When I left Savannah, Ga., after our most recent visit, I found myself appreciating the city for its support of local art more than I had ever done so before.
The city has large art museums -- the Jepson Center and Telfair Academy jump to mind immediately -- and we had visited those. They are virtual neighbors at Telfair Square on the west end of the Historic District.
But there also are striking collections by artists whose work is on display at small shops sprinkled throughout the Historic District. I decided to devote a post to a few of those artists simply because I visited them by chance as I strolled past them during my walks while in the city in late March.
Lee Ann and I most enjoyed our stops at the Tiffani Taylor and Ray Ellis galleries, which are about five blocks from each other on opposite sides of Ellis Square.
Taylor is still a working artist who graduated with several degrees from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). From her early years in Ogden, Utah, Taylor used her talent for observation cultivated by her grandmother into textured paintings and hand-painted pottery, from the field poppies (see photo above) to aspen tree trunks to a variety of floral interpretations. SCAD awarded her a grant to open a shop in Laconte, France, where she will spend time and draw inspiration for her work, which is on display in several international galleries. She opened the Savannah gallery at 11 Whitaker Street in 2011. The tea pot below is an example of her hand-painted pottery.
Ellis died in 2013 after a 70-year career that involved stops on seven continents, although he lived and painted mostly in the United States -- his native Philadelphia as well as New York, Savannah and Martha's Vineyard. In the 1980s, he and longtime CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite collaborated on a series of books celebrating America's coastlines -- "North by Northeast," "South by Southeast" and "Westwind." He opened the Savannah gallery in 1988.
For three consecutive years, beginning in 1998, Bill and Hillary Clinton commissioned Ellis to create scenes of the White House for their annual Christmas cards. Some of his works are in the permanent White House collection. In 2004, the Telfair Museum honored the depth and breadth of Ellis' work by establishing a traveling exhibit titled "Ray Ellis in Retrospect: A Painter's Journey." He collaborated with CK Wolfson on a biography of him that was published posthumously in 2014.
The image leading off the post is among my favorites of Ellis I came across at the gallery. The one above the previous paragraph is another sailing work of his.
We came upon a kiosk used by Jorge Lastra Guerra, a Chilean sculptor and jewelry maker, also by chance while walking along the riverfront on our last day in Savannah. His creations of sailboats using driftwood for the boat's hull and cut metal strips for the sails (see above) and his jewelry were limited in the small confines. But it caught our attention nevertheless. A sign outside the kiosk identified him as an "artist in residence," but did not explain the significance of that title. In addition, Lastra Guerra does not appear to have an online presence.
The fourth shop, Savannah Gallery of Art, 304 E. Bryan St., was another surprise. Once inside the small quarters, we chatted with the attendant -- who actually was one artist whose work was on display -- and he mentioned the gallery had been in operation only since the previous October. Unfortunately, I didn't get his name, and the gallery's website did not seem to have any space devoted to him. Examples of some of the works on display are shown below.
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