Artist Walter Greer donates painting to Hilton Head church

Known by many as Hilton Head’s first resident artist, Walter Greer has focused his paintbrush on the island’s natural beauty and its people since 1960.

His Lowcountry scenes and portraits have adorned hundreds of walls in galleries and homes and have fetched thousands of dollars at auctions.

Now at age 95, his painting days over, Greer has decided it’s time to release one of his treasured works into the public light. He and his wife, Margaret, will donate his painting “The Acolyte” to St. Luke’s Church on Hilton Head Island this month. The oil on canvas work has been valued at $25,000 by Jack A. Morris Jr., owner of Morris & Whiteside Auctions on Hilton Head.

A limited number of signed reproductions of the painting will also be sold to help the church complete a fundraising campaign for a $3.4 million expansion. Once the expansion is finished, the painting will become the centerpiece of the church’s future interactive Walk of Light hallway. The hall will connect the current sanctuary with the planned parish hall and present displays of the church’s history, present and future.

Greer’s inspiration for “The Acolyte” emerged while seated in the pews awaiting Sunday morning services at St. Luke’s, where he and Margaret are longtime members.

“When the candles are being lit, it’s the beginning of something,” Greer says. “It’s time to think about why you’re there.”

To Greer, the flame atop the candle, with the cross in the background, symbolizes “Jesus Christ, the light of the world.”

He purposely painted the back of the acolyte, modeled by his stepson who was 12 at the time, rather than his face, and used subdued background images — all to cause the viewer’s eyes to drift to the candlelight.

“Everything takes you to the flame,” he says.

The Rev. Greg Kronz, St. Luke’s rector, has admired the painting for years during visits to the Greers’ home, and believes it is a perfect symbol for his church as it heads into its expansion.

“It connects us to the past and links us to the future,” he says. “It represents the light of Christ in the St. Luke’s sanctuary and us keeping the light of Christ going.”

Longtime church member Brenda Lieberman agrees.

“‘The Acolyte’ represents all the people who have ever served at St. Luke’s and ever will, who are taking the light of Christ out into the world,” she says.

The Greers’ donation of the painting will be recognized at 10 a.m. April 24 at a service at St. Luke’s, with Bishop Mark Lawrence of Charleston presiding.

Norm Galloway, St. Luke’s capital campaign chairman, says the donation has become a cornerstone for the church’s expansion project and has motivated church members to work harder to achieve the funding goal.

“The whole capital campaign has been energized by it,” he says.

For Greer, the donation is another in a long list of efforts to serve the public through art.

In 1960, after quitting his job in the textile industry, he came to Hilton Head to paint, becoming one of the earliest Sea Pines residents. He soon introduced other artists to the island during the early 1960s, displaying their works in the former William Hilton Inn and helping to build a local arts community.

He was a founding member of the Hilton Head Art League in 1972. He is a charter member of the Artists’ Hall of Honor Hilton Head Island, and the Walter Greer Gallery at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina is dedicated to his work.

At 86, Greer decided it was time to give away his paint and brushes.

“I had done several hundred paintings,” he said. “I was tired.”

Greer says he and his wife felt a strong desire to donate their beloved “Acolyte,” which will remain in their home until the church expansion is completed.

“As much as we enjoy it, we would like to give it to the St. Luke’s collection,” where churchgoers can reflect on the painting’s spiritual meaning, he says. “It’s not a painting I would like to put on the market.”

Art lovers will also benefit, having another Walter Greer painting to gaze upon and admire.

“I think it’s a very good piece of my work,” says Greer. “It’s me painting at my best.”

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 7:18 AM with the headline "Artist Walter Greer donates painting to Hilton Head church."