Spring is busting out all over, and Upstate artists Patrick DeCrane and Gale Roberts are taking the chance to show nature’s beauty through a joint exhibition, “Spring into Summer,” May 7 through June 1, in Gallery III of the Artists Collective | Spartanburg.
An artists’ reception will be held Thursday, May 16, as part of ArtWalk Spartanburg; the reception and admission to the gallery are free and open to the public.
The artists hope the show will encourage visitors to see nature through the eyes of the artists’ eyes, says DeCrane. Watercolor works and acrylics by Roberts will be featured.
“The show is light, airy and colorful, with an invitation to stop and enjoy the progression of spring to summer,” DeCrane says. “We enjoy as artists encouraging and motivating each other in our art skills. The use of our individual media allows us to express our art with different contrasts.”
Roberts adds, “Our inspiration is just to enjoy the colorful beauty of nature. This time of the year nature provides us many opportunities to express her beauty. Visitors will see color, nature and comfort. The settings of the artwork provide a calm and comforting feeling of nature.”
The two have shown their work jointly for the past three years. “We want people to see how two artists who enjoy working together can create a visually satisfying exhibition,” says Roberts, who joined the Artists Collective in 2022. DeCrane joined in 2016. “This show provides an opportunity for the viewer to enjoy nature as it is expressed by two artists.”
The 18 works in the exhibition will be offered for purchase, with prices ranging from $50 to $325.
DeCrane, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, has been painting and drawing most of his adult life, using acrylics, pastels and watercolors, his favorite. “I also find great satisfaction in drawing with pencil and charcoal. My subject matter generally includes flowers, trees and still life.” He began formal art classes in high school. A graduate of Park College and retired from the U.S. Army, he spent 11 years working for the Military Officers Association. Prepared for a new adventure, he then opened, owned and operated a bed and breakfast for 10 years with his life partner, Michael Thomas.
Roberts, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, says she enjoys “bringing brush to paint to capture people, places and things that mean something to me when I see them. I like the bright colors that catch my eyes and the happy smiling faces of my grandson or my two golden retrievers. If you look very closely, life will talk to you. The singing of the birds, the movement of the trees, the color of the flowers, the rush of falling waters and even the silence of an old building about to be torn down. I hope you get a taste of the vastness of the colors and the life of our surroundings both indoors and out through some of my art.