WILLIAM SCHNEIDER & LORRI ACOTT
More than a Feeling
Two shows will be running simultaneously at Reinert Fine Art in Charleston, South Carolina, from November 1 to 10. Each offering something different in Reinert Fine Art’s two connecting galleries, one show features the stylized sculptures of Lorri Acott, while the other focuses on the paintings of William Schneider, who paints all manner of subjects from figures, portraits and still lifes to land- and cityscapes.
“William Schneider is a true master of composition and color values. His figurative work is passionate and seems effortless, which indicates a lifetime of dedication to his craft,” says Rick Reinert, artist and owner of Reinert Fine Art. Schneider’s paintings in this forthcoming exhibition are especially indicative of these skills— the cityscape Clark and Maple is charged with vibrant shades of pink decorating the evening sky contrasted with the darkened hues of shadow-laden buildings on either side.
“I’ve been getting more and more intrigued with contemporary urban themes. That bucolic rural [landscape contrasted with] the energy and grittiness of the city,” says Schneider. He describes his oil Shopping in the Rain: “The creamcolored light during the rain kind of permeates the whole scene. The mother and daughter are just going about their business doing their chores… What was an ‘aha!’ moment for me was to capture that using the Renaissance techniques of glazing and scumbling,” a process that ultimately gives a remarkable glowy effect to the finished painting.
The intensity of reds and oranges in Above St. George feel as though they might catch fire. It was just past dusk in St. George, Utah, and Schneider says he had the memory of these “warm, glowing lights and the setting sun’s lingering glow in the sky.” One of the major visual concepts in the piece is the contrast between lights and darks. “The visual concept tells you what to put in, and more importantly, what to leave out,” says Schneider. “As I develop… I’m less interested in capturing detail and more interesting in an effect… I’m more interested in suggestion rather than depiction… something that evokes a feeling.”
Acott’s sculptures are immediately recognizable, her tall figures of humans, animals and hybrids of the two bearing long, thin legs, reminiscent of Dalí’s The Elephants. “For me, these long legs represent rising above life’s challenges… Everything I sculpt comes from my personal experience in life,” Acott
explains. “The work is really about transforming emotion …and creating change through touching people’s hearts.” The artist explains that often, she doesn’t know exactly what she will end up creating when sitting down to sculpt. “It’s much more of a tactile, emotional response to what I’m doing rather than a brain response,” she says. Later, after a piece has been started, Acott will begin to analyze what’s there; then, she’ll let a piece sit on the shelf for months at a time, returning to see if the piece has anything else to say. “What I’ve found is the more honest I am, the more real I am, the more my work resonates with people,” says Acott.
A bronze called Conversation with Myself started with only the larger figure, and eventually grew into a poignant emotionally message about self-love. “When I did that piece, I did the tall guy and he sat on my shelf six months,” she says. Ultimately, the artist decided to create a smaller man beside the large man in the hopes that when people view the sculpture, they’ll see that the larger figure is who they really are inside or who they have the potential to become.
Reinert Fine Art 179 &181 King Street • Charleston, SC 29401 • (843) 694-2445 • www.reinertfineart.com