![[Featured Item Image]](items/Tunnelvision (Poster).jpg "Tunnelvision (Poster) - © Blue Sky 2006")
Signed Limited Poster![[Title Artwork]](items/Big Rig with Kurb Feelers.jpg "Big Rig with Kurb Feelers - © Blue Sky 2006")
Welcome to the Gallery
South Carolina artist Blue Sky is best known for his 50' x 75' mural 'Tunnelvision,' on the AgFirst Farm Credit Bank in the center of downtown Columbia. A professional artist for 45 years, Blue Sky has made a name for himself through his instantly recognizable romantic-realist style, his bold thematic material, and his innovative, often perplexing, public murals and sculpture.
The Blue Sky Gallery, located on Saluda Avenue in the historic Five Points area of Columbia, has displayed his work exclusively since 1981. Currently pictured is Big Rig with Kurb Feelers.
Blue Sky and his wife Lynn currently reside back and forth between his Columbia and Los Angeles studios. His work is also available at the Gallerie Amsterdam in Carmel, CA
News
- Holiday Hours
Posted by Lynn Sky on December 6, 2009
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and to the rest of us -- Happy Festivus!
Gallery Holiday Hours:
Tues - Sat 10 - 5:30 & open Sunday, December 20 and Monday, December 21
December 24 - Close at 3pm
December 25 - Closed
December 26 - Open at Noon
December 31 - Closed
January 1 – Closed
January 2 – Open at Noon
We resume normal hours of Tues – Sat, 10-5:30 on January 5, 2010!
Oh man! Twenty Ten! That’s fun to say!
Don't forget we offer payment plans for Original paintings: Twelve months no interest!
- Festivus for the rest of us!
Posted by Lynn Sky on November 25, 2009
You're invited to the Fun of the Five Points Festivus!
Join us in the fun of the 2nd annual"Five Points Festivus"!
Friday, December 4, 2009
5pm - 8pm Festivus Shop and Stroll
AND our Blue Sky Gallery's 20th anniversary in 5 Points celebration!
-- Sales and door prizes -- what will you get?
6pm Festivus Parade -- It was so much fun last year!!!
7pm Airing of Grievances tour begins
7:30 Tree lighting & Choir
Then on Saturday, December 5th:
Feats of Strength, Santa, Carriage Rides, Sales, Hot Chocolate!
In honor of our appreciative audience, and in our 20th year in Five Points,
we are offering any one item at 20% off until December 4th --
as our gift to you for believing in Blue Sky's work and career.
We thank you sincerely and hope you will enjoy his work for many years to come.
RECENT NEWS:
Sky's work published in Germany and featured on CNN.com
And oh my goodness -- did you see THREE of his public works on ESPN DURING the Clemson/Carolina game? Wow we were so excited -- Busted Plug Plaza, Neverbust, AND Tunnelvision AND they mentioned the gallery! Thank you ESPN!
Ask us about our twelve months, no interest, payment plans, so you can have a painting home for the holidays!
Come shop locally with us!
We'd all love to see you there -- Nyna, Whitney, and Vennie will be there to greet you and Blue and Lynn will be there Friday evening with wine and cheese at the very least, and maybe even sneak in a bottle or two of vodka, shhhhhh.... Vodka tasting anyone?
- Halloween in Five Points
Posted by Lynn Sky on October 28, 2009
SPEND HALLOWEEN IN FIVE POINTS!
3pm Trick or Treat with Merchants
4pm Pumpkin Carving Contest at the Fountain
5:30 Children's Costume Contest
6-10:30 Live music by: Twilight Armada, The Love Handles, & Tootie and the Jones - New Show and Fun and Exciting Events!
Posted by Lynn Sky on October 15, 2009
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16
NEW SHOW BY BLUE SKY
5:00-8:00 pm
We'll be unveiling Blue's newest studio piece, "Big Rig with Kurb Feelers" during an intimate reception at the gallery. We'll have refreshments, and Blue will be on hand to discuss this new piece. It's an exciting depiction of the rear of a truck that Blue and a friend saw at the State Fair in 1952, and Blue has used layering techniques to depict the passage of time in his pioneering iconoclastic style. It engages the eyes, the sense of humor, and the mind!
Blue and Lynn have also returned from their annual autumn trip to Edisto, and we'll be showing the 11 small plein air paintings that Blue completed while there in a show called "The Eleven Moods of Edisto."
These paintings have just arrived at the gallery! - Be the first to experience
how the artist sees Fall at Edisto!
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17
SIDEWALK SALE!
Join the Blue Sky Gallery and over 20 other 5 Points stores as we welcome the cooler fall weather with a Sidewalk Sale! We'll be marking down many different decor and other items, as well as offering 10% off everything in the store. It's a big day for 5 Points - the Group Therapy Chili Cook-off and the Blues Festival are the same day. Come spend the entire day shopping, eating, and making merry in Columbia's original fun and funky retail district!
Hope to see you then!
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LOOK FOR BLUE SKY'S ART
AT FUR BALL 2009!
OCTOBER 17, 7:30 PM
Project Pet's annual fundraiser, the Furr Ball, will feature two Blue Sky paintings in its silent auction this year: "Leaning Palmetto" and "Silent Cat." The sales of these studio paintings will benefit Project Pet's mission of helping to find homes for unwanted animals. This charity is very near and dear to Blue and Lynn's hearts! For more information, visit www.projectpet.com.
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NOVEMBER 5TH 6-9PM
State Art Collection, Contemporary Conversations Part II
6-9pm reception
Blue Sky's twelve foot painting "Fourth of July at Myrtle Beach" will be exhibited in Part 2 of the SC State Art Collection show at 701 Whaley on November 5th, 6-9pm
Organized and sponsored by 701 Center for Contemporary Art & South Carolina Arts Commission.
- Artist Wine Dinner at Harper's Restaurant
Posted by Lynn Sky on August 30, 2009
Join us at Harper's Restaurant Artist Wine Dinner in Five Points
on Wednesday evening, September 2, 7-9pm, $35/person -
see new art, hear Blue Sky talk about his paintings, and eat a fabulous meal!
Call Harper's at 252-2222 to reserve your spot!
Featuring wines from Covey Run Vineyards
and Lowcountry cuisine from Chef Andrew Tucker:
Shrimp & Grits Amuse, Carolina Quail (demi glace, carmelized Vidalia onions, Roasted Portobello Mushroom (braised fennel, local tomatoes, smoked gouda), Horseradish Crusted NY Strip (fingerling potatoes, baby carrots, southern kale), Flourless Chocolate Cake (South Carolina Blackberry and star anise reduction)!
Yum! Can't wait! - New Marketing Manager & Extended Gallery Hours
Posted by Lynn Sky on August 5, 2009
Additional staff personnel Welcomed to Blue Sky Gallery
& Exciting New series of "Magnolia" paintings by Blue Sky fresh off the easel!
We would like to welcome Whitney Evans to our staff at the Blue Sky Gallery as our new Marketing Manager. As the newest member of our family, she will be handling our marketing program, and will be pleasantly ready and available to assist our audience with painting acquisitions for their homes and offices as well.
Whitney is a Duke graduate with a degree in Art History with a focus on arts management. She spends her spare time caring for her horse and also teaches hunt seat riding.
As many of you know, dancer, actress, and mother to Ian, Nyna Dalbec has been wonderful to be with us at Blue Sky Gallery as manager, for over three years now. Nyna, in her capacity as gallery manager, will be taking some personal leave for the next couple of months to graciously care for a family member, but will be in and out of the gallery, as possible, and available to speak with those who have worked with her in the past. We send warm wishes and positive thoughts for their speedy return!
As sole proprietor and Director of Blue Sky Gallery, I, Lynn Sky will be available as well, to discuss any needs concerning the art of my husband, the illustrious trompe l'oeil artist and muralist, and master of illusion, Blue Sky. Although we do a great deal of traveling, we have for your convenience, a knowledgeable and friendly staff available to show our wonderful collection of works. Some of these paintings would without a doubt, bring immense joy and delight to your environment and for many centuries to come. We also have a new collection of one of a kind art jewelry designed and created by me, in semi precious stones, found objects, and hand-worked 99.9 percent fine silver pendants, including my very favorite piece, a sculptural pendant homage to the historic and eclectic village that is 5 points.
Expanded gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10-5:30 at 733 Saluda Ave, 5 Points
and join Blue and I sometimes for a glass of wine late Saturday afternoons
beginning around 5-- when else?
Thanks for everyone's continued support in what's been a fabulous 28 years in this business for me, and about 50 years professionally for Blue.
It continues to be a marvelous career for us both, so
Plan on helping us celebrate our 20th year in 5 points soon!
You can reach us at the following numbers:
Blue Sky Gallery (803) 779-4242 gallery
Whitney Evans (803) 576-0020 mobile
Nyna Dalbec (803) 446-9642 mobile
Lynn Sky (803) 318-6867 mobile - Revisiting an Important Theme
Posted by Lynn Sky on January 24, 2009
"Saint Vennie's is without a doubt, the most important painting Blue Sky has created in the past decade. Hearkening to his earlier career, it follows in his ongoing theme of urban 'interstate landscapes'. It is a theme that generated respect from directors and curators of the Metropolitan, Guggenheim, Smithsonian, & Boston Museums and Art in America. Several decades ago, the Mississippi Museum purchased one of these trucks for their permanent collection. Since then, their painting, "Air Brakes" has been the most borrowed and loaned painting in Sky's oeuvre.
The importance of this work is understood in the revisiting of an important original theme while emphasizing the progression of the more vibrant coloration of his later paintings. It is a time-consuming process, this development of these assemblages, the reworking of the theme, and the construction aligned with the deconstruction required in this work. Note the broken paintbrushes doubling as handles, the ropes for bars, the whimsical mudflaps over the tires, the scrawled "passin' side & sui'side" above the taillights, and the working trap door which noisily startles the onlooker if he disobeys the rule written upon it that says "Do Not Open". As a Post-War painter who eschewed the Abstract movement and continued in his path of Realism, Blue Sky has carved his own path in history.
Saint Vennie is not an official saint. She's simply been sainted by Sky in his adorning of her head with gold leaf in the renaissance tradition. In the real-life Vennie's devotion to recording oral histories of African-Americans throughout the south, originating and documenting the oral histories of the participants in the Brown vs the Board of Education, and publishing photographic histories of her southern culture, she has earned her halo.
In "Saint Venni'es Kwik Frozen Grits", Blue Sky was influenced by and inspired by not only the often seen urban and interstate landscape he encounters, and his many travels, but also from his appreciation of African art, the place from which, the paleoanthropologists tell us, we all began. - Happy Holidays!
Posted by Lynn Sky on December 20, 2008
"It feels like Magic in the Air" (as songwriter Kem Welch would say!)
Check the gallery for our extended holiday hours for great gifts!
We have investment quality original sketches and paintings by Blue Sky, and jewelry by Lynn Sky, Kelly Wenner, Ayala Bar, & Elaine Coyne to name a few, plus art objects from around the world.
Happy Holidays to all!
Recent news:
“Tunnelvision” will be published soon in Amsterdam by the Dutch publishing House “De Harmonie” in one of their publications on trompe l’oeil, “Het bedrogen oog”.
And, the Blue Sky mural “Night Train” is to be featured in the new children’s magazine, “Super Magazine”, publised by The Rowland Reading Foundation here in the US.
So, maybe Blue Sky is on his way to reaching his life long quest to become "the best artist in the world". Early in his career he sometimes added WGA after his signature, so in case anyone is wondering what that might mean -- you guessed it -"world's greatest artist".