Fifty Shades of Color on Our Gallery Walls

We open a new show, Fifty Shades, at the gallery this coming Friday (October 12th) from  6 - 8 p.m. and we hope you'll join us if you're in town.  The Atlantan is co-hosting the party with us and we're expecting a full house.

Of course, we had some fun coming up with the theme for this one and it all started earlier this year when we were chatting about repainting the gallery.  If you had been a little fly on the wall, you would have heard something like this:

Fifty shades of white, off-white and gray. How to make a decision?

Meg: we really need to figure out what colors we're going to repaint the gallery.

Ann: hmmmm, you're right. I really like those whites we were looking at.

Sarah (coming into the office): are you finally deciding on the paint colors? The painter is on the phone and needs to know.

Meg: well, of course, we love all the whites...

Ann: doesn't that figure? There are about fifty shades of white to choose from...

Ann and Meg (together): hey! That would be a good title for a show, don't you think, Sarah?

Sarah: you DO know there's an immensely popular book out there right now, don't you?  Fifty Shades of Gray?

Ann and Meg: Really?  What's it about? (they proceed to giggle at themselves while Sarah tries not to roll  her eyes.)

We all had a laugh about the vast potential of double entendres we could use to promote the show  (like: "We're Tied Up On October 12th"..and some other really bad ones) but after some serious deliberation, we decided we really liked the title for the show.

As always, our good-spirited and ever-obliging artists have humored us and presented us with a really outstanding body of new work that takes its cue from all the ambiguities of the title.  There's a literal adaptation with the paintings that are saturated in color or that explore hues and shades. There's a sassy little nod to the book with Amy Dixon's take on a classic white button down.  And, there are some gorgeous and evocative figures that are downright elegant and sexy.

Take a peek:

Alice McNeely's "Forbearance" (mixed media on canvas, 40 x 40)

 

We love Amy Dixon's playful "Stacked" (16 x 16, mixed media.)

 

Christina Doelling's "Dancing In the Rain." (mixed media on canvas 48 x 48)

  

"The Dark Side" by Angela Nesbit (oil on canvas, 40 x 30")

We're loving the drippy texture and layers upon layers of pigment on these. A new artist for us, Judie Jacobs, manipulates photography with an encaustic process. We were immediately drawn to her version of Piedmont Park:

Judie Jacobs "Sunday Afternoon at Piedmont Park" 36 x 36

Our friendly UPS and FedEx drivers have been delivering enormous boxes all week and each one contains delicious surprises.  Here's a little taste of what else we'll have hanging:

Jill Peckelun's clean and spare "Leap of Faith" (14 x 11)

Laurie Adams' "Lovers Found" (oil on canvas, 24 x 30)

Another new photo encaustic of the Louvre's Pyramid by Judie Jacobs. "Streets of Paris",  30 x 30.

Heidi Kirschner's abstracted landscape, "Awaken" (48 x 60)

So, we hope you'll come by and feast your eyes on all this wonderful wall candy.  Many of the artists will be here to chat about their work and we all look forward to welcoming you to the gallery.  (And, If you're wondering, we did finally find the perfect color for the gallery walls - and in our case, we'd have to list our fave as "Fifty Shades of Gray Mixed with Just a Little White.")

See you Friday...

Ta Ta.