Blue Sky Gallery

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.

Blue Sky and his wife Lynn currently reside back and forth between his Columbia and Los Angeles studios. His work is displayed on both coasts.

"Car Painting Hit by Car"
Posted by Lynn Sky on July 14, 2008
For Immediate Release: Car Painting Hit by Car

Renowned artist, Blue Sky (born 1938 as Warren Edward Johnson) best known for his 50 foot by 75 foot internationally acclaimed mural “Tunnelvision” projected to be featured at the Nationalmuseum in Sweden this fall, has suffered a recent ironic loss.

Earlier this year, two of his trademark “Car Face” car paintings were run over by a car.

While transporting them on the top of his vintage Volkswagen Camper from the downtown “Vista” of Columbia, SC, where they were on loan, back to the funky “Five Points” area where his gallery is, the bungee cords snapped and both paintings flew through the air onto Pendleton Street, near the University of South Carolina.

“Coop de Ville” and “Lost Power Restored”, well received large scale paintings, both five feet by six feet, were ironically damaged and one was virtually deconstructed by a car. “Coop de Ville”, a play on the word Coup, represents the inevitable conclusion of an old circa 1956 Cadillac in the south as it becomes a luxurious chicken coop. The Strom Thurmond bumper sticker is still visible. “Lost Power Restored”, depicts the face of a circa 1938 Dodge and refers to the visible old STP bumper sticker making reference to their early commercials touting ‘restores loss power’.

Although no cars were within a block of the incident at the onset except for the artist’s wife and gallery owner Lynn who was following in her Volvo S/W, after the artist took the time to stomp on the brakes, stop the vehicle, put the VW in neutral, put on the handbrakes, cut the engine off, unbuckle his seat belt, get out of the camper to retrieve the paintings, one of which was blown over into the oncoming lane, a student, who was obviously not paying attention, inadvertently ran over the painting. Running completely over the painting would have done minimal damage, but while bystanders, the artist and his wife looked on in horror, the student upon finally seeing the painting at the last minute, slammed on the brakes of her Dodge Durango SUV, and skidded across the face of the painting, shredding it to bits as it was ground into the pavement. The entire right side of the work was obliterated.

To add insult to injury, the student refused to remove the SUV with the oversized tires from the painting until a composed and coolheaded policeman arrived because she thought she had gotten into an accident. (She did hit a car after all…. even if it was just a painting of a car.) In fact, the student wouldn’t even acknowledge anyone was talking to her when asked to remove her car so that the $30,000 painting could be retrieved. She was worried about her tires.

No charges were filed by either party, but considering that so many people have threatened to drive into Sky’s realistic “Tunnelvsion” mural, it appears inevitable that something like this was bound to happen eventually. Add to that the forty plus years of transporting his large scale works of art on top of a mélange of convertibles and cars, the odds were in favor of this thematically ironic experience.

To try to “re-Coop” their losses, the Blue Sky Gallery salvaged and mounted the torn canvas pieces of “Coop de Ville” on stretched canvas and offered them for sale at the gallery. The pieces, now on display until July 30th, sold to one collector before they could even be hung. A postcard of the entire painting in its original whole state will be presented with each of the twelve pieces, five of which have been termed ‘scrap metal’ abstracts. The seven salvaged pieces included vignettes of the grill, the left headlight depicting the anthropomorphic “eye” of the car, the hood ornament, the mother hen, the chicks, the rooster, and a cow.

The other painting, “Lost Power Restored” lately featured in lectures by Mary Lynn Kotz (Rauschenberg’s biographer), suffered minimal damage as it simply fell into the street shattering the stretcher bars into splinters. It will not be offered at this time.

Both paintings can be seen on the website as well at www.blueskyart.com

For more information contact: Lynn Sky
Lsky@blueskyart.com (803) 318-6867
Blue Sky Gallery 733 Saluda Avenue Columbia, SC 29205 (803) 779-4242 www.blueskyart.com
East Coast/West Coast - Edisto & Malibu exhibit
Posted by Lynn Sky on February 29, 2008

A selection of paintings from California is now on display at the Blue Sky Gallery along with recent paintings of Edisto Beach. Most of the California paintings are views of Malibu and both exhibits are primarily plein air works. The show emphasizes the vastly different coastal views - the jutting rocks and mountains in the west juxtaposed with the Palmetto trees and marsh grass in the east.

We will be open late on March 7th for the Five Points First Fridays festivities in an opening kickoff for the St Patricks Day festival on March 15th. Come and join the fun on the 7th until 8pm and help dye the fountain green!
Open by Appointment only until January 16th, 2008
Posted by Lynn Sky on December 31, 2007

We will be open by appointment only until Wednesday, January 16th, 2008. If you need to pick up or purchase a painting please call Nyna @ (803) 446-9642 or Lynn @ (803) 318-6867.

However, we will be open for the 5 points "First Friday" on January 4th from 5-8pm.
....or by chance....

Normal gallery hours of Wednesday - Saturday, 11:30 to 5:30 will resume on January 16th. Thank you for your support and Happy New Year!
"A Gift of Something Significant"
Posted by Lynn Sky on November 21, 2007

Join us FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7th for the
"FIVE POINTS SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA"!
Enjoy Hot Cider, Carolers, and Photos with Santa.

Events and Extended Five Points Shopping Hours:
Friday, Dec. 7th, 3-8pm, Sat., Dec. 8th, 12-8pm

Want something unique, meaningful, lasting? Original paintings by Blue Sky have been known to not only incite passion and reduce blood pressure, they appreciate considerably and hold their value over time.

Blue Sky (born in 1938 as Warren Edward Johnson) has made his living solely on his fine art and fine art murals since 1970. He is not on the city payroll, he is not on the state payroll, he is not on the federal payroll. He is a living treasure who generously gives his time and efforts, too often at his own expense to create great art for everyone, and especially for those in Columbia to enjoy. While almost every other art form or art organization in the city is tax payer supported, Blue Sky and his wife Lynn have managed to maintain a gallery in Five Points for over 18 years - without any grants, without any donations, without any hand outs from the city payroll. Often treated like a museum, and practically run out of business due to the "beautification and streetscaping" that continued for over 3 years in 5 Points, the Blue Sky Gallery would like to encourage Columbia, South Carolina and the world, to show their appreciation by continuing to support Blue Sky's art.

After Blue Sky and his mural "Tunnelvision" appeared in People Magazine in 1975, and on the Associated Press (AP) wire, an explosion of murals began cropping up around the world. Travel the world, far and wide, and you will not find a mural as dynamic and powerful and masterfully painted by any living artist. He is arguably the world's finest mural painter, who has not only influenced the direction of art in paintings more than anyone in the southeast, he has influenced the direction of murals around the world. His work is represented in the Smithsonian and numerous other museums and collections, and he is included in Who's Who in the World".

It is difficult to see genius sometimes, and especially when it is so close to you, but what we have here is a rarity seldom seen in our lifetime. An original painting by Blue Sky is a lasting investment in the native son who has continued to put Columbia on the map again and again and again.

Original sketches begin around $40.
"First Fridays" Benefiting Harvest Hope Food Bank
Posted by Lynn Sky on October 25, 2007
Join us Friday, November 2nd for the Five Points "First Fridays". ***** Stores in Five Points will be open until 8pm. ***** Donate any non-perishable food item for the Five Points Food Drive benefiting Harvest Hope Food Bank and receive 25% off of any one painting or gift item. One day only!
FIVE POINTS END OF CONSTRUCION CELEBRATION!
Posted by Lynn Sky on September 29, 2007
This month's "FIRST FRIDAY'S" has an extra special treat for Five Points fans! Come and join us for the "5 Points End of Construction Celebration" on Friday, October 5th, 2007. Festivities are between 5-10pm featuring live music on 2 stages. Music by The Blue Dogs, Mystic Vibrations, Closer, and the Brent McDonald Band. Parade begins at 6pm. The Blue Sky Gallery will be open until 8 pm. Check out the 5 points website at www.fivepointscolumbia.com for more information.
Ed Yaghjian Retrospective
Posted by Lynn Sky on August 27, 2007
The Ed Yaghjian Retrospective is still on display at the S.C. State Museum until September 16th. The late Ash Can artist, a friend and student of both Henri and Sloan, carried a bit of New York visual culture with him when he moved south to take the position of art department head at USC. Yaghjian is well-known for transforming the arts department at USC into the robust program offered by the 1960s. Blue Sky, one of his most accomplished students, is represented in the exhibit with two pieces, “The Burning of Atlanta” and “Contrail Moon”.

The “Burning of Atlanta” was completed around the 100th anniversary of the burning of Atlanta and this painting is in the permanent collection of the SC State Museum.

“Contrail Moon” is in the private collection of Lynn Sky. Blue Sky says it is a reminder that even at night time jets are leaving contrails in the sky.

Excerpts from "Blue Sky: Juvenilia of a Muralist":

(In 1960 Sky) finished "The Burning of Atlanta", the most openly abstract—and violent—work he ever painted. A collage of newspaper clippings, oil glazing, and furious gestural coils of dripped lacquer paint, “The Burning of Atlanta” appears incontrovertibly expressionistic, reflecting a tumultuous, angry period in the artist’s life. But it’s not.

“It was done in jest,” says Sky, who chose the gravest subject matter he could think of, in order to satirize the pretension of contemporary trends in abstract expressionist art. The mock-serious tone of the painting is revealed by visual jokes scattered throughout, such as the malfunctioning hotel sign, which (ironically) reads “HOT,” or the humorously mundane content of the clippings from The Gamecock Newsletter. The underlying sarcasm was not a common facet of his work at the time; he only used it to make a scathing point about the direction and philosophy of modern art.

Edmund Yaghjian, then head of the art department at USC, would have appreciated this point. A student of John French Sloan, Yaghjian lived out his early career in New York, associating himself with the painters of the Ash Can School and administrating for the Art Students League. His unique brand of urban realism evolved from American Scene Painting, a naturalistic style which was concerned with depicting the artist’s environment honestly and without intellectual pomp or subjectivity. After accepting the position of Chair of the Art Department at USC, Yaghjian continued “painting what he knew, what was directly in front of him and embracing those truths rather than altering them for enhanced and false beautification.” (Matheny, 2007)

Despite their friendship, Yaghjian never awarded Sky an ‘A’ in his classes. “He felt that I would get overconfident,” says Sky. “He managed me pretty well.” Yaghjian would routinely commandeer his students’ pencils and manually correct their drawings, but Sky, who was already a very practiced draftsman, required more delicate management in order to keep his ego in check. In 1961, Yaghjian got Sky a job illustrating Edward Sims’ Greatest Fighter Missions for Harper New York. He was tasked with drawing the book’s cover, the mission maps, and the airplanes discussed in each chapter – precisely the kind of work he had hoped for in high school. Yet, although the illustrations he produced for the project showed technical proficiency, they lacked a sense of artistic energy. The publisher was pleased, but Sky himself was ultimately unhappy with the cover illustration. Perhaps as Yaghjian intended, he was thereafter motivated to put even more effort into his work.

One of the growing problems Yaghjian encountered at USC in the early 60s was student apathy—they just weren’t coming to class. On the other hand, Sky, who was often forced to sell his textbooks midway through the semester to cover the cost of living, attended with zeal. He recalls being “the only one to show up for class sometimes…[Yaghjian] would go home and start painting.” But financial problems repeatedly forced him to skip semesters in order to save up enough money to return to school. At one point, Yaghjian even volunteered $200 out of his own pocket, paying Sky’s tuition for a semester.

Although Sky greatly enjoyed working in the McMaster art school studio with his classmates, most of the work he completed as an undergraduate was painted on location. He generally chose cars or other vehicles as his subjects, setting them within the Columbia urban landscape. Unlike Yaghjian’s compositions, however, these works were almost always devoid of human activity. He focused on less scrutinized, technological elements of the city. For example, the subject of one watercolor is a fire department call box, while another depicts an empty railroad junction. In an article for the student newspaper, Sky described his tendency to paint the mundane: “Anything can be interpreted beautifully...something bothers me, and I’ve got to put it down. I paint dozens of pictures (mentally) everyday.”
Now Showing in Carmel, California!
Posted by Lynn Sky on March 21, 2007
Next time you are in beautiful Carmel by the Sea in California, be sure and go to the Gallerie Amsterdam on Dolores Street between 5th and 6th to see some great paintings. The Gallerie Amsterdam is now showing a fabulous selection of original paintings by Blue Sky (aka Warren Edward Johnson). Several are depicting evening scenes in Malibu and the nearby rocky beaches of the California coast. There are a few plein air paintings of Cornwall, England and a couple of larger studio paintings of Cornwall and London as well. The majority of this new exhibit however, are southern scenes, rural southeastern South Carolina landscapes that Blue Sky knows and loves so well.

Hope you can get by to see this exciting show. Be sure and tell them we sent you! Check out their website at http://www.amsterdamfineart.com

The online art gallery for Columbia, South Carolina's premier artist, Blue Sky.

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