Daddy's Christmas Angel

Friday, September 6, 2013

Hilton Head South Carolina - a Favorite Destination

"Hilton Head Lighthouse" - pastel painting ©Mary Montague Sikes
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina is a favorite destination for my husband and me. For more than 30 years, we have traveled there at least once a year to enjoy the tennis and the art.

One of my first experiences with art galleries happened in Hilton Head. My paintings--and I created mostly very large canvases then--were accepted into a fabulous gallery, the Red Piano. As soon as I saw the gallery from the outside, I was hooked. Through the windows on the end of the attractive building beneath an umbrella of trees, a red piano was clearly visible. The piano sat, sparkling and graceful, inside one of the galleries.

Since then, that special gallery has changed hands and relocated. The last time I visited its main gallery, in a busy commercial location on the island, the red piano sat on display in one of the galleries. However, without the charming treed setting, it no longer held the same appeal. I have not shown at that gallery for many years. Although my work was shown and sold at other island gallery locations, those galleries were never quite the same as the Red Piano Gallery that first displayed my art on the island.

One of my favorite scenes at Hilton Head is the waterfront view of the iconic lighthouse. The gallery that sold my pastel painting of the Hilton Head Lighthouse did not give me the name of the buyer, so I don't know who owns the painting now. However, next time we visit Hilton Head, I plan to pay a gate entry fee and travel into Sea Pines and journey into Harbour Town to take new photos of the special lighthouse that is often visible during televised golf tournaments there. With all our history in Hilton Head, I long to have another painting or two of that special lighthouse.

6 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Sorry the gallery lost its charm. Shame you don't know who purchased your lighthouse painting. Kind of wild to think a stranger has your lighthouse on their wall, isn't it?

Chuck said...

The lighthouse at the golf tournament has been duplicated here in Texas as a tribute to that iconic view on the 18th hole...in fact the whole 18th hole has been duplicated on the Tributes course near Dallas.

That painting is another awesome work, Mary. My mother loved anything to do with lighthouses and I know she would have enjoyed a painting such as that.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

What a beautiful painting!

Notes Along the Way with Mary Montague Sikes said...

Alex, thanks for visiting. Many strangers have my paintings. I've been negligent about keeping a list of collectors.

Chuck, how interesting! Bet it's not nearly as muggy there as in Hilton Head! Thank you for the compliment. Lots of people love lighthouses, I've discovered.

Thank you, Karen!

Julie Flanders said...

I've never been to Hilton Head but I just love lighthouses. I don't know what it is, but to me there is something magical about them. Love the painting.

Notes Along the Way with Mary Montague Sikes said...

Thanks, Julie! There are lots of lighthouses, but somehow this one is iconic!