magazine, Profitable Embroiderer Magazine and Brother International, for the category of Best Use of Novelty Threads in Embroidery

History of Brazilian Embroidery:

Embroidery, in its most basic terms, has been with us since time immemorial. Over the centuries, basic stitches have evolved into the more complex and elaborate needle works we know today.

Embroidery of any kind uses stitches known and used for hundreds of years in countless ways and for many different purposes. Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery is no exception. The difference is that it doesn't limit itself to specific stitches: it uses stitches from all types of needlework. Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery is a style of embroidering where you can choose from the whole palette of stitches and knots you know.

Another difference in this style of embroidery is the thread. Rayon was introduced in the mid 1800's and by the turn the century, was the first man-made fiber in full production. Although it is manmade, rayon is not a synthetic fiber but regenerated natural fiber (cellulosic material, generally wood pulp). Rayon has long been the preferred thread for this style of embroidery because of its sheen and smoothness. Most stitches, especially bullions (which are used extensively for their dimensional effect), are much easier to make because of the thread's smooth texture.

Now we come to the question if the stitches aren't Brazilian and rayon isn't Brazilian, what does Brazil have to do with Brazilian embroidery? Well, many times throughout history, credit goes not to the inventor, but to the ones who popularize an item. Brazil started producing multicolored rayon threads in several weights. The popularity of the thread spread rapidly throughout Brazil to the point where variegated rayon embroidery became know as vari-cor embroidery. It wasn't long before the rest of the world noticed its popularity and immediately adopted it as "Brazilian".