Gallery Strolls are Summer Pleasures Again
Souvenirs by Jeni Stallings is a lovely encaustic painting Photos: Thomas Deans Fine Art
AUTHOR: ARTSY CHOW ROAMER
GALLERY STROLLS
ARE SUMMER PLEASUREs AGAIN
For over twenty years now, Thomas Deans Fine Art has been presenting his annual rotating summer exhibition called Summer Pleasures. The contemporary gallery is located on Miami Circle and normally hangs a diversity of work ranging from the serious to the whimsical.
Opening on June 21st, the show will run through August 31st exhibiting artists long-established while featuring emerging talent and new artists to the gallery. Genres range from realism to abstraction and conceptualism in the works and this year’s show is happening again in conjunction with a limited series of gallery stroll events.
Sponsored in part by Livable Buckhead, all the galleries on the street (over a dozen) are open later than usual on some Saturday evenings offering light refreshments and lots of wonderful things on view from local to international works of art. One of these events will be on July 20th from 4:00 to 6:00, where Thomas Deans will host a reception with featured artists present to meet, greet and tour the gallery. This post we’ll take a look at some of the artists you will see in the show.
Enjoy this short video
JENI STALLINGS
A native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Jeni Stallings graduated from the Memphis College of Art. Her paintings are a feminine version of surrealism that recalls her own dreams and personal experiences. She works using an ancient version of encaustic; heating the beeswax to coat the paintings surface creating a muted dreamy effect on the finish. She refers to herself as a storyteller.
Art critic, Felicia Feaster, wrote “her paintings draw from a lexicon melding dreamwork with a touch of Southern eccentricity” which describes them perfectly. While many see the muted, feminine-infused works as lyrical, I find them both intriguing and always fun; enjoying the way the paintings tell the story of Jeni’s dreams and memories when hung together as a body.
Negroni by Atlanta artist Scott French is an oil on panel piece from a series
SCOTT FRENCH
Born in Atlanta, artist Scott French started traveling around the country at fourteen in jazz bands playing from New Orleans to Detroit. In between sets, he began to doodle and draw the nightlife and cities he visited exposing a range of characters and human emotions that were unfolding every night around him.
He returned to his hometown after eight years on the road to enroll in drawing and painting at Georgia State University along with an internship as an assistant to sculptor Martin Dawe. Artist in residence at the time, Scott would learn a lot about human anatomy in three dimensions from Marty making the time well-spent when he turned back to his own work with a stint at Portfolio Center.
Known for the strength and sensitivity he applies to his wide-open-spaces landscapes, no matter how big or small, I think Scott really shines at his studies of everyday objects and nudes. They have a sense of intimacy and a free rendering hand that I like to think recall those days of doodling on cocktail napkins in dark rooms that smelled of whiskey and cigarettes while a saxophone played sexy tunes. This series of different drinks is typical of his style and coloring creating “lasting interpretations of what he experiences and sees”.
MARY PARKMAN
Floridian artist, Mary Parkman, is an abstract and figurative painter whose work is varied in technique and content. A Cornell graduate with study in abstract expressionism at two prestigious schools in Manhattan and Umbria, Italy, she first began representational painting in the plein aire style.
Over time, her work has become increasingly more abstract focusing on the paint and the pure process of the work. The paintings are inspired by nature utilizing colorful palettes and expressive paint strokes with a definite soft feminism in the presentation built through layering and by both pushing and pulling the paint. This lets the viewer see what the artist sees and feels with Mary never feeling it is finished, she simply has to stop painting.
Paul Tamanian’s surfboards as art are colorful and fun
PAUL TAMANIAN
Surf’s up where surfboards become sculpture with the fun colorful pieces of artist, Paul Tamanian. Born in New York but living in North Florida since he graduated from Florida State University, Paul started his career in design. A casual class in pottery at a community college kicked off an interest that turned into a passion. He moved into aluminum panels experimenting with his techniques for technical innovations that mixed different media with automotive paints.
Paul’s background gives him a lovely sense of color theory. The slick shiny auto finish pops them out even more vividly. While his subject matter tends to be abstract in nature he also designs beautiful realistic pieces. Free standing sculptures as well as those that hang can be used both indoors and outdoors with the finish he provides. His surfboards will be sold with a stand or wall-mount hardware for options on display.
LINDA HENNINGSON
Native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canadian artist Linda Henningson graduated from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2006. Most recently, she has introduced recognizable objects in the form of flowers and vases into her work which accentuate both color and pattern in the representational styling.
The paintings have a lovely interior design-like feel to them as they embrace the pattern-on-pattern approach to the details of wallpapers, table textures and vase designs which make them a perfect accessory to finished spaces. National television shows have purchased her pieces for shows such as Home & Garden TV’s Income Property and CTV’s The Marilyn Denis Show.
Flowers #5 by new artist to the gallery Linda Henningson
DANIEL BYRD
I have always referred to Daniel Byrd as the Buckhead boy with the street art vibe. A Savannah College of Art and Design graduate, Daniel was born and raised in Atlanta and has always been enamored with the city’s energy. His bold mark-making style speaks to 3D visuals in two-dimension with negative spaces and optical illusions that harken back to the best stylings of more famous graffiti artists.
Gridlock #1 by Atlanta artist Daniel Byrd
Byrd builds his images in a layering process, creating intricate woven patterns in vivid colors with subtle textures and patterns mixed in. He acknowledges this process is a human trait; a way of “making something in order to see what lies beyond it”. A celebration of innovation, evolution and/or progression if you will. His finished pieces imply a sense of infinity and that is what drives his creativity.
CONCLUSION
Along with the artists listed above, an international group of artists will be featured along with American artists. Work by Tennessee artist Greg Decker, North Carolina artist Marlise Newman, California artists Sharon Pastor and Elaine Coombs, New Yorkers Tracey Burtz and Thaddeus Radell will hang alongside works by Australian Callum Francis and Belgian Mathieu Weemaels. Artists representing Atlanta and North Georgia include Ana Guzman, Evan Jones, Carl Linstrum, Brent Baker, David Kidd, Elise Thomason, Gwen Wong, Eileen Braun, Lauren Betty and Steve Steinman, among others. Two Atlanta guest artists will present work: Christopher Hickey and Roxanne Hollosi.
A look into how Daniel works
Thomas Deans Fine Art was established in 1983 and specializes in contemporary paintings, works on paper, and selected photography. He has a good eye for hanging a show preferring to mix artists, letting the colors and subject matters play a sort of song as you move through the gallery. I always make sure I get to this exhibit every year. The successful joining of old and new artists and the mix of price points make it a must on any collectors list.
If you enjoyed what you read, you might also like other posts under Artful Ideal. You can find other artists that I really love and you might want to add to your own collection. Until next time…
Cheers,
ArtsyChowRoamer
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