Thibault Gallery is pleased to feature a collection of paintings by Beaufort artist Mac Rogers during the month of October. Rogers has titled the collection “A Place We Call Home” – and the paintings reflect the reasons why he feels that the Lowcountry is truly “home.”

Having survived a camping trip to Hunting Island as a Cub Scout in 1958 from “Metropolitan” Orangeburg, SC, Mac vowed never to return to the mosquito, heat and humidity ridden jungle. Flash forward to now – watching boat traffic on the Beaufort River from under the canopy of oaks at Whitehall Point complete with a lunch of LT’s fried chicken. The skyline is dominated by the steeples of the Parish Church of Saint Helena, the Baptist Church of Beaufort, and Trinity Baptist Church – not high rise commercial buildings.

My friend and I were already planning to leave town for the weekend. The SC Native Plant Symposium was being held in Clemson at the same time Hurricane Matthew was blasting the South Carolina coast. After getting the necessary travel preparations finished we loaded up my gold Trail Blazer and headed for higher ground. Even as we left the lowcountry and got “up the country” fall was evident in the yellows, reds, and gold on the sides of the road.