Spring Exhibitions
Exhibition Dates: April 16 – June 6. Opening reception, Thursday, April 16th from 5:30 – 7:00 PM. Featuring the Southeastern Pastel Society and solo artists sculptor, Gregory Johnson, Susan Blackmon, Grant Searcey, and Thad Green.
Southeastern Pastel Society 2015 Members' Exhibition
The Southeastern Pastel Society (SPS) will host its 2015 Juried Member Exhibition at The Quinlan Visual Arts Center April 16 – June 6, 2015. Meet the artists at the opening reception on Thursday, April 16, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Refreshments served. Admission is free.
This exhibition represents 92 pastel paintings selected out of 235 works submitted from 89 artists in 13 states.
The Quinlan Visual Arts Center is located at 514 Green Street in Gainesville GA. Open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed Sundays and holidays. Call 770-536-2575 or visit www.quinlanartscenter.org for more information.
SPS was established in 1988 as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting pastel as a medium in the Southeast. The society has grown to more than 225 members from all over the United States and other nations throughout the world, and includes many nationally and internationally acclaimed artists.
Visit the SPS website at http://southeasternpastel.org to get more information on the organization and view individual artists’ pages/websites. CLICK HERE to visit their website.
This exhibition represents 92 pastel paintings selected out of 235 works submitted from 89 artists in 13 states.
The Quinlan Visual Arts Center is located at 514 Green Street in Gainesville GA. Open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed Sundays and holidays. Call 770-536-2575 or visit www.quinlanartscenter.org for more information.
SPS was established in 1988 as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting pastel as a medium in the Southeast. The society has grown to more than 225 members from all over the United States and other nations throughout the world, and includes many nationally and internationally acclaimed artists.
Visit the SPS website at http://southeasternpastel.org to get more information on the organization and view individual artists’ pages/websites. CLICK HERE to visit their website.
"Spring Reflections" Sculpture by Gregory Johnson
Gregory is an artist whose work, for the past 50 years, has focused on figurative themes which have been cast in bronze and stainless steel. His current contemporary set of works is built upon the concepts of traditional works. With regard to the modern works, instead of sculpting things that we see and are familiar with, such as a person, he chooses to depict elements people feel, but cannot necessarily touch or quantify. The warmth of the sun, the secure and loving feeling of a Family, the strength of nature; these are just a few of the elements Gregory touches on.
His new sculptures, constructed of high quality brushed stainless steel are mounted on granite bases. The works offer exciting views from any angle, and are reflective of their environment- literally. Place them next to a bed of flowers, and those flowers are reflected in the metal. The works are ideal for interior or exterior placement, and offer a lifetime of minimal maintenance. His sculpture will be featured in the Mansfield Gallery. CLICK HERE to visit Gregory's website.
His new sculptures, constructed of high quality brushed stainless steel are mounted on granite bases. The works offer exciting views from any angle, and are reflective of their environment- literally. Place them next to a bed of flowers, and those flowers are reflected in the metal. The works are ideal for interior or exterior placement, and offer a lifetime of minimal maintenance. His sculpture will be featured in the Mansfield Gallery. CLICK HERE to visit Gregory's website.
Grant Searcey Riders on the Storm: Where Light & Dark Collide
Grant Searcey is a fine art painter and professional illustrator currently based in scenic Dahlonega, Georgia.
He has the gift of being able to tap into a child-like imagination and turn these visions into whimsical works of visual art.
"Painting has actually become a type of meditation for me. I put on my favorite music and dive into another world of pure creativity for hours at a time. In June of 2004 I received a life-saving heart transplant. I had been very ill with Cardiomyopathy from age 18 to 28 and a new heart was my only option for life. The operation was a success and my artwork has played a crucial role in helping me survive and recover. The creative process has been a means of therapeutic expression both pre and post-transplant. During times when I’ve questioned whether I would live or die, I have repeatedly turned to painting as a powerful coping mechanism. When faced with the simple fact that I would either survive getting a new heart or die trying, life became very simple. Life or death? If I live, I'm on bonus time in a sense. It's time to do exactly what I am on this planet to do. In my case, it's to paint and create art. Eleven years now with a new heart and the battle is not over.
Instead of fighting on a literal battlefield, I fight daily with insurance companies, new policies and political changes that directly affect my quality of life. I fight for affordable medications. I fight scheduling angiograms, heart biopsies, prescription drug side effects and finding the right doctors. I fight to stay healthy while consuming powerful drugs that suppress my immune system. In short, painting and creating is how I deal with perceived urgency and stress.
Life - death. Joy - depression. Light - dark. Everything that we experience has an opposite. The light shines brighter when surrounded by darkness. We feel happier when we know what sadness is like. One world cannot exist without there other. The lower we go, the higher we can bounce back. For this show, Riders on the Storm, I explore this dichotomy and the "storm" itself is the turbulent ride we're on during the process.
The subject matter is somewhat tribal in nature. Fighting for my life for so many years has led me to imagine myself as a warrior. My warrior of choice is my own made-up idealized conglomeration of a Native American Brave mixed in with a bit of Viking and some Aztec influences. The raven and eagle inspired bird-like additions to this imaginary world are used as highlights and further character development for my warrior's medicinal and shamanic beliefs.
Will your warrior give in to darkness and stay there or will your warrior fight on and live in the light?
Every day is a choice."
Generally speaking, Grant's overall inspiration comes from a variety of sources. "It's a melting pot of mother nature, science fiction, comic books, steampunk, graffiti and street art".
Three of his paintings are being reproduced and distributed globally by Lucasfilm® (now Disney). A recent painting was part of a “Collection of Rare Interpretive Art Work” inspired by the popular TV show Family Guy. In association with Twentieth Century Fox and Acme Archives this show launched in Hollywood, CA and toured around the world. Disney Underground accepted Mr. Searcey's darker interpretation of the Seven Dwarfs entitled "The Seven". Disney actively sells this piece world-wide and most prominently at Disneyland in Annaheim, CA.
The City of Hermosa Beach, CA selected one of Mr. Searcey's paintings as their featured artwork in 2011. Banners featuring this sea-life themed work of art can be seen up and down main street in this Los Angeles beach community to this day.
Grant grew up in a small rural community in Nebraska. With fewer distractions, he felt that his imagination was allowed to blossom. He studied Fine Art and Art History at Nebraska Wesleyan University and later graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in Psychology. While attending college and living in Lincoln, NE he took part in his first gallery reception at the Burkholder Project at age 20. In 1996 he sold his first painting and he's been putting his talents to work ever since. After a decade living and painting in San Diego and Los Angeles with brief stints in Taos, New Mexico his path has brought him to the mountains of North Georgia.
Currently, he lives and paints in Dahlonega, Georgia with a retail gallery and studio location inside of Canvas and Cork. Grant's work can also be found at ZaPOW! Art Gallery in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. (and online at grantsearcey.com)
"I sincerely thank you for your interest in my artwork and I appreciate your support." - Grant Searcey
He has the gift of being able to tap into a child-like imagination and turn these visions into whimsical works of visual art.
"Painting has actually become a type of meditation for me. I put on my favorite music and dive into another world of pure creativity for hours at a time. In June of 2004 I received a life-saving heart transplant. I had been very ill with Cardiomyopathy from age 18 to 28 and a new heart was my only option for life. The operation was a success and my artwork has played a crucial role in helping me survive and recover. The creative process has been a means of therapeutic expression both pre and post-transplant. During times when I’ve questioned whether I would live or die, I have repeatedly turned to painting as a powerful coping mechanism. When faced with the simple fact that I would either survive getting a new heart or die trying, life became very simple. Life or death? If I live, I'm on bonus time in a sense. It's time to do exactly what I am on this planet to do. In my case, it's to paint and create art. Eleven years now with a new heart and the battle is not over.
Instead of fighting on a literal battlefield, I fight daily with insurance companies, new policies and political changes that directly affect my quality of life. I fight for affordable medications. I fight scheduling angiograms, heart biopsies, prescription drug side effects and finding the right doctors. I fight to stay healthy while consuming powerful drugs that suppress my immune system. In short, painting and creating is how I deal with perceived urgency and stress.
Life - death. Joy - depression. Light - dark. Everything that we experience has an opposite. The light shines brighter when surrounded by darkness. We feel happier when we know what sadness is like. One world cannot exist without there other. The lower we go, the higher we can bounce back. For this show, Riders on the Storm, I explore this dichotomy and the "storm" itself is the turbulent ride we're on during the process.
The subject matter is somewhat tribal in nature. Fighting for my life for so many years has led me to imagine myself as a warrior. My warrior of choice is my own made-up idealized conglomeration of a Native American Brave mixed in with a bit of Viking and some Aztec influences. The raven and eagle inspired bird-like additions to this imaginary world are used as highlights and further character development for my warrior's medicinal and shamanic beliefs.
Will your warrior give in to darkness and stay there or will your warrior fight on and live in the light?
Every day is a choice."
Generally speaking, Grant's overall inspiration comes from a variety of sources. "It's a melting pot of mother nature, science fiction, comic books, steampunk, graffiti and street art".
Three of his paintings are being reproduced and distributed globally by Lucasfilm® (now Disney). A recent painting was part of a “Collection of Rare Interpretive Art Work” inspired by the popular TV show Family Guy. In association with Twentieth Century Fox and Acme Archives this show launched in Hollywood, CA and toured around the world. Disney Underground accepted Mr. Searcey's darker interpretation of the Seven Dwarfs entitled "The Seven". Disney actively sells this piece world-wide and most prominently at Disneyland in Annaheim, CA.
The City of Hermosa Beach, CA selected one of Mr. Searcey's paintings as their featured artwork in 2011. Banners featuring this sea-life themed work of art can be seen up and down main street in this Los Angeles beach community to this day.
Grant grew up in a small rural community in Nebraska. With fewer distractions, he felt that his imagination was allowed to blossom. He studied Fine Art and Art History at Nebraska Wesleyan University and later graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in Psychology. While attending college and living in Lincoln, NE he took part in his first gallery reception at the Burkholder Project at age 20. In 1996 he sold his first painting and he's been putting his talents to work ever since. After a decade living and painting in San Diego and Los Angeles with brief stints in Taos, New Mexico his path has brought him to the mountains of North Georgia.
Currently, he lives and paints in Dahlonega, Georgia with a retail gallery and studio location inside of Canvas and Cork. Grant's work can also be found at ZaPOW! Art Gallery in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. (and online at grantsearcey.com)
"I sincerely thank you for your interest in my artwork and I appreciate your support." - Grant Searcey
"Light, Color, Line" featuring artwork by Susan Blackmon
Susan Blackmon's paintings have been described as acutely tuned, lyrical, spare, eloquent, at once abstract and figurative. Her intuitively executed line forms - originating as quick App sketches made without intentional outcomes, non-representational shapes that she refers to as Paranons - are championed onto surfaces of layered colors or fused as low-relief shapes behind pours of oil paint. The paintings are characterized as strongly contemplative, even whimsical and imbue an intriguing sense of immediacy, some more rhythmic or abstracted than others.
Susan Blackmon's work has been selected for exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art - Georgia, Bill Lowe Gallery, Stan McCollum Gallery, South Cobb Arts Alliance, and in Brooklyn NY.
Susan’s works will be on display in the Jack and Sandra Bailey gallery. CLICK HERE to visit Susan's website.
Susan Blackmon's work has been selected for exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art - Georgia, Bill Lowe Gallery, Stan McCollum Gallery, South Cobb Arts Alliance, and in Brooklyn NY.
Susan’s works will be on display in the Jack and Sandra Bailey gallery. CLICK HERE to visit Susan's website.
"Abstracts in Harmony" Abstracts by Thad Green
Thad was born to be an artist. He knew he wanted to be an artist by the age of 10, but it took years to realize he could be. Thad lived first in a world of sports, then academics earning a B.S. and M.A. from the University of Florida, and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. He was a management professor at the University of Georgia, Auburn University, Mississippi State University, and Emory University, eleven years total. Dr. Green has authored over 100 publications, including 14 books on motivation and performance in the workplace. He left academia to join the business world, and has owned two management consulting and training firms, with clients such as Met Life, Delta Air Lines, Holiday Inns, and AT&T. Thad’s life took a sharp turn when he took a basic drawing class thirteen years ago and realized he could be an artist. Since that time he has trained fulltime, having completed over 8300 pieces of art work, focusing first on the face and figure, and recently moving into contemporary and abstract art. Thad has over 70 private collectors (including 17 in New York City, and several internationally in Italy, Ireland, and Amsterdam). He also has 20 corporate collectors to his credit, including AT&T, IBM, and Southern Company. Thad’s work will be featured in the Green Street gallery. CLICK HERE to visit Thad's website.