Mississippi State University’s Department of Art hosted an opening reception on Aug. 22 for landscape and figurative painter Clive Pates at the McComas Hall art gallery. Beginning that afternoon in the art department, Pates held a slide lecture which was followed by the reception from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Pates, who has only been residing in Mississippi for the summer, is talking about his work sponsored by the University Honors Program Forum Series at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27. Pates’ work will be shown in the Art Gallery until Oct. 3. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.
Pates’ exhibition includes the work he has completed while in Mississippi as well as works from Italy and Great Britain. Pates resides in Bristol, England, where he sculpts and paints. He also travels in the summer to paint places such as Mississippi.
He received the Fulbright Scholarship to study in New York Academy of Art, the Julia Gompers Residency to paint at Casole d’Elsa in Tuscany, Italy, two Elizabeth Greenshields Foundatain Grants, the Robert Fleming Residency at Hospitalfield House in Scotland and countless others.
Pates’ work is all done from life-he does not use photographs, nor does he do touchups on his paintings or drawings.
“The simplest realization of a picture is the ability to record an emotional signature,” Pates said,”or, in romantic terminology, the language of the soul.”
After Oct. 3, Pates’ work will go on to a solo exhibition at the Sylvia Schmidt Gallery on Julia Street in New Orleans.
Although MSU’s art department has been active for more than 35 years, many students and organizations on campus do not know much about it and all that it offers.
“We have had a problem with visibility because the Art Gallery is in the basement of McComas,” gallery director Alex Stelioes-Wills said.
Indeed, the art department has had a hard time getting word out to the other departments of MSU, but with the help of artists like Clive Pates and creative art shows, they hope to become more visible.
The art department hosts four shows each semester, two of which are departmental shows, but they are still open to the public.
“This fall we have five students who will be participating in the exhibitions,” Stelioes-Wills said. “The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculptures.”
For information on exhibitions and showings, call 325-2970.