Well, Artisphere ends today. I have just about enough time to head down Greenville's Main Street for one final stroll through Artists Row before I head back home. A lot of my favorite pieces are a little out of my price range (like Andy Kearney’s beautiful wooden furniture), but we’ll see if I can resist heading home with a print of one of Xavier Nuez’s mesmerizing photographs or Sharon McLean’s ocean-inspired necklaces.

I also want to make sure to check in on Shawn McCann’s progress. For the past two days, McCann has been using chalk to recreate the 2012 Artisphere poster image on the sidewalk by the Reedy River.

The original poster image is a piece by Daryl Thetford from Chattanooga. His work is extraordinarily complex. Thetford begins by photographing different textures and ephemera – signs, painted walls, graffiti, newsprint, etc. He then begins an extensive cut and paste process, combining photos and images to achieve a stunningly layered and nuanced work.

The piece that was chosen for the poster design began with a photo of a discarded department store mannequin. Among the layers of texture are photos of The New York Times and a Tibetan prayer flag.

The rich textures of Thetford’s work mean an extra challenge for chalk artist McCann, who told me that he wanted to head up to Artists Row and ask Thetford, “Why did you have to use newsprint!?” It may be presenting a challenge, but McCAnn’s reproduction is stunning.

McCann works across the country (and the world) with Art for After Hours, creating 2-D reproductions of famous works of art and 3-D murals. He’s also a noted children’s’ book illustrator.

Aside from the challenge of recreating the intricate poster image, McCann has one more obstacle to confront: the threatening grey skies over Greenville this morning. As soon as the rain sets in, his masterpiece will be washed away. Which means I had better get a move on!

One of the things that’s great about Artisphere is that you have the chance to browse through the work of so many artists and bring home something that really speaks to you.

But this year, you don’t even need to be in Greenville to bring home a piece of Artisphere art! The festival’s online silent auction allows anyone, anywhere, to browse through artwork by Artisphere artists and bid on them online.

People who are in Greenville can look through the original pieces in the Silent Auction Gallery on Main Street. There’s a computer set up right in the auction tent for visitors who want to place a bid.

The artwork includes pieces by some of the festival’s favorite artists. A woodcut by S.C. artist Kent Ambler shares a message appropriate to the festivities: “Art is an investment better than property or cows.” I loved the misty landscape in Bill Turner’s Versailles II. There’s even a painting by Art in Action artist, Brian Olsen: a large-scale portrait of Johnny Cash.

If you’re interested in placing a bid, click here. Bidding closes May 13 at 8 p.m.

Between the 120 artists lining the streets of Greenville for “Artists Row” and the pleasant spring weather, it was hard to drag myself indoors this afternoon. But I was glad I did, because Artisphere also is offering outstanding gallery exhibits as part of the festival.

First, I headed over to Centre Stage on River Street. I’ve been there many times to see plays, but today the lobby was serving as an exhibition space for the Artists of the Upstate Juried Fine Art Competition.

This is a hyper-local show, as entrants must live within a 35 mile radius of Greenville. So it’s a great way to get a feel for the range of talent working here in the upstate.

The artists who placed in the competition really exemplify not only the quality of work in the area, but the diversity. Tom Flowers’ Shadow Red took third place. The piece is an evocative abstract depicting in thick brushstrokes several vertical lines. In second place, Stephen Chaff’s The Lookout is a monotype of a moody crow, owing some of its style to the region’s folk art tradition. Finally, Judy Verhoeven’s Best of Show winner, My Friend Vanetta, is a moving collage portrait of a young girl – her sweet, plaid dress comprised of different maps – on a background that includes pages from the book of Deuteronomy.

The Artists of the Upstate exhibit runs now through June 19. For more information, click here.

Nearby, in the Founder’s Room above Larkin’s on the River, is the Chairman’s Exhibit. This elegant exhibit of fine art features work from well established galleries in the Carolinas: Hampton III Gallery from Greenville, Blue Spiral 1 from Asheville and Helena Fox Fine Art from Charleston.

The work in the Chairman’s Exhibit is mostly by established artists, and many depict scenes from South Carolina life, such as the late Edmund Lewandowski’s Lighthouse, Charleston, S.C. or longtime Columbia resident Edmund Yaghjian’s Assembly Street Market.

However, one of the pieces that really caught my eye was Meditation by Hannah Skoonberg. Jordan Ahlers, Gallery Director at Blue Spiral, informs me that Skoonberg is only in her early 20s, a fact that seems impossible given the technical proficiency and sheer beauty of her artwork. Meditation is a linoleum print, done using a somewhat risky process.

“Picasso called them ‘suicide prints,’” Ahlers said. In other words, it’s a print where, instead of carving separate blocks for each color, the artist simply cuts away more and more from one single block for each subsequent color. If one carving goes wrong, the entire print is lost.

The Chairman’s Exhibit closes Sunday with the end of Artisphere, but you can check out the work at each of these three galleries.

Painting is a hobby of mine. It’s so relaxing! When I’m painting, I don’t think about anything else. So how could I pass up a chance to try my hand at creating my own masterpiece at Vino and Van Gogh’s Artisphere event?

Vino and Van Gogh is a great Greenville business, started by local Marquin Campbell, an artist and graduate of The Parsons School of Design. Every night the shop guides a group of people in creating a specific painting. It’s a fun, friendly environment – and as the name suggests, you’re encouraged to sip some wine while you paint.

This morning it was a little too early for the vino, but the instructors still created that fun, friendly atmosphere. The environment was incredibly welcoming, and it was impossible to mistake this for a stuffy, serious art class. One of the instructors was even dressed up as Van Gogh himself, complete with a bandaged bloody ear. Even people in the crowd who had never picked up a brush seemed eager and excited to begin.

For $25, we were all given a canvas, brushes, paints and a T-shirt (which I should have worn as a smock, because I had a little bit of trouble keeping the paint on the canvas. Live and learn.)

Our subject was Greenville’s iconic Liberty Bridge. Luckily, realism was not the goal, as the painting was an abstract version of the landmark. Campbell said she wanted to pay homage to their impressionist namesake Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

Campbell’s instruction was clear and easy to follow, and before long, something was emerging on my canvas that looked vaguely like the original!

For more information on Vino and Van Gogh, click here. It’s a great place for a girls’ night out, bridal shower or even just to try something creative on your own.

Today I began my second day at Artisphere in Greenville by attending a demonstration by Patricia Kilburg in encaustic art, a centuries-old artistic technique that uses dyed, hot wax to create paintings with exceptional depth and texture.

Kilburg explained that one of the things she loves about working with encaustic is that it’s an art form where “artists are taking something that was done 3,000 years ago and making it work today.” In 100 A.D., encaustics were used for Fayum mummy portraits; today artists like Kilburg create beautiful, rich abstract pieces that are utterly modern.

The artist began by showing us how she warms the pigmented beeswax on a pancake griddle while she works. She then created a quick painting of tree limbs as a sample of the technique. After applying the wax, she applied heat with a heat gun to seal the layer, bonding it to the canvas below. She then demonstrated how you could add additional pigments to the wax using pastels or Indian ink, bonding them with heat.

The result, even in the sample that she created in less than half an hour, was lovely. Her finished works, displayed nearby, were wonderfully layered and complex. The encaustic technique creates an unusual and enchanting finish for the paintings.

If you are interested in learning more about encaustic, Kilburg is teaching a two-day workshop on the technique in July at the Greenville County Museum of Art. The workshop will take place on July 20-21 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day and costs $129. For more information click here.