Aaron Baldwin

 Bio:

Aaron is a lifelong resident of McClellanville, where he raised his beautiful daughter, Marina, and where he lives today with his talented wife, Terri, and his steadfastly loyal dog, Watson.

He earned an MFA in Painting from Clemson University and since that time, has been a carpenter, an art teacher, and a working artist.  His studio, Woods and Creek, has become known for its linocut posters, celebrating the ecology and communities of the Lowcountry.

Aaron has two paintings in the State of South Carolina Art Collection and has had gallery representation in Atlanta and a number of towns and cities in South Carolina.

Artist’s Statement:

For the past five or six years, I’ve mostly been making decorative linocut posters in celebration of the Lowcountry.  I’m still making them, but I enjoy painting and sometimes miss the qualities that paint can offer.

My work, in this show, comes from the same place as my prints, a deep appreciation for the Lowcountry’s natural environment. 

The fish were partly influenced by the work of Samuel Kilbourne, and I’m a fan of early 20th century landscape painting, so there’s probably some inspiration there, but both point back to my interest in being outdoors and in trying to convey some of the richness of color and texture found in the Lowcountry. 

Timothy Banks

 Bio:

Timothy Banks is a Charleston-based painter whose work explores the humor and poetry of the natural world. Known for his expressive animal portraits and imagined ecosystems, Banks layers color and character into scenes that sit somewhere between dream and observation. His recent paintings often feature fish, symbols of both fragility and persistence, rendered with a mix of abstraction and storytelling. In addition to his gallery work, Banks is an award-winning illustrator whose clients include Holiday House and Usborne. His paintings have been exhibited throughout the Southeast, celebrating a lifelong fascination with coastal life and the strange, enduring beauty that swims beneath it.

Artist Statement:

My paintings reflect a deep connection to the natural world and the ways it’s been altered by human hands. The animals I paint, often fish, carry the weight of that influence. Their forms can feel angular or slightly distressed, shaped by the same pressures and patterns that reshape their habitats. Through this distortion, I try to show both resilience and vulnerability, the balance between what’s wild and what’s been changed. Each piece is a reflection on how nature adapts, endures, and still manages to hold beauty despite us.