[visual art]

Painting the Town:
Local artists get inspired by historic downtown

By: Lauren Hodges

In her hit song, “Downtown,” singer Petula Clark chanted the glory of sparkling urban life. Promising that when we are alone and life’s making us lonely, we can always go ... downtown. Clark reminded us all that when we’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry seems to help, we know ... downtown.

Let’s all take a moment to sing the praises of our own historic downtown: the traditional atmosphere featuring horse-drawn carriages, century-old buildings and brick-lined streets is somehow a magnet for contemporary creativity. Mix-and-match architecture, loud street art and clubs light up the sidewalks night and day.

Tourists drive hundreds of miles to mingle with the mix of bohemian and professional residents that populate the area between Water and 17th Street.

“Downtown represents authenticity—all that is raw, original, unwashed of salt air,” Bonnie England, artist and owner of Bottega Art and Wine on Front Street, says. “It represents the past and the future all in the same moment.”

England’s gallery, which she owns with partner Steven Gibbs, has been a crucial stop on the downtown art walk for two years. Countless Wilmington artists have displayed work on its bright yellow walls, several paying tribute to the beauty of their own neighborhood. England herself is one of them.

“Some of the buildings I’ve painted have withstood many changes and yet still remain part of mainstream Americana,” she says. “To me, [the buildings] are like people; they possess history, and that history tells a story through the endearing colorations and rustifications left behind. That is what I try to capture: the essence of the people who have encountered these places for years.”

Ben Keys, an artist frequently shown at Bottega, loves to explore the variety of aesthetics on the riverfront. “Great light filters through the trees of the colonials on Second Street and up in the residential areas,” he says. “This play of light and shadow across the architecture is fodder for impressionism. The urban big-city feel of blocks closer to the river are inspiring for different reasons. I’m drawn to the beauty of light on the flat-sides buildings, creating abstract compositions of intersecting shape and line.” Keys’ style of painting turns our familiar historic streets into an animated fantasy. It’s a foreign sight and yet so home-like. “These pieces are close to realism. I incorporated a new brushstroke technique, and a new understanding of color and composition, which brought these pieces closer to realism without losing the color and impressionist brushwork my patrons are familiar with. My intent was to capture the modern simplicity of beauty in an urban landscape.”

The urban landscape of downtown inspires photographers as well as painters. Self-described “artographer” Joe Miller adores the endless possibilities presented once he nears the river. “There is a diversity in the architecture that doesn’t allow for any straight lines,” he says.

“Being a sea port and a riverfront makes downtown seem almost magical in its display of color and culture.” Miller’s photos range from romantic to grimy, melting together as a diverse landscape. A dirty white brick building seems desolate but the shiny Pepsi ad on the side hints that life exists behind the doors. In the foreground, a bus stop waits to transport visitors to and from the spot.

“There is a gritty side to every city, and ours is no exception,” Miller says. “There is no one lens that can capture it all. Its wide expression of people and places demands that it be photographed over and over, inside and out, at angles difficult to capture. I would describe it all as a kaleidoscope of shape, color and culture.”

England has invited her downtown-devoted friends to display their work at Bottega’s latest exhibit. “Exhibition Downtown: An Artist Showcase Featuring the People and Places of Downtown Wilmington” has been attracting entries from all over the city, with the selection coming down to England, Miller, Keys, Liz Bender, Shannon Bourne, Ben Billingsley, Alessandro Giambra, Darren Mulvenna, Lori Peterson, Justin Plakas, Rocco Taldin, Kinga Boranski (encore’s cover artist) and Zach Rudisin.

“Each artist’s unique perspective of our beloved riverfront is individually expressed with selective candor and distinction,” Gibbs says of the exhibit and its displayed “landscapes, river-scapes and people-scapes.”

“Exhibition Downtown” hosts an artist meet-and-greet during Fourth Friday Gallery Night on June 27th from 6-9pm. Live music by Chris Jameson and Mike Blair will fill the gallery along with wine, food and fare. Call 910-763-3737, or visit www.bottegagallery.com for more information.