Bluffton Oyster Roast

This deeply cobalt evening image is another of Lovely’s voyeuristic windows on a moment, feeling, and culture, immortalizing not just an event but the identity and personality of place and people. The Lowcountry’s warmest community moments are marked with oyster roasts, and here the viewer is invited in, approaching the crowd of “amused people” as she describes, among open tables, in the act of preparing and sharing a meal. Of that sentiment, the artist references Renoir’s Boating Party as inspiration. Like attempting to create fluorescence out of paint as in her Boston Marathon Angels piece, here Lovely was challenged to create the luminescence of hanging halogens and those igniting the smoke with light. Perhaps the most powerful influence is familiarity to those for whom the Bluffton Oyster Company is a longstanding local presence (since 1899), set under the Spanish Moss next to the public boat dock on the May River.

Dimensions: 24H x 35W  |  Medium: Oil on Linen