SHORTS
Art at the Harbor Way
Gardens
A Mother’s Day weekend event at Wrightsville Beach
CBY AMANDA LISK OME to Wrightsville Beach’s Harbor Way Gardens and stop and
smell the roses on Mother’s Day weekend, May 8-9. That’s when
the Witherspoon and Drift roses will be in full bloom, making it
the perfect weekend for an event.
Presented by the Harbor Island Garden Club and Wrightsville Beach
Parks and Recreation, the first ever Art at the Harbor Way Gardens will fea-ture
a plein air paint-out, garden exhibition, plant sale and benefit art show.
“Several of our committee members said, ‘Let’s do something, let’s have
something to look forward to, something to bring joy to people, and let’s
make it all about the roses,’” says Garden Club member Elise Running.
Representatives from Witherspoon Rose Culture and Five Oaks Nursery
will host a rose, plant and herb sale. Floral creations designed by Garden
Club members will be on display, and more than a dozen plein air artists
are letting attendees observe them at work. The artists’ original pieces will
be available for purchase at the benefit art sale on May 9 from
12 p.m.-4 p.m.
Plein air is the concept of painting outdoors in natural light
instead of in a studio. Participating artists will have six days to
work around the Wrightsville Beach area and then complete
their paintings at Harbor Way Gardens.
“It’s a skill to capture changing light and scenery with
abbreviated brush strokes,” says Star Sosa, a former local art
gallery owner who coordi-nated
the plein air artists
for the event. “It’s looser,
more impressionistic.
People love seeing the
artists outside and watch
them in the process.”
The Harbor Island
e
Mark your
calendar for
May 9th!
Watch plein air
artists at work, and
then purchase their
creations at a benefit
art sale. There will
also be roses, plants
and herbs for sale,
and floral creations
Garden Club is a not-for-profit feder-ated
on display.
club of the National Garden Club,
established in 1952. The Art at Harbor
Way Gardens will comply with state
COVID-19 executive orders. Parking and
the event are free.
The Harbor Way Gardens are
located at 321 Causeway Drive on the
grounds of the Wrightsville Beach
Municipal Complex. Visit the Harbor
Island Garden Club Facebook page for
more information.
17
Jenny McKinnon Wright paints at Harbor Way
Gardens during the 2019 Cape Fear Garden
Club’s Azalea Garden Tour.
Sue Bark and other local artists will participate in a plein air paint-out leading up to a sale of the finished work on Mother’s Day
in Harbor Way Gardens. Above is Bark’s oil painting, Reflections on the Cape Fear.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
WBM FILE PHOTO
SUE BARK