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Rose Casterline: "The Cloister Series"
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8/21/2004  SAVANNAH, GA. — When world leaders converged on Sea Island for the G8 Summit June 8–10, they were treated to a taste of the island resort’s past, thanks to the paintings of Savannah College of Art and Design alumna Rose Casterline. SCAD commissioned Casterline to create a series of works featuring the Cloister Hotel, which was built in 1928 and demolished last year as part of a renovation project launched by the Sea Island Company. A new version of the hotel is slated to be rebuilt on the site. Casterline’s “The Cloister Series” was displayed on Sea Island during the summit and then moved to the savannah gallery in Atlanta. Now the exhibition makes a stop in Savannah’s Pinnacle Gallery, 320 E. Liberty St., through Sept. 27. Casterline said she spent hours delving into the hotel’s history. “I like to research," she said. “I like to go to the historical society. You study pictures until you find a clue, one thing or another that seems to spark something, and then you go from there.” “I researched the historical significance of various architectural structures of the Cloister,” she explained, “and then I tried to create more human experiences that might occur.”  She said the Sea Island archives include well-documented sources and photos, which helped her develop a strong idea of the hotel, its guests and their pastimes. “I really had to rely on the photos and articles I could find,” she said. “It was a beautiful but not very practical building.” Casterline, who earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting at SCAD in 2000, teaches drawing and design at Valencia Community College and figure drawing at Rollins College, both in Florida. She said one of the benefits of teaching is that it provides balance. “It helps me keep in touch with my basics, but more importantly not lose my verbal skills,” she said. “When you spend a lot of time alone in the studio, you’re thinking in another language.” For "The Cloister Series," Casterline researched and created 10 paintings in a two-and-a-half-month period. “I had to completely immerse myself in it,” she said. She said a student who volunteered as her studio assistant helped stretch canvases, conduct research and perform other duties. Casterline said the Cloister paintings are fairly typical examples of the way she approaches her work. She usually begins with a charcoal drawing, which she seals with an acrylic medium before painting over the drawing in oils. “I love drawing,“ she said, and her technique “is a way to merge the two disciplines [drawing and painting].” Viewers familiar with her other work may recognize common themes in “The Cloister Series.” “I usually try to get some gender bias, play with that,” she said “flipping gender roles a little bit, poking fun.” As an example, she cited the painting “Happy Hour,” which shows a man sitting alone with his wife’s purse. “I try to push humor as well,” Casterline said. “Sometimes I try to deal with body language.” However, she said the Cloister painting “really became about a sense of familiarity.” Many of the paintings concentrate on leisure activities such as swimming, dinners and dances by the pool, bridge and Bingo games, and mint julep hour in the large courtyard. “I tried having a sense of the ‘40s and ‘50s with some of them,” she said. “I really enjoy just painting, and that’s what this work is.”
View recent Past Exhibitions
SCAD hosts annual Georgia High School Drawing Competition - 1/5/2008
Gallery Hop features emerging Korean artists, photography - 11/9/2007 ‘Inside Outside’ highlights married artists’ different styles - 10/11/2007 |
