Vicky McLain, Painter
I have been an avid artist since I first picked up a crayon as a child in Texas. I have now been a professional artist for over 30 years, a full time artist for eight years, a professional cartoonist for seven years and an art teacher for over six years. My life revolves around art and I work hard to learn more techniques and skills, as evidenced in the numerous art workshops I have attended since moving to South Carolina in 2000. These workshops have served to enhance the skills I had learned over the years prior to moving here and allowed me to have a much broader repertoire of media to market – and teach.
While my first love is painting (primarily people, pets and places), I have had as much satisfaction from teaching art as I have from doing custom work. For the last six years I have known the joys of having helped someone else create a work of art. Sharing that joy has really been a gratification to me. My students have won art contests, had works chosen to exhibit in juried art shows including the South Carolina State Fair, and been chosen as featured artists in art shows. I am not the reason they achieved these goals, but they have given me a lot of credit for their success. This is certainly as rewarding as the appreciation I have received for any of the custom paintings I have done.
In 2004, the Chesterfield Art Gallery burned to the ground leaving local artists with no place to display their art work. I started a website under the name of the Olde English Art Group as a way to do exhibits. Even though there is now a new Art Gallery in Chesterfield, we have continued to display local artists on this website.
I have had two paintings (a tobacco barn and a Jack Russell terrier) tour the state as part of the NBSC Oil Painters open invitational contest juried exhibit.
I have also painted pictures of two different courthouses on commission from the SC PeeDee Regional Transportion Authority. I have received recognition from State Representative Ted Vick for my cartoons supporting his efforts to preserve local control of the Cheraw State Park golf course.
In 2008 I was featured in the Northlight Bookclub Magazine’s Member of the Issue and was selected by jury into the Artisans of the South Carolina Cotton Trail organization.
A highlight from my art career was when I did a pen and ink collage for General Robert McDermott, then CEO of USAA Insurance Company where I was working at the time. He personally called to thank me for that work and it was displayed in his office and later in his home, after he retired. He passed away last year and the local ABC News Affiliate showed this work as a background while announcing his passing.
I am now a proud South Carolinian and have done many paintings showing the beauty of our local communities. I have done many prints recently of my paintings of local landscapes, churches, weathered barns and houses, mills and ponds. I love South Carolina, I love painting South Carolina and really appreciate what South Carolina has given me to capture on canvas.
Education
- Studied Drawing at the San Antonio Art Institute
- Art Workshops: Christine MacLellan, Joy Thomas, Paul McCormack, Daniel Greene, Judy Crane, Tim Tyler, Chuck MacLauchlan, Dominic Vignola, Ilona, Gloria Perkins, Gloria Turner, Joyce Hall, Tom Jones, and Randy McGuirt
- Studied Design while earning a B.A. in Management at Virginia Wesleyan College
Awards
- 2008 Guy W. Lipscomb, Jr. Award of Merit
- 2008 Best in Oil/Acrylics Marlboro Jubilee Festival
- Best of Show - 2007 Marlboro Jubilee Festival
- 2006 Gamblin Torrit Gray Painting Competition - Honorable Mention
- First Place - Leroy Neiman Sports Art Contest
- 2005 People's Choice Award - Masterpiece Art Interpretations Contest
- Best of Show - Cheraw Fine Art Show 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 & 2007
- First Place - Cheraw Fine Art Show 2006
- Second Place - Cheraw Fine Art Show 2008
- Best of Show - "Celebrating Freedom" Virginia State Fair
- Best of Show - Comal County Fair - Texas
- Best of Show - Guadalupe County Fair - Texas
Exhibits
- February 2009 ARTS FEST - Florence Regional Arts Alliance Juried Exhibit
- 2008 Featured Artist of the Artisans of the SC Cotton Trail
- Black Creek Arts Council/Artisans of the SC Cotton Trail: October-November 2008
- February 2008 ARTS FEST - Florence Regional Arts Alliance Juried Exhibit
- Lee County Arts Council "Artist of the Month" (June 2007) - Opera House Bishopville, SC
- NBSC Oil Painters Open Invitational juried exhibit - 2006 & 2007
- Mary Burr Art Gallery - September 2006: Student/Teacher exhibit
- Lee County Arts Council "Artist of the Month" (June 2005) - Opera House Bishopville, SC
- 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007 Juried exhibit South Carolina State Fair
- Featured Artist - Chesterfield Visual Arts Alliance (CVAA) Summer 2002
- Featured Artist - Cheraw Fine Art Commission September 2003
- Olde English Art exhibits throughout Chesterfield County, SC
Affiliations
- SC Arts Commission Roster of Approved Artists
- Artisans of the SC Cotton Trail
- Cheraw Fine Arts Commission member
- Olde English Art Member
- Marlboro County Arts Council