A Stroke of Nostalgia

On its surface, Mark Beale’s award-winning painting, “Creekside Dusk,” is simply a riverbank backlit by the setting sun. And he did such a fine job of it, it recently won a major local art award.
Last week Beale was awarded a $3,000 first-prize from an art contest, “Garden of Dreams,” put on and judged by representatives of the Magnolia Plantation and Gardens and the Charleston Artist Guild. Beale’s painting bested close to 180 other entries from 11 total states.
But probe a little deeper, like Beale does in his day job as a psychiatrist. It becomes obvious that there is more going on than paint dabbed on canvas. There, rising through the surface, is a mixture of shadow and mood conveying a message beyond that of a pastoral, bucolic landscape hanging in a hotel lobby. Nothing is moving in the painting, yet something has been moved in its gloaming, brown hues.
Born and bred in the Tidewater section of Virginia, that state’s version of the Lowcountry, Beale grew up exploring nearby creeks and rivers and developed a love of the coastal landscape.
And on some level, that was what Beale, whose work has been showed across the country, was supposed to do. But Tonalism, the fin de siècle school of art he ascribes to, the one overtaken by Impressionism, demands more.
Beale may have completed “Creekside Dusk” sitting at an easel in his Wadmalaw home, but he was standing on the shoulders of giants, like painters George Inness, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler of “Whistler’s Mother” fame.
Other naturalists from the late 19th century thinkers, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, influenced Whistler and Inness.
And, by extension, Beale.
Taking a pre-Thanksgiving rush break from his West Ashley practice, Beale said he approached the word “dreams” in the contest title from every angle before picking up a brush.
“I was thinking about the history of plantations,” he said. “I was thinking about dreams on all sides, not just from the perspective of ‘Southern’ gentility, but also from the knowledge that [plantations] were also sites of forced labor.”
“My inspiration springs from an appreciation for the natural world and our emotional connection to it,” Beale wrote recently. “I enjoy painting the pure landscape and want the viewer to project themselves into the painting and feel the mood of the scene I am depicting.
“The Lowcountry coastal landscape provides an ideal subject matter with inherent mystery and atmosphere. Ultimately, I would like my work to remind the viewer of the feelings that God’s creation inspires in us.”
Award and cash aside, Beale was excited when comments from the judges said his painting had a “haunting quality without being sentimental.” He felt like he’d been heard, as an artist – the judges understood that he wasn’t trying to simply evoke an idealized view of gardens of bright colors and too-obvious unity.
Mary Ann Johnson, who lives on the grounds among the unkempt romantic gardens with her horticulturalist husband, was one of the judges. She said that the “sophistication” of Beale’s effort stood out the most to her, placing it clearly above the over paintings in the juried competition.
When she convened with another judge, she saw on her colleague’s post-it note the word “sophistication.” They both knew they’d found the clear winner.
Johnson said the idea to hold the competition was the brainchild of John Drayton Hastie Jr., whose father was the most recent single owner of the plantation. “It was just something we wanted to do every few years for the area’s artists,” he said.
Hastie swears he had nothing to do with the contest, or picking the winner, otherwise the winner could have been an “an old fashioned watercolor.” To hear Hastie tell it, if the judges and the painter hadn’t done their jobs, the winner could have been merely a painting, instead of a piece of art.
The other top awards went to Daniel Island artist Alana Knuff, second place and a $1,000 prize, for “The Pasture – Magnolia Plantation,” and Charleston artist Russell Buskirk received third place and a $500 prize for “The White Bridge.”
Five Honorable mention prizes of $100 each went to the following artists and their paintings: Anna Cox, “Across the Way;” Nancy Davidson, “Sweet Spring at Magnolia;” Karen Silvestro, “Tree at Magnolia Gardens;” Norma Morris Ballentine, “Reflections;” and Mila Garro “Heron in a Morning Mist.”
Ten other artists each received $25 prizes for paintings in the “of interest award.” The artists and their paintings are: Anne Hightower Patterson, “Audubon Swamp Garden;” Karen Silvestro, “Statue at Magnolia Gardens;” Pam Dittloff “Magnolia Reflections;” Chuck Morris, “A Path in History;” Barbara Yongue, “Magnolia Bridge;” Russell Buskirk, “Live Oak Lane;” Carla Johannesmeyer, “Spring Lake Reflections;” Page Burgess,  “Mother’s Day;” Katherine DuTremble, “Magnolia’s Wooden Bridge;” and Amelia Rose Smith, “Rice Fields in Spring.”