About Us
The Linville Gallery at Tynecastle in Banner Elk, NC features work by the celebrated North Carolina fresco artist Ben Long as well as work by Long's students and disciples. Artists represented at the Linville Gallery include Mark Henry and John Mac Kah, both of whom teach at his Asheville school, the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas. Gallery owner, Lynn Mozer, cherishes a relationship with Long that dates back to her childhood, when she watched Long at work on his fresco The Last Supper at Holy Trinity church in Glendale Springs, NC. With Long being such a formative influence in her appreciation of the arts, Mozer says she is delighted to be exhibiting so many of his works at the inauguration of her new gallery. Among the paintings by Long on display are a number of landscapes done in France and Italy during the artist's summer residence there, works whose subjects breathe an unmistakably Mediterranean air.
The subject that features most prominently among the works in the gallery, however, is the landscape of the Blue Ridge high country. From dramatic prospects of Linville Falls to the rugged crags of Grandfather Mountain, from farms nestled in the quiet of evergreen forests to the lakes mirroring blue sky in their deep stillness, it is largely familiar panoramas captured in new and distinctive ways by the genius of the painters that set the main theme of the Linville Gallery.
Lynn Mozer explains that many of her artists live in close touch with the land, that they are attuned with its cycles and seasons. "One of my painters, Kelly Welch, calls herself a farmer-painter; these are her own sheep she has put in a painting." Many of the paintings and drawings on show reveal deep, mysterious sympathies between artist and nature as though both were co-operating on some essential, spiritual level.
Several of the artists displaying work claim international recognition for their achievement. Work by Dennis Sheehan, for instance, hangs in the White House. Sheehan's paintings build on the tradition of the French Barbizon School of painting, but display a remarkable awareness of Postmodern and abstract modes. Unconcerned with the merely scenic in nature, Sheehan grapples with the dynamic spirit of its forms. Charlotte-based artist Wendy Bilas finds her inspiration in the classic impressionists but infuses her landscapes with her own soulfulness. The work of Camden, SC painter Maci Scheuer is also intensely personal, arising out of her own experiences and idiosyncrasies and revealing her inner life through landscape.
What sets the new Linville Gallery apart from other regional art galleries? Mozer holds that a chief purpose of the gallery is to provide affordable art for people just starting to collect. "There are works to be found here by artists whose talent Ben Long and others have recognized, artists who are bound to be successful in time, yet whose prices aren't daunting to the young couple who wish to begin building a collection." "It is that initial guidance we offer to collectors that helps make us unique," adds Mozer.
Among the media represented at the new gallery, oil paintings are certainly the foremost. Works in pastel, charcoal, ceramic, and ink also add to the rich visual appeal of the place. "Many people like to buy preliminary studies for works of art," Mozer points out, "the rough sketches from which the finished piece has arisen."
The Linville Gallery at Tynecastle offers not just regionally well-known fine art but nationally as well. "We offer the best in each medium," as Mozer put it. The gallery will host twice monthly artist receptions, on Fridays between 5:00 and 8:00 pm. See the Show Schedule for exact dates.
