SLIGHTLY NORTH OF CHARLESTON

Slightly North of Charleston is not a direction. It’s the name of a tiny but glamorous new art gallery in downtown Ridgeway.  Formerly of Charleston, England, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, artist Kathy Lynn Goldbach has called South Carolina ‘home’ since 1986 and now lives on Lake Wateree. She opened the eclectic art gallery in November, offering treasures from fine art to artisan crafts. It’s housed in the town’s former police station that was transformed from ho-hum to ‘O my gosh!’ by Goldbach’s handyman husband, Don.  The gallery specializes in Goldbach’s commissioned wedding portraits and live event paintings, many of which are on display as well as her paintings of places she’s visited during her travels to France and Italy.  But the gallery is not just for displaying and selling fine art. Visitors will also find the work of local artisans – everything from colorful kitchen aprons, refurbished antique travel trunks, tumbled glass windchimes, whimsical sailboats made from Lake Wateree driftwood to handmade jewelry and May Vokaty’s Molly Creek soap, silky body lotion and organic hand wash.