Charleston Art Tours: Artist-led tours into Charleston's best studios
Taking a tour with Charleston Art Tours is the next best thing to befriending an artist.
This coastal city has a reputation as one of the finest art destinations on the east coast, and guides with Charleston Art Tours will simplify and streamline how to decide which galleries to see in Charleston.
The tours are guided by a working professional artist who gives patrons an insider’s understanding of the Charleston art landscape. The intimate two-hour VIP walking tour visits six to eight galleries. Galleries on the tour change as shows change, and Charleston Art Tours will select which galleries are currently exhibiting the best work at the time of your visit.
Patrons will meet the gallery owners and directors and occasionally an artist. At the last gallery, tour guides fete patrons with sparkling wine and water, chocolates and a surprise gift bag.
The tour company was founded in 2009 by painters Karen Hagan and Martha Sharp. Sharp creates captivating light-filled floral, landscape and figurative oil paintings that invite the viewer to become a part of her vision of joy, beauty and elegance. Her oil paintings are filled with rich color and energetic brushwork adding feelings of movement and life to her art. Strong dramatic light and shadow are another of her favorite themes cultivated from painting plein air.
A California visitor said she and her son “totally enjoyed the walking art tour," and praised Sharp because she "knew everyone from the gallery owners to the local and international artists that we kept bumping into. Martha's outgoing personality and in depth knowledge of the art scene was great!
If the tour inspires your inner artist, Charleston Art Tours also offers painting classes for students 14 and older. A professional artist will lead a 3-hour or 6-hour class and lead students to paint one small painting at your location or at our studio. The instructor will first will do a demonstration explaining step-by-step the choices they are making while painting. Then the student will be instructed and led step-by-step to complete their own painting! All levels of ability are welcome, beginner to advanced, and the tour company provides all supplies. Classes cost $150 for half day, and $250 for full day classes.
The Charleston Art Tours office and studio housed near the studio of self-taught sculptor Clark Mills, who created the bronze statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square in Washington, D. C. The tour office is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Posted by Diane Loupe
