Red Brick Gallery to Feature 3 Artisans

Photography, Watercolors & Handmade Necklaces Celebrate World Cultures

In ARCA’s 20th Anniversary Season, “Culture with a View” in Foxburg on the beautiful Allegheny River takes on enhanced meaning with the Red Brick Gallery’s summer exhibit featuring three diverse artists each inspired by the richness of their international travel and world cultures.

“Artisans 3” presents the work of Susan Ferrandiz, necklace maker, who captures the color, patterns and textures of her time living in New York City, Cuba and Korea. Watercolorist Angela Hardwick depicts gardens and architecture in her native England and countries of her international travel, and photographer and painter Dennis Keyes’ explores the cultures of Mexico, China, Europe in his fascination with the mythology of myriad cultures.

The exhibit runs weekends from Friday, July 11 to Sunday, August 17 in the Red Brick Gallery and Gift Shop, 17 Main Street, Foxburg, PA 16036.

You can meet the Artists at the exhibit opening and wine and cheese reception on Sunday, August 10 from 4:00 to 6:00 PM following the performance of Dazzling Virtuoso Pianist, Svetlana Smolina at 2 PM in Lincoln Hall. Tickets $25, Students $5 – ARCA Member Discount $20. Call to reserve: 724-659-3153.

Susan Ferrandiz was born and grew up in New York City in a multi-cultural and multi-racial environment where she experienced not only her Hispanic culture but also the international cultures of neighbors, friends, and classmates. She also lived as a child in Cuba and in Korea as an adult.

Museums and ethnic shops in NYC exposed her to the beauty of handmade items from around the world, with their varied designs and uses of color in art, nature, and everyday life. Designing necklaces has allowed her to explore her love of color, patterns and textures.

Her necklaces are partially inspired by Berber Moroccan necklaces combined with her own design ideas. Many of her beads are from Africa, Asia and the Near East. Led by the shape and color of her beads in creating her final design, some of the semi-precious beads and stones she uses are amber, copal, carnelian, coral, jade, jasper, lapis, turquoise. Each piece is unique and timeless, for women who appreciate color and boldness and enjoy the experience of wearing a unique piece of handmade jewelry.

Born in London, England, and exposed to all the arts at an early age, Angela Hardwick was particularly drawn to music and painting.  A career in the music business with HarrisonParrott artist management in London found her managing international conductors and much of her free time was taken up singing and touring with the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

Angela’s work as Assistant to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director, Andre Previn, brought her to Western Pennsylvania, where she met her husband, Charles Hardwick, a violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Since her retirement, she has had the time to indulge her love of painting (self-taught), along with her other passions, gardening and cooking.  

Much of Angela’s artwork is inspired by regular trips to Europe with her husband. Her watercolors reflect her love of British scenes and villages, along with places they’ve visited in Europe on their travels. Her fascination is painting scenes with shadows that add depth and interest, as she works from photographs that enable her to reproduce the details more clearly. “To combine elements that spark memories of some of these places is a great joy - if one can imagine the perfumes in a beautiful garden or perhaps catch the sea breeze in the air, that’s magic.”

Dennis Keyes is a digital artist, photographer and painter who uses digital tools to reshape the reality represented in a photograph into the vision he sees in his “Mind’s Eye”.

Developing his own technique for converting digital photographs into paintings, he combines multiple photographs into an imagined image, then digitally paints the image onto canvas. He can then use that image as the substrate for an acrylic painting. He is developing a technique to produce oil paintings in a similar manner. In addition to print and electronic media, he has produced many custom renderings as watercolors and acrylics on canvas and on aluminum and silk.

Since retirement from the practice of dentistry, Dennis rescues old images for customers, taking an old faded tattered tiny b&w photo from a 1952 Photo Booth and turn it into a 16x20 color photo for a family heirloom. Or he takes images from his or your imagination and combines them into a new “Concept Image”.

He also offers photography services for artists in need of high-resolution photographs of their work and complete custom framing. denniskeyesphotography.com A number of travel videos celebrating the many of the places he has visited can be seen on his YouTube channel - drdk84

The Red Brick Gallery is open weekends Fridays, 1-6 PM; Saturdays, 11 AM to 7 PM; and Sundays, 12 noon to 5 PM. Also, advance appointments outside regular hours are available by reservation. For more information – Call 724-659-3153.