By IVY MOORE
Item Features Editor
ivym@theitem.com

Artists in the Sumter area will exhibit some of their best work when the annual Sumter Artists’ Guild Show opens Thursday evening. The opening reception is scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m., and guild president Laura Cardello expects most exhibiting artists to be present.

The guild has around 100 members, and each member of the guild is invited to enter up to three works, she said, so the show should fill both large exhibition spaces at the Sumter County Gallery of Art as well as the hall gallery.

“This influx of new artists, coupled with the strong tradition of longtime guild artists, results in a fresh and diverse Sumter Artists’ Guild Show – a treat for art lovers in Sumter and surrounding areas,” said Karen Watson, director of the gallery. “Prize money has been increased in the hopes of attracting former guild members, as well as new members, to enter their art. The Sumter Artists’ Guild show also offers a great opportunity to purchase high quality art at reasonable prices.”

Now almost 50 years old, the Sumter Artists’ Guild has been rejuvenated in the past few years, Cardello said, adding that those attending the reception can expect to see a wide variety of media, including oils, acrylic, watercolor, photography, sculpture, mixed media, ceramics, woodworking, blacksmith metal work and fiber. Last year’s winners were Lindsay Brown, Marjorie Hooks and Gerald Williams, and there were three honorable mention winners: Cardello, Sylivia Pickell and Ray Davenport.

In addition, Cardello noted that the guild provides several other functions that benefit the community, among them presenting artists’ demonstrations at each monthly meeting; administering the Sumter County Fine Art Show at the county fair; Art in the Park, which has members demonstrating, showing and selling their work at Memorial Park; and currently, working to beautify several Sumter Senior Services Activity Centers. Guild members communicate through an electronic newsletter, an expanded schedule of fun events and meetings that include a variety of speakers, demonstrations by artists and “show and tell,” when guild members bring their pieces in for comments and critique. Guild meetings are the second Wednesday of each month, September through May at 7 p.m., upstairs at the Sumter County Gallery of Art, and Cardello said non-artists are welcome to attend and even join the guild.

The judge for the 2009 show is Lowcountry artist Jackie Wukela. Wukela works in acrylics, watercolor, colored pencil, pastels, and oils. Her goal for her own work “… is to explore the world of color and light — looking at things we see every day and recording them during a moment of magic.”

A member of The Portrait Society of America, the South Carolina Watercolor Society, and the Colored Pencil Society of America, Wukela has won numerous awards in juried shows throughout the region including 2nd Place, Waccamaw Arts & Crafts Guild Show, 2009, 1st Place, Moja Festival (Charleston) 2008, and the True Blue Landscape Award, SC Watermedia Society Show, 2008. In 2004, she won the top award for the International Colored Pencil Exhibition and the CIPPY Award.

The public is invited to attend Sumter Artists’ Guild Show reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Sumter County Gallery of Art, 200 Hasel St., adjacent to Patriot Hall on Haynsworth St. There is a $5 charge for the opening reception if you are not a member of the gallery. At all other times admission is free. The exhibition can be seen through Aug. 28.

Regular gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1:30-5 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, contact Watson at (803) 775-0543, or director@sumtergallery.com; Frank McCauley, curator, Sumter County Gallery of Art, (803) 775-0543, or Frank@sumtergallery.org; Cardello, (803) 983-4940, or ljcardello@yahoo.com. You can also visit the guild Web sites at www.sumterartistsguild.org or the gallery’s site at www.sumtergallery.org. To see more of juror Jackie Wukela’s work, visit http://www.lyndaenglishstudio.net.

Reach Features Editor Ivy Moore at ivym@theitem.com or (803) 774-1221.

We will begin meeting again on September 9, 2009 at 7pm at the Sumter Gallery of Art.

Make sure to check out the calendar that was added to the site.

Now you can keep up with Sumter Artists Guild happenings as well as openings and art events taking place in Sumter.

We hope that you have a great summer, but don’t forget to spend a little while doing some art! =)

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We appreicate  your patience and understanding as we get the ball rolling and tweak our new website.

Jim Wade is picking up the plates, utensils, cups and a few sodas. I will get some ice and have a dish. Please bring some type of picnic item to share with the group. It will be a buffet style of serving.

If for some ungodly reason it might happen to rain the picnic will be moved to inside my house, next door. * I am not cleaning it,  so be for warned,  there are dirt bunnies everywhere! Ha! =)

- Laura