Sunset River to feature Kevin Beck's pastels

Sunset River Marketplace art gallery in Calabash, is featuring works in pastel by Kevin Beck through May 9. Beck is a contemporary artist living in Blowing Rock.

Known for the vibrancy and resonance of his palette, this well-known colorist sees and interprets the landscape in shades of teal, chartreuse and berry. Viewers are transfixed by the depth and translucence of his work both in pastel and oil.

Beck has been featured in Pastel Artist International (2002), Spectator Magazine (1999), Our State Magazine (2007), Life Styles Magazine (2006), Carolina Mountain Living (2004), Art in Embassies (2007), BRAHM Catalog (2005,2006), and is soon to be published Mountains & Memories by R. McGrath, University of Chicago Press.

Beck is collected throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. He's included in numerous corporate collections including: Wachovia and SunTrust banks, Tennessee Valley Authority, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee and the Art in Embassies Department of the United States government. He has been in 14 one-man-shows and has been juried into numerous national competitions. Beck currently exhibits with the Arts in the Embassy Program 2006-2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The show at Sunset River Marketplace will include several of Beck's coastal scenes painted en plein air on a recent trip to the Carolina coast. Included in the collection are two dockside shrimpers, a twisted live oak tree and landscape of a a fast disappearing structure—a Carolina tobacco barn.

An open house to meet the artist will be at the gallery from 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 5. The final week of the show (May 5 – 9) will coincide with an artists’ workshop in pastel and oil at the gallery’s workshop facility, Sunset River Studio, also in Calabash. For more information about the workshop, visit www.SunsetRiverStudio.com. For gallery news log onto www.SunsetRiverMarketplace.com.

Sunset River Marketplace is at 10283 Beach Drive SW (NC 179) in Calabash.