Taste of Hartsville to feature local artist

Every spring, members of the Hartsville community gather to enjoy area chefs and their local cuisine at the Taste of Hartsville. The annually themed “Hartsville in Bloom” event is held every May at Kalmia Gardens of Coker College, and just as the theme suggests, the food festival celebrates the beauty of springtime in Hartsville.

This year the event is being held on Thursday, May 15. However, the annual crowd of more than 700 can expect different showings at this year’s 26th annual Taste of Hartsville sponsored by the Greater Hartsville Chamber of Commerce.

“This year we’ve got a lot more activities,” says Taste of Hartsville Committee Co-chair Joe Thomas of Edward Jones. “There’s a little something for everyone.” “Each year we highlight the best food and cooks that Hartsville has to offer,” says Sharman Poplava, president of the Greater Hartsville Chamber of Commerce, about past Taste of Hartsville events. “This year we’ve added dancing and art to the event. Artist and chamber member Bob Feury has been commissioned to paint one of the area’s most recognizable landmarks — the Thomas E. Hart House at Kalmia Gardens of Coker College. We hope to make this a tradition and have a picture of a favorite Hartsville spot created for the festival every year.”

Feury will be the new centerpiece of this year’s event by allowing his original rendering of the Thomas E. Hart House to be auctioned off to benefit the Greater Hartsville Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization. Feury, who is a control system engineer in the paper division at Sonoco, is a self-taught artist who has been doing transparent watercolor paintings since high school.

“It takes time,” says Feury about his balance of completing the painting and working at Sonoco. “I stay busy here at work. It’s definitely a demanding job, but it helps me to balance and relax.”

Since moving to South Carolina from Michigan in 1986, Feury often draws the inspiration for his work from the rustic countryside and farmland of Darlington County. Being an avid bird watcher, Feury also reflects many of the area birds in his paintings by combining impressionistic values with a realistic treatment of subjects.

“Feury has captured the Hart House in full color, surrounded by bright, blooming camellias. The painting represents our theme for the festival, Hartsville in Bloom,” said Poplava. “What it is is a portrayal of the house at sunset,” says Feury, who tried to capture the Hartsville landmark in its most natural state. “I was just trying to capture the entire setting.”

Along with the auction of the original Thomas E. Hart House painting by Feury, posters and fine art prints of the painting will be sold at the event. Feury, owner of the Wildlife Shop and Gallery in Oates, will also be showing and selling some of his other works, giving this year’s Taste of Hartsville a truly unique way of celebrating the area’s natural beauty.

Along with the edition of the showcase and auction of the Thomas E. Hart House, Taste of Hartsville participants can enjoy another different type of art specific to the area.

Attendees are invited to “shag the night away” on a large area dance floor provided by the Hartsville Shag Club. To get festivalgoers in the mood, beach music will be provided by the Medicine Men featuring Laura Lovelace on lead vocals.

“It’s going to be new and exciting with new assets. It’s going to be bigger and better,” said Taste of Hartsville Committee Co-chair Karen Lee of Florence-Darlington Technical College. “Art, music, food is an art within itself. All of that culminates to showcase Hartsville.”