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Size: 10.5 x 12
Pages: 272
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Painting the Southern Coast

The Art of West Fraser

West Fraser

Paperback
978-1-61117-695-7
Published: Jul 8 2016

$29.99

Hardcover
978-1-61117-694-0
Published: Jul 8 2016

$49.99

Ebook
978-1-61117-696-4
Published: Jun 30 2016

OA Ebook
978-1-61117-696-4
Published: Jun 30 2016

$0.00

The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of

The beauty and spirit of coastal landscapes and waterways captured and celebrated in art

Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser is a stunning collection of the works of West Fraser, one of the nation's most respected painters of representational art. A mastery of his medium and the scope of work ensure his place in southern art history. A true son of the lowcountry, Fraser has dedicated much of his career to capturing the lush, primordial beauty of the Southeast's coastal regions that have been altered by man and time. The 260 works in this book are representative of the sketches, studies, and finished paintings he has generated over his nearly forty-year career, works that depict coastal locales from Winyah Bay, South Carolina, to St. Augustine, Florida, and include Charleston, Hilton Head, Savannah, and the islands of the lowcountry through the Golden Isles of Georgia.

Fraser's goal with each of his paintings is to create a portrait of what he calls "my country." He captures on canvas not only the visual beauty of the landscape, but the spirit and soul of each place. From the sultry streets of Savannah to the winding waterways and unique environs of the region's sea islands, the works included offer a view of the land he loves. Fraser augments his visual tour of the coast with original maps of the region and location coordinates of each painting, enhancing the viewer's knowledge and appreciation of the region as well as Fraser's artistic gift.

Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser includes essays by Jean Stern, executive director of the Irvine Museum, and Martha R. Severens, Greenville County Museum of Art curator (1992-2010) and authority on southern art. Fraser has also written an autobiographical essay in which he discusses the experiences and influences that have shaped his work and his life as one of America's noted landscape artists.




West Fraser has been honored with seven solo museum exhibitions in the Midwest, the Southeast, and California. His paintings are in nine museum collections, including the White House Historical Association, and numerous significant private and corporate collections nationwide. He has been published extensively, including features in Art and Antiques, Plein Air Magazine, Robb Report, Southern Accents, American Artist, Nautical Quarterly, Charleston Magazine, South Carolina Wildlife, and Sandlapper. In 2001 the University of South Carolina Press published Charleston in My Time: The Paintings of West Fraser. Fraser lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife, Helena Fox.

"Essays by the artist, and Jean Stern and Martha Severens, both experts in Lowcountry art, provide just the background needed to fully appreciate Fraser's singular talent."—Foreword INDIE Reviews

"Since the 1980s, West Fraser has dedicated himself to painting plein air landscapes of the world he knows best: his native Southeast coast. This noteworthy book chronicles his career capturing the atmosphere and charm of a unique part of the American scene."—Michael Zakian, director, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University

"Painting the Southern Coast is a very elegant book. West Fraser's art captures the soft beauty of the Sea Islands. The book contains lyric poetry, learned essays, and a revealing autobiography of the artist's journey home. This book is a Carolina classic."—Lawrence S. Rowland, University of South Carolina at Beaufort

"As a descendant of Carolina rice planters who settled in Midway, Georgia, West Fraser inherited a remarkable sense of tradition and place. It is not by accident that he captures the spirit and soul of the vanishing landscape of the southeastern coast. His bold, elegant paintings, filled with light and color, evoke a type of nature and people that reach far back in time while inviting the viewer to embrace his keen sense of stewardship."—Paul Pressly, historian and director, Ossabaw Island Education Alliance

"A key theme in American art history is the powerful connection that artists often form with the places they live. West Fraser has focused his enormous talent and energy on a fascinating region too often overlooked by the national art world. Like the region itself, his atmospheric artworks vibrate with just the right blend of the beautiful and the ordinary—and with the ongoing push-pull between history and modernity. This handsome overview of his painted achievement is a welcome addition to the literature of American art, and especially contemporary realism."—Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief, Fine Art Connoisseur

"A key theme in American art history is the powerful connection that artists often form with the places they live. West Fraser has focused his enormous talent and energy on a fascinating region too often overlooked by the national art world. Like the region itself, his atmospheric artworks vibrate with just the right blend of the beautiful and the ordinary—and with the ongoing push-pull between history and modernity. This handsome overview of his painted achievement is a welcome addition to the literature of American art, and especially contemporary realism."—Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief, Fine Art Connoisseur

"As a descendant of Carolina rice planters who settled in Midway, Georgia, West Fraser inherited a remarkable sense of tradition and place. It is not by accident that he captures the spirit and soul of the vanishing landscape of the southeastern coast. His bold, elegant paintings, filled with light and color, evoke a type of nature and people that reach far back in time while inviting the viewer to embrace his keen sense of stewardship."—Paul Pressly, historian and director, Ossabaw Island Education Alliance

"Painting the Southern Coast is a very elegant book. West Fraser's art captures the soft beauty of the Sea Islands. The book contains lyric poetry, learned essays, and a revealing autobiography of the artist's journey home. This book is a Carolina classic."—Lawrence S. Rowland, University of South Carolina at Beaufort

"Since the 1980s, West Fraser has dedicated himself to painting plein air landscapes of the world he knows best: his native Southeast coast. This noteworthy book chronicles his career capturing the atmosphere and charm of a unique part of the American scene."—Michael Zakian, director, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University

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