CAROLINA PAINTER AND SCULPTOR HENRY MITCHELL

Carolina artist Henry Mitchell counts eight generations in America. Tracing ancestry to Nimrod Mitchell in Washington County, NC, his forebears moved to Laurens County, SC after being granted land patents for having fought in the Revolutionary War. After receiving an undergraduate degree from Furman University, Henry has lived in the Carolinas except for military service, a year at Westminster Theological Seminary and graduate work in painting at the University of Minnesota. While employed as a furniture designer for Woodcrafters in Weaverville, he lived in Buncombe and Henderson Counties before moving back to South Carolina into a comfortable older house in Greenville.

Mitchell's work is spiritual and moving. He lives the artistic life, thinking constantly about how to communicate his deepest feelings. After receiving his MFA, he concentrated on painting for twenty years, sculpture for twenty years, and recently on constructions. All three modes of creation are always on his mind and available, depending upon the artistic insight.

Abraham and Isaac, a Henry Mitchell wood sculpture from the 1970’s on the grounds of the Snail’s Pace, Saluda NC.

After the start of the Iraq War, Mitchell created wood sculptures, each a memorial to 100 dead Iraq War service personnel, using powered tools in addition to the usual hand tools, because “the violence of the technique served as a metaphor for the violence of the times. I did not want to make a politicized statement, rather a testament of mourning for all the slain and suffering.”

Recent acrylic paintings arise from a deep concern for the environment that is being destroyed through development. Paintings such as September Cove and September Afternoon, of the Henry Tatham dairy farm before it became an office park, depict images that now exist only in the memories of long-time residents.

Mitchell sculpts, paints and draws in his back yard where his lightweight tent “studio” consists of two connected geodesic domes. His recent work is made up of “objects lost, abandoned and forgotten” by our throwaway society. After collecting the objects on his frequent mountain hikes or while walking about town, he forms these into wall-hanging collages and then paints over the artifacts.

Abide, a Henry Mitchell construction from the collection of Robin Rector Krupp, Asheville NC.

Glad, a recent Henry Mitchell construction still in the artist’s possession.

Mitchell states that his prime influence has been Raoul Hague, the 20th century American sculptor born in Turkey to a family who became refugees from the Armenian Holocaust. Hague’s carving style “juxtaposes roughly worked and polished areas on the surfaces of mostly female figures in stone or wood” according to the best sources, and that also describes Mitchell’s sculptures. His paintings are more conventional landscapes, while his constructions demonstrate a style that is uniquely his.

Despite his being one of the most significant artists of our region, Henry Mitchell has not been locally represented since Touchstone Gallery closed. His work is represented by River Gallery in Chattanooga, TN and Jeffrey Greene in New York, NY. You may contact him by phone at (864)616-8262 or email him at henry@henrymitchellsculptor.com.  

© 2009 Edward C. McIrvine

Arts Spectrum column #436 

June 5, 2009