Lessons from the Low Country

We returned to SEWE (the SouthEastern Wildlife Exhibition) in Charleston, SC this weekend.  It was once a regular excursion for us, but it’s been many years since we were there. We took lots of photos, but not many in the art exhibits; there we were just absorbing the art and talking with the artists.  Most photos were from our strolls around town.

Here are some rather random images and observations I made.

Charleston is such a beautiful city. Old can be so glorious!

The sound of horses hooves on cobblestones is unlike any other.

Sometimes collectors of old duck decoys have them x-rayed as part of the age evaluation.

Many galleries in Charleston include work from several artists; they take turns manning the store. That gives them a chance to meet their fans, but also have undisturbed time to work.

Repetition is a great design feature. And not just in quilts.

Art takes on many forms. The fine art gallery had examples of paintings in oil, watercolor, and acrylics. We saw stunning examples of charcoal drawings and amazing photography. There were wood carvings and bronze sculptures. And we learned about less familiar techniques (at least to the Gilreaths) like scratchboard and carved bird feathers.  Oh, and using feathers to make bowties and cumberbunds.

These feet may be old, but they still get us around.  We logged more than 15 miles on foot to see the city.

Even when the city is crowded, the side streets and alleys are quiet, quaint, and serene.

I just love window boxes.

Street photography is powerful!

Details are important. Like the music playing in the art venues. Live bluegrass in the fine art gallery associated with SEWE and steel drums in the park where vendors were set up.

The weatherman is not always right. Gloomy skies and rain were predicted, but that was minimal.

Bricks and flagstone and pea gravel and cobblestones make great paving surfaces, either singly or in combination.

Even though an image is familiar, maybe iconic, it’s still a thrill to see it again.

I love geraniums, any time, any place.

It’s always nice to have a quilt in your purse.

On the way home, we visited Beaufort. Another extraordinarily beautiful town. The tumbling blocks quilt posed again with some boats.

Note: As I usually try to add a link to a quilt if I’ve already written about it, (so you can read details about it if you wish), I went searching for this blue quilt. How interesting that it was in this post about staying in beds and breakfasts – because that was one of our observations on this trip – that the overnight stays in chain hotels are usually forgettable, but staying in a great B & B is money well spent.

And, further exploration yielded this post, where I talked about backsides. It seems that I had this quilt on my mind in conjunction with backsides of people…like the lady with the cane. Interesting!

And, the blue quilt pictured was discussed here, too.