Timeless Visitors
by Madeline Carol

Charleston's Old Battery with the White Point Gardens is a must for any person visiting Charleston. Not only do the Ashley and Cooper Rivers merge to form Charleston Harbor, but actually much more comes together in this romantic spot. Here stand the statue of William Gilmore Simms, a poet of Charleston, and a monument commemorating the defenders of Fort Sumter. Here on this site in colonial days stood Fort Wilkins, and during the War Between the States, Battery Ramsey. Also, there is the bandstand, where many concerts have been held and where many marriages have been performed. Additionally, the Battery is ringed by sidewalks and benches and lamps which toss their light up into the overreaching branches of the live oaks and other trees. Lining the park at the Battery are the old guns, which now, though fallen silent, once roared in the hands of Confederates during the siege of Charleston. There are the quiet strollers who have many times taken a leisurely path through the enchanting park. And there are others who have sat on the park benches enjoying the beautiful sight of Charleston's historical harbor. There is off in the distance on the corner of Murray Boulevard and King Street the old Fort Sumter Hotel, which was home to many visitors to this great city. And here on an evening after a shower are the reflections of light and the colors of wet pavement in the puddles left by the gentle rain. From its earliest beginnings, this area has been visited many times by historical figures, residents, and out-of-towners, including such notables as pirates and Confederates.

Today the Battery remains a social center and a place of life for the City of Charleston, and is a treasure chest of memories to the people of our city. A never-ending stream of individuals have visited this site, and the Battery is as Charletoneese as She-Crab Soup. Now, Madeline Carol revisits the Battery, but this time she recreates that familiar look, toward what once was the Fort Sumter Hotel. Here she captures the freshness of the rain, the sparkle of the lights filtering down from the evening lanterns, and the reflections on the trees creating an almost cavernous look. Using impressionistic colors, she paints life into the picture, giving one the sense that it is the entrance way into the caverns of time. Thus, she uses apparitions to expand those bounds of time, bringing back to life the fact that this is a place of memories and visitors so diverse that it lives through the ages. Through the use of light reflections and highlighting, Madeline invokes within each of us a sense that this place is not just a spot for periodic visits but is indeed a place which exists vividly in our memories and which invokes romantic feelings of another time. The painting, "Timeless Visitors", recreates and brings together our memories and our history and reflects light in such a pattern over the area as our mind reflects memories over its expanse. Charleston is indeed a story of history and culture, and that saga continues to live in the painting which recreates a beautiful place and conveys a deeper message - that Charleston is a place of timeless visitors. So in this second of Lamplight and Lovers, Madeline Carol uses the romanticism of streetlights and moonlight, the reflections of the wet surfaces, and the romantic moments visitors have spent with someone special, whether walking or sitting amidst the gorgeous surroundings and the historic defenses of Charleston, to remind us of youth and to remind us both in our person and in our memories, we are Timeless Visitors.

Madeline Carol, Capturing the Spirits
Art Gallery