North Georgia Arts Guild Meeting

This photo of the mill on Raper Mill Rd. was taken by Lucy Venable

I was invited to attend the February meeting of the North Georgia Arts Guild as a guest of Lucy Venable, a local photographer and member. The purpose of the North Georgia Arts Guild is to promote artists and art awareness in the north Georgia mountains and surrounding areas. Since 1994 they have been a part of local fairs, events, art camps and charity in their community. Monthly meetings, which are open to the public, take place at 10 am. on the third Thursday of every month. The meetings are held at St. Helena's Catholic Church in Clayton and include demonstrations, art discussion and special guests.
The special guest at the February meeting was K. Terry Guthrie. Mr. Guthrie is a professional photographer specializing in animal and nature photography, and he brought along some of his work and equipment to display. He presented his photos with good humor and a wealth of knowledge. My favorite story was his description of a mother black bear and her three cubs showing up in the yard of his Black Rock Mountain Cabin....seems like by the time Mr. Guthrie had gone inside to fetch his camera the cubs had wandered over a ridge and the mama bear was inviting herself onto his front porch! He snapped some wonderful shots of the mother bear then urged her back into the woods with an air horn. The entire presentation was very interesting to the casual art fan like myself, and the technical knowledge about cameras, lens types and techniques generated a lot of discussion among the more serious photographers in the crowd. Mr. Guthrie has a website where you can view some of his work (including the mama bear photos)- www.mostlynature-photos.com. He also shows and sells his work at local galleries and events.
The North Georgia Artists guild has quite a varied roster of artists representing a wide array of media. Membership is open to both artists and friends of the arts. Current and upcoming events are profiled in a monthly newsletter. For more information log onto -