60 WBM may 2015 CHIP HEMINGWAY CHIP HEMINGWAY bounces from project to project from the southern edges of the North Carolina coast to its northern fringes but one thing remains constant: He’s always packing an easel, some brushes and tubes of paint. Architect by training, artist by nature, Hemingway paints the barn he bought beside Tannehill near Shandy Point in Wilmington, North Carolina. The 1,900-square-foot space will soon become his artist studio, not far from the Intracoastal Waterway. “I paint what’s right in front of me. I choose my subjects based on the light and the composition and the underlying story behind the painting,” Hemingway says. A native son of Tarboro, North Carolina, he drives from his home in Wilmington to the Outer Banks where he has designed new conference, meeting and research facilities for North Carolina Audubon at the old Pine Island Hunt Club north of Duck. “To me, the beauty of the Outer Banks is nature still rules what you’re gonna do,” Hemingway says. These trips to Pine Island are not a new thing for him. His architectural design projects include Jeannette’s Fishing Pier, Oregon Inlet’s Coast Guard Station and the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island. While working on aquarium renovations he met Neal Conoley. “Neal Conoley and I were riding around trying to figure out what we were going to paint,” Hemingway says, “as we often do.” One day about four years ago, Conoley took Hemingway to meet Omie Tillett. When they walked into Tillett’s backyard, the legendary game fisher and boat builder stood up and raised
Wrightsville Beach Magazine May 2015
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