Art show features husband, wife
Published 5:44 pm Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Paul Belote, with one of his favorites, will have artwork featured at the Suffolk Art Gallery for the next four weeks. Paul Belote was the winner of the Suffolk Art League’s 2010 Juried Exhibition.
Paul and Janette Belote have been married for 14 years, but they still have very different tastes when it comes to the art they create.
Paul Belote’s work tends to be inspired by mythology and feature hands and feet, while his wife focuses more on the use of light and stripes and draws motivation from children’s braided hair.
“We’ve both been lifelong artists,” said Paul Belote, the winner of the Suffolk Art League’s 2010 Juried Exhibition.
Janette Belote, with some of her favorite works, will have artwork featured at the Suffolk Art Gallery for the next four weeks.
The winner of the exhibition customarily receives the opportunity to do a one-person show at the Suffolk Art Gallery the next year. Belote chose to make it a one-couple show.
Their work has been split in the gallery — his work on the left, hers on the right.
To the left, a series of hands and feet, many of them gnarled and twisted into different shapes, dominates the collection.
“I do a lot of things with hands and feet,” Belote said. “I find them very expressive. They have a very graceful set of moves.”
In fact, it was one of those works — titled “And So I Became A Tree” — that won last year’s juried exhibition.
In addition, myths and legends provide endless inspiration for his work, Belote said.
“Mythology is a real key thing in my work,” he said, adding that he also has done some work making three-dimensional masks and then featuring them in paintings.
His wife Janette, who teaches art at Northern Shores Elementary School, often features light and stripes in her paintings.
“The light of presence is about being in the present moment,” she said. “I’m just so excited about it, and doing this show has made it more exciting for me again.”
Many of her paintings feature an aura of light and colored stripes around the subject.
She also has done a series on the braided hair of children, using many of her students for inspiration.
Both artists are Hampton Roads natives. He grew up in Norfolk and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was born in Front Royal and grew up in Norfolk, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Virginia Wesleyan College.
The show will be on display through Aug. 26. There will be an opening reception from 4 to 6 p.m. this Saturday at the gallery, 118 Bosley Ave. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, call the art league at 925-0448 or the gallery at 514-7284.
