“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.”  -Annie Dillard

Gray’s feet hang in my kitchen. Well, not literally, although the painting of Gray Segars’ bare feet by his mother and Beaufort artist Mary Segars, is so realistic and plainly connected to life in the Lowcountry, that it defines place.  

 The way the right foot is firmly planted on the wooden dock and the left foot crosses back over the right, we believe that Gray is leaning against the dock railing, and imagine that he’s talking with his friends and family; that any moment they will climb into a skiff and head out into the river.  And there is the way that color, light and shadow makes the painting magically multi-dimensional, true.  We remember a special day here with our children, and know that they touch down only lightly by this sea and return to their memories of the Lowcountry. 

The Lowcountry is the subject of painters who capture the ways the landscape and its inhabitants make us feel; smells and sounds, days and nights, tastes, its reflections of those we love and their memories within the landscape. A slow stroll through the many museums and galleries of Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah offers very diverse interpretations of natural and cultural themes, from Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (1876-1958) to Jonathan Green, to Walterboro outsider artist, Johnnie Griner.  

And on any given day in the Lowcountry a hundred thousand photographs are taken of fauna, flora, landscapes and people, each photographer recording their own response to place. Contemporary photographers like Eric Horan, Tom Blagden, Paul Keyserling and Jack Leigh are good local eyes. Beyond our amateur snaps, they somehow capture our connections to place through patience, technical expertise and artistry.  

There are essential elements that define place and that evoke a response from locals and visitors. Here, every day is a natural invitation; fog through the live oaks, a fall marsh, the infinite space between ourselves and the horizon that invite us to visit and to remain. As we educate ourselves about the Lowcountry, our education leads to the evolution of our personal search pattern and we begin to find what we’re looking for. It’s hard to separate ourselves from our place.  We think less about what is mine and more about what is me. 

What are the essential elements that Lowcountry painters and photographers try to capture, that draw us to the Lowcountry, and how do they define and describe our collective response to place?  Email us at editor@slow-guides.com with your list of the essential elements that define the Lowcountry and we’ll share them. 

The Artists

• Tom Blagden 
• Jonathan Green 
• Johnnie Griner 
• Eric Horan 
• Paul Keyserling 
• Jack Leigh 
• Mary Segars 
• Alice Ravenel Huger Smith

From Slow Guides TM. www.slow-guides.com
Copyright Bill Pendergraft 2010. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.