WHAT: "Seeing the Blues: Paintings by Spencer Lawrence"

WHERE: Lyda Moore Merrick Gallery, Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville St.

WHEN: Exhibit opens Saturday and continues through Nov. 13

ADMISSION: Free

ALSO: A reception for the artist, with music, will be held Aug. 20 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hayti Heritage Center.

INSIDE

Schedule of performances | D4

By Cliff Bellamy

cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744

DURHAM -- In Spencer Lawrence's painting, Robert Johnson, with cigarette in his mouth, fingers a chord on guitar. His eyes are what catch you, and they have a seductive quality that seems to invite the viewer in.

In another Lawrence painting, harmonica virtuoso James Cotton looks straight at you as he plays a solo, a look of mischief in his eye. This is a musician who is confident and knows his instrument, and is having the best time in the world.

A painting of Bessie Smith evokes a different mood as she looks to her right into the distance, looking pensive.

A viewer may or may not know that Johnson wrote "Crossroads," the tune that inspired guitarist Eric Clapton, or that Cotton performed at a past edition of the Bull Durham Blues Festival, or that Smith remains one of the most influential blues singers from the 20th century.

Biographical facts are secondary to appreciating these and other paintings, said Cheryl Sutton, curator of the exhibit "Seeing the Blues: Paintings by Spencer Lawrence," that goes on view Saturday at Hayti Heritage Center. As Sutton and her son Tre and an assistant took the paintings out of their folders and put them into frames this week, she was still considering how much biography and information to give viewers about the musicians in the paintings.

"I really would like people to come to the works and see what they are receiving from the images, without our telling them ..." Sutton said. She wants viewers, regardless of their knowledge of the blues, to ponder the colors Lawrence uses, the facial expressions and gestures of the musicians he portrays, and gather their own impressions. She pointed to an image of Rev. Gary Davis: "Look at the mouth on that man's face. You see a journey," she said.

As she was making her decisions this week, Sutton asked her son and an assistant for initial impressions of Lawrence's images. Viewers may see the results of this process Saturday.

Lawrence has been doing research for this series of large paintings for two years, and more images are in the works, Sutton said. Hayti Heritage Center will display at least eight paintings, and may add more later during the exhibit. Hayti Heritage Center is teaming up with the Arts Council of Wayne County in Goldsboro to exhibit this series. Wayne County will exhibit different images in this series from Aug. 7 to Sept. 18.

Lawrence will be at a reception Aug. 20 at Hayti Heritage Center. At that reception, paintings from another series of Lawrence's "Hearing the Gospel," will be put on view.

Lawrence, who lives in Goldsboro, went to the School of Visual Arts in New York and has a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1990 he painted a series of 12 portraits titled "Black Authors: A Voice for the People," which the Miller Brewing Company commissioned for a national tour.

Hayti Heritage Center is presenting the Lawrence exhibit in conjunction with the 23rd Annual Bull Durham Blues Festival, to be held Sept. 10 and 11. "Seeing the Blues" is just one way in which Hayti plans to integrate visual art with the festival. Hayti also plans to display some images that artist Bruce Couch has made of musicians who have performed at previous festivals. Some of Couch's paintings -- with images of Isaac Hayes, Koko Taylor, Shemekia Copeland and others -- were in the basement of Hayti Heritage Center this week. Organizers hope to display them at the Durham Performing Arts Center, the site of the second night of the festival.

Sutton compares Lawrences portraits in "Seeing the Blues" to what John Audubon did in his bird paintings. Audubon created "huge pieces that are larger-than-life images of what may be tiny birds, but he magnifies them so that you can get a closer look," she said. "This is what [Lawrence] wants us to do as well, get a closer look."

Sutton hopes the exhibit will give blues fans a new way to enjoy this year's festival and the musicians who create the blues. "I want people to experience the festival and these artists in a different way, through these images," she said.