You won’t want to miss Miami Circle Marketplace, held Thursday November 4 through Saturday November 6 at Miami Circle in Buckhead, and sponsored by Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, Eclipse de Luna, Diageo and the Meddin Company. Featuring arts, antiques, music and more, the event will be chock full of guest speakers, appraisals, music, cocktails and hor d’oeuvres galore, plus raffles of 16 exciting items that will benefit DIFFA, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. A large number of AH&L‘s favorite local businesses will participate in this fabulous three-day design showcase:

Artists’ Atelier of Atlanta
Antonio Raimo Galleries, Ltd.
Dearing Antiques
Ferguson Enterprises
Foxglove Antiques & Galleries
Fusion Design Group
J. Tribble Collection
Lisa Thompson & Associates
My French Chateau
Red Gallery
Specialty Tile Products
The Gables Antiques
The Lamp Shoppe
The Nicholson Gallery
Vespermann-Cooper Gallery
William Word Fine Antiques

And, several top design talents previously featured in AH&L‘s pages will be part of an impressive lineup of speakers, including Yong Pak, Stanley Ellis, current Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Christmas House designer Capella Kincheloe, and more. Visit miamicirclemarketplace.com for a complete schedule of events and list of speakers. Happy shopping!

It is always fun to come across a new artist that you fall in love with! I first saw Whitney Wood Bailey’s art a few weeks ago and have not stopped thinking about it. Her work is a beautiful balance of fluid, organic shapes with controlled manifold ticking marks. I had a hard time narrowing it down to a few pieces to post, but you can see more on www.whitneywoodbailey.com. I personally love her works on paper, but my husband Michael likes the large-scale canvases.

Here’s a little about Whitney:
She received a BFA in Painting from Auburn University in 2005. While earning her undergraduate degree, Whitney studied with the University of Georgia in Cortona, Italy. Following graduation from Auburn, she studied with Rhode Island School of Design in Pont-Aven, France. Moving back to the states, she interned with Paul Kasmin Gallery and studied under painter Larry Poons in New York City. In 2008, Whitney received her MFA in painting at Savannah College of Art and Design. Whitney states, “Using both organic and highly controlled painting techniques, the resulting composition is a compromise between excess and restraint, impulse and logic.”

Whitney’s studio, available by appointment only, is located in the L2 studio at the TULA Art Center. You can also see select pieces at TEW Galleries, Hotel Palomar and the Rymer Gallery in Nashville.

Don’t miss the SCAD Atlanta Scholarship Gala 2010 at the Atlanta campus this Thursday, April 8. The festivities kick off at 6:30 p.m. with a VIP collector’s preview reception—and an exclusive buy it now option—plus select artist appearances, for $275. The silent auction and cocktail reception follows at 7:30 p.m. Enjoy all the artful fare, conviviality, and the chance to win more than 100 pieces of original, one-of-a-kind SCAD artwork for just $150. Paintings, photography, sculpture and jewelry are up for bids.

Style icon Cornelia Guest has been named honorary chair of this year’s Scholarship Gala. Fashion performances and select garments from SCAD’s C.Z. Guest Costume Collection will be on display, as well.

Reserve your tickets by phone at (404) 253-2728 or by e-mail at rnort@scad.edu.

In her own words, “My works have a very feminine quality and I want each piece to be as luxuriant, untamed and vivid as the Southern women I have grown up around. I use roses and lilies among my work as a metaphor for these women. The stages of the flowers on each piece are at the peak of their bloom, representing internal strength and external beauty.”

Here are a few of my favorite pieces from her senior thesis show at Ole Miss:

 

I absolutely adore Caroline’s signature flowers, and was excited to learn she’s featuring larger and larger roses as she progresses on her newer pieces. She attributes this to perhaps subconsciously making them just as big and outlandish as typical, but charming Southern personalities. Caroline is currently in her first semester of studying interior design, but with so much buzz generating (she’s already sold over 60 pieces!) she plans to take a hiatus to focus on her ceramic work and open a studio.

To purchase or check out more of Caroline’s work, visit her Web site at carolinereehl.com

Years later, I feel just as fortunate to be immersed in Atlanta’s fantastic art scene and to be inspired daily by the works contained in our local galleries. Creating art is just a hobby for me, but it has allowed me to truly appreciate the talents of those that far exceed mine. Until my budget allows, I will continue making my own artwork or sourcing it second-hand from antique stores, but I eagerly await the day when I can purchase large-scale pieces by the artists I so admire.

So naturally, when I was creating an original art piece for my bedroom, I was very much inspired by many local artists’ works, even just peripherally. (Probably the most valuable lesson my painting professor taught me was to be mindful of my influencers, because even subconscious inspiration from great artists is an inevitable and wonderful part of the creative process.)

Take the colorful abstract expressionistic paintings of Sally King Benedict, who is based in Charleston but represented locally at Gregg Irby Fine Art. I might describe them best as "stunning," and "gorgeous," but as pretty as they are, they're also perfectly in step with modern aesthetics, making them well-suited to a range of interiors. The fact that this young artist also graduated with me at College of Charleston just makes me doubly supportive of her work. I took the above photo at an art show for her work as well as others represented at the gallery.

Delightedly, I discovered the next artist on my list, Tina Steele Lindsey, via her comments on this very blog! Her acrylics-on-canvas, especially, are vivid, intricate and pleasing to the eye, but the examples shown here are only two of many that have recently captured me.

Lindsey works mostly on commission and specializes in media such as acrylic, oil and charcoal. Even her wedding portraits are imbued with energy and seem to tell very interesting stories. Lindsey posts her works—and the stories behind their making—on her blog, tinasteelelindseyart.blogspot.com, which is without a doubt one of my favorite new places on the net. She produces pieces on commission and also shows at Gallery 4463 in Acworth, Georgia.

Perhaps one of my favorite rooms we've ever published—the living room of interior designer Courtney Giles—features a large abstract canvas by Will Cay, represented through Carter Kay Interiors—which unequivocally demonstrates how art can make a room.

The works of Lorraine Christie, a world-renowned artist who's known for creating romantic street scenes of lovers and friends meeting, most often in the rain, are both beautiful and moving. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and now residing in Roswell, Georgia, Christie's work has soared in popularity in Atlanta thanks to local representation at Huff Harrington Fine Art. More Impressionistic than abstract, I love the linear qualities of the figures in these urban scenes and how well reflections are rendered in luminous oil pigments.

At last, my handiwork in oils below:

As you can see, I broke the cardinal rule of photography by capturing this image at night in incandescent light, but I intend to snap another shot in the daylight soon!

What artists inspire your own creative pursuits? Let us know in the blog comments below!