“Outlying Shores” (Aesthetics of Thirty-four Years Abroad)

The seven seas take on a new meaning with the beach and shoreline resolutions of this world traveler. These paintings are a mixture of direct symbolism set within an unsure continuity that act like beacons of a sea culture; steadfast as a lighthouse but amorphous as the fog that surrounds it.

Although not a native to Charleston, Reed is an adopted son returning to one of the localities where he had spent time as a child nurturing his attraction for the sea, an omni-present element with a never ceasing impetus, vigor and blind determination to shape the solid aspects of our earth, the terra firma and its countenance.  This naturally includes its terrestrial inhabitants, another interest and subject for a lifelong research by this accomplished Fine Arts painter.

For this exhibition, the artist unveils a small part from his baggage of a lifetime of experience abroad using few symbols of the Western world that emulate serenity and leisure; a much sought after entity for us humans.  Even though each piece depicts different localities, which may be seen through delicate nuances of light and form; as a whole, the exhibition reveals how a common attitude can be shared by inhabitants of distant shores, which is a fundamental outlook for the prosperity of any port city in strengthening external bonds and relationships.

Reed says of his work: “This series of work reflects my curiosity and attraction to one of many aspects of sea culture, which is an integral part of my life.  My interests have often been to depict what for me are visually poetic features of human involvement with our oceans and coastal sea areas, a way of measuring time, but more so, a way of measuring different cultures; ongoing subject matter for me.  This particular series of work I’m presenting is related to seaside culture and some modes of human leisure prompted by and in face of the sea.”