We enjoy getting our younger son’s high school alumni magazine. Although we are not as connected to Sewanee now that Jackson is no longer on The Mountain, we look forward to hearing news about St. Andrew’s Sewanee (SAS) and and by association The University of the South, where we all attended. Plus, with this being near the end of the school year, educational calendars are on my mind.

The Spring 2013 issue is full of beautiful paintings by Tony Winters, of whose work up until this point, I was unfamiliar.  It’s always a pleasant surprise to learn of an artist and even more so to know they have some mutual connection to a place that is so meaningful. Tony Winters is an painter and architect living in Manhattan and a 1971 graduate of SAS. To paraphrase the article below which you may not be able to read, he states that he “realized that great architecture often draws on its inspiration from the forms and structures of nature. Nature is a great teacher.”  I believe Frank Lloyd Wright would have agreed. His painting below of Sewanee’s Perimeter Trail captures that dappled sunlight through the woods that I’ve seen so many times but it never comes out in my photos. His exaggerated bright colors authenticate the experience while traveling on this path with the that great rock suspension looming above.

Perimeter Trail, oil on canvas by Tony Winters

Here’s a study of the work above, which looks to me like fall.

After going to his website I realized that there were many similarities to what others have tried to captured while living the Sewanee Life.

The photos below are by my son Jackson.

Sewanee Planet – photo by Jackson Spencer

Moon Over Trezvant  – photo by Jackson Spencer

Rock Formation – photo by Jackson Spencer

Bridal Veil Falls – photo by Jackson Spencer

Sewanee Light – photo by Jackson Spencer

And I took these while hiking with him.

The Cumberland Plateau and valley dwarf us

Looking  over the edge above Perimeter Trail?

These other paintings have other personal significance. Ed Carlos was  also an inspirational art teacher of mine. I’m so happy to see an homage done for him.

This cavern painting reminds me of another SAS and University graduate and fellow classmate, Stephen Alvarez, who takes incredible photos for National Geographic, among other places, as he travels the world and captures caves and magical sites that many of us will never see otherwise.

Stephen was also featured in this issue and is being awarded SAS’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Congratulations, Stephen!

Here’s a previous photo that I posted of Stephen’s work so many moons ago. He’s taken hundreds more since and had had exceptional story features in The National Geographic like Paris Underground, where he and his family lived for months while shooting. A nice gig to have! 😉 Although these gorgeous stars were taken in Madagascar, they could be in Sewanee because this is what it looks like at night from the top of The Mountain.

Hunting Crocodiles in Madagascar. © Photo by Stephen Alvarez

Getting back to Tony Winters and finding a further connection from his website — 2 places right in my neck of the woods, were designed by his architecture firm, along with the Nabit Art Building at the University….We really needed that while at school there. A little late for us previous art students but much welcomed by the current:

Since 1999, Tony Winters has owned and directed Pentastudio Architecture, New York, a professional firm focused on design for creative environments such as fine arts studios, galleries, rehearsal and performing-arts spaces. In 2000 this office was joined by the Italian design firm SOHO Architteture of Rome to form Pentastudio Associated Architects.

Architectural clients include leading schools and arts organizations including the Blue Man Group, the Olney Theater in Maryland, Cinecitta Studios in Rome and the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia. For more on Pentastudio Architecture see web site.

 Small world with Art being everywhere within it.