by Joel Frady

Anyone looking to fend off short days and the cold, wintry weather can take a trip to a brighter place thanks to

a new arts exhibit opening this week in the gallery at the Ashe County Arts Council. The exhibit, Dreams of Summer, will display the paintings and photographs of more than two dozen local artists who were all challenged to capture the essence of summer.

According to Jane Lonon, executive director of the arts council, the theme was a good fit for their January exhibit.

"TJanuary exhibit can be a tough exhibit to fill because everyone is coming out of the doldrums of winter and commercialization, the busyness and the craziness of Christmas," said Lonon. She added that the idea was "to come up with something that's different, out of the box and catchy, to attract people back to viewing art. It's always a real challenge, and each year we try to come up with that special first exhibit.

"We were planning it last April or May, and the weather was just starting to be nice," she continued. "We started to think about what it's going to be like in January, and we want to give hope for summer and spring and color and trips down the river. Summertime offers so many wonderful opportunities for painting and photography, and our challenge for the artists last summer was to create those new works that would be shown in January."

Oil, watercolor and pastel paintings have all been submitted for the exhibit, which Lonon describes as "primarily landscape-oriented works that will be reflective of summer."

For some, the challenge offered was a challenge indeed. Photographer Scot Pope of Creston said that the summer theme didn't fit into his typical shooting schedule.

"Fme as a photographer, it's probably the season I least like so far as photography," he said. "I usually shoot in the fall and the winter, so for me it was about finding something bright and colorful that represented nature." He submitted one photograph into the exhibit which is tenatively titled Here Comes the Sun.

Pope noted that he liked the idea for Dreams of Summer because "had to do with the contrast of the winter doldrums to what we have around in the summertime," and that patrons will get "a good, well-rounded representation of what the summer is like here in Ashe County.

"We have so many talented artists in Ashe County that are [participating] in this exhibit, and I think they'll see a very pleasing-to-the-eye exhibit," he continued.

Pope, who helped install the exhibit at the arts council on Monday, Jan. 5, said that the exhibit will also feature six photographs taken by students of the Ashe Youth Connection.

"Those kids, every year, get the opportunity on a weekend to get out and photograph using those little disposable cameras," said Pope. "The arts council decided it would be a good idea to invite the kids to participate in this exhibit, so there will be six photographs coming from that group."

He noted that "to have used disposable cameras and only to have one day to do what they did, the students did an excellent job."

Ed Perzel of West Jefferson said he submitted two watercolor paintings into the exhibit, but confessed that he painted them on Saturday.

"I wanted to do something that made you feel warm and lazy," said Perzel, who noted that "it came down to crunch time and I had to come up with something." He chose to paint images inspired by the summer in France to "kind of warm you up and get you through the ice and gray days of January and February."

The special reception scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 8, from 5 to 7 p.m. was rescheduled due to inclement weather. It has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Ashe County Arts Council located at 303 School Avenue in West Jefferson. Admission to either the exhibit or the reception is free. To find out more, call the arts council at (336) 846-2787 or click to www.ashecountyarts.org.