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The above
excerpt would seem to cover the whole story,
however there is more .....
Patricia
Whitchurch is indeed a very talented artist
who paints both beautifully and prolifically. She
is the star of the shop, but what most people
do not know is that there is a TEAM at work.
Meet the team - Patricia
& Darrell Whitchurch
Patricia and Darrell
have been operating their Gallery / Studio in
Gatlinburg for nine years. Prior to that, for
about eleven years, they lived in Kentucky
and traveled the show circuit. At that time,
they were raising two boys and found that
they were really very tired of the road. They
searched for just the right place to have a
shop so they could settle in for a less
stressful lifestyle. It took them about two
years to find the shop space that had the
right potential.
Gatlinburg, Tennessee is
a tourist village nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. The mile and a half main parkway through
Gatlinburg has ten traffic lights before
winding up through dense forest to mountain
summits and down the other side into North
Carolina. About ten million people pass
through Gatlinburg each year. The tourist
season is heavy during the summertime when
families take their vacations there, but the
fall has heavier traffic yet. Generally in
late October, the area is a glistening gem of
fire while the dense forest dresses itself in
brilliant red, yellow and gold. During the
autumn display when the trees change their
colors, tours and tourists visit in droves.
Having
found the right location, Patricia and
Darrell set about "setting up
shop," so to speak. Everything that you
see in the following photos were painted by
Patricia and the shop abounds with more
painted china and glass than can be viewed
here.
Patricia
is adamant that at least one hundred painted
glass lamps are on display at all times. For
anyone who loves to paint all the time, which
Patricia does, the shop is a dream come true.
She is constantly replenishing the painted
pieces that she sells.
Patricia
is in great demand for doing antique lamp
repair. Somehow she manages to make time to
do nearly a hundred lamps a year for people
who wish to have their cherished heirlooms
returned to "good as new. Here is a lamp
that was shipped to her by family from
Georgia:
After painting a new
glass globe with the background colors found
on the base of the lamp, Patricia will copy
the flower pattern from the base onto the
globe as well. This technique requires a
discerning eye for color matching. She can
look at an antique lamp base and from her
years of experience just "know" the
colors that will match. The paints that she
uses for color matching are usually the same
paints that were in use during the era that
the lamp was originally produced.
Patricia
has attended many seminars and one-on-one
classes. She also conducts her own. She is looking forward to attending
another seminar by San Do in the very near
future. Following is a plate that she has
painted "after Jane Marcks,"
another favorite teacher:
Patricia belongs to two
Porcelain Art Clubs in Knoxville, Tennessee,
which is about an hour away. There are nearly two hundred china painters who attend from
the surrounding area and who are lucky enough
to have her share her knowledge and demonstrate her painting.
Patricia
is blessed to have a husband like Darrell who
takes care of management - and the shop's
advertising, selling, shipping, receiving and
all those other jobs that a well run shop
requires. Other painters will be jealous to
know that he mixes Patricia's paints, glues
her medallions onto tiles, does some of the
gold work, puts her lamps together and a
myriad of other jobs that most artists do not
like to take the time to do. Though Darrell
admits that he cannot artistically paint, he
can wield a brush filled with gold! The tea
set in the following photo was painted by
Darrell:
Another job that Darrell
admits to not being able to master is glass
cutting and leading. Patricia paints lovely
thin porcelain plaques and glass plaques that
she has in the past had "framed" in
leaded glass. Getting the "framing"
done in a timely manner became a problem that
Patricia decided to overcome. She began
cutting and leading the glass herself.
Following
is an example done in multicolored iris and
framed by clear rippled glass put together by
leading. (EDITOR'S NOTE: Due to local
lighting, the photos do not do the piece
justice. When hung in a window, the outside
light glows through the center-piece of blue,
white, pink, purple, and burgundy iris and
sparkles through the rippled glass.)
Following
are two photos of the same lamp. Notice that
the lamp-shade is painted with wild roses
both inside and out. The first photo is of
the lamp without the light turned on. In the
second photo the light is on to show the
glow-through of the inner roses.
There are many happy
families who have benefited from the
Whitchurch TEAM: beautifully restored
heirlooms, gorgeously painted china and
glass. These families might never have had
the opportunity to own, display, and
appreciate these if it had not been for a
little shop they found in Gatlinburg,
Tennessee - AND Patricia Whitchurch!
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