Your Life - Entertainment - Arts

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

GALLERIA RECEPTION GOES HALLOWEEN

Barkley, Hiatt and Parkerson featured artists

Halloween eve at Gulfport Galleria of Fine Arts will treat visitors to a “Bewitching Fall Show” of original paintings, sculptures and jewelry designs by all members, with the focus on three who paint in very different styles.

The reception is free and open to the public from 6- 8:30 p.m. Friday. Wear costumes, favorite Halloween attire or Coast casual. Music will be provided by Richard Shropshire.

Artists whose work is featured through Nov. 30 are Meridith Hiatt and her mother, Gene Golden Parkerson and Mary Anne Barkley, who is a gallery co-founder.

Just inside the entrance, as gallery-goers are met by a kaleidoscope of colors, shapes and scenes, Parkerson’s colorful array of work is the first thing to be seen, although her paintings are signed “Golden.”

Sizes vary, small to large, and her paintings include abstract landscapes and life-like florals. One waterscape shows a marshy flat and another has waves pounding onto a beach. Several are marked “sold.”

Hiatt paints large and uses gold and silver metallic accents on many pieces. Both hers and Barkley’s paintings are on the wall at the front of the gallery.

Gold metallic leaves on a vine are outlined in red against a deep blue background. In another that is in-your-face red, the entire background is metallic gold, while elsewhere, only tiny shiny sprinkles are used with a deep pink vase of flowers.

Barkley’s watercolors focus on Coast wildlife in lively colors.

A pair of whimsical paintings depict facing sea horses named “Gallop” and “Geddyup,” which are posed on underwater driftwood that is intricately cut from brown paper. Pastel dragon flies move in front of an abstracted background and a surreal sea scape that could be a scene on the moon, has blue waves washing onto pink sand and an orange horizon,

A photograph by Kelli Pribanic, who is one of the gallery’s approximately 35 other members, is a perfect example of life imitating art. The photograph shows a dolphin carved from a dead tree, exactly like those carved across the Coast by Marvin Miller, whose own exhibit of wood carvings are displayed just a few feet away.

To find it, look for a blue building located at 2200 25th Ave., at the corer of U.S. 49 and 22nd Avenue.