Hats off to our Linda!

Linda taking a little break from the hard work at the Paris flea market

The Atlanta Journal Constitution used to run an article every Sunday entitled, “Why I Love My Job.” Our employees have kiddingly said, -- usually in jest on a particularly grueling, schleppy kind of day, when paintings show up unwired, and Styrofoam peanuts coat every surface of the gallery -- that they wanted to write their own stories. There are other days, when we’ve gotten some great new paintings, and had extraordinary Aha moments hanging for a show, and a client has been particularly enthusiastic or we’ve earned ourselves one more buying trip to France, that the appreciation is more sincere.

Linda with Monsieur and Madame Nepo

Well we’d like to turn the tables a little and write our own mini series: About why we love our employees.

Today we’re picking on our sweet and gracious Linda Mohan, who has been with us almost from the beginning, and who continues to delight us daily with how much she brings to the gallery. She’ll be mortified, of course. But as small business owners, we realize more than ever how important the people are to the work we do. So maybe this isn’t just about Linda but about what makes any employee, especially in a small business environment, invaluable and appreciated and the secret to success.

The keeper of the loot!

With apologies for causing her embarrassment and singling her out in this first expose, here are the top ten reasons why we love working with our wonderful Madame, Linda Mohan:

10. Because she’s always prompt and dependable. Like a ray of sunshine, she comes bouncing in to the gallery on Monday mornings, coffee in one hand (always in an old fashioned French coffee bowl and without a top to it – how does she do it?), and waving a fabulous article that she read over the weekend, in the other.

9. Because she has such style. Yes, appearances do matter! And how fun it is to see what chic and creative outfit our Madame will turn up in every day. She is a true original who always looks beautiful and always with a little edgy, fun panache to every outfit.

8. Because she has a great work ethic. Our Madame exemplifies hard work. She doesn’t balk at the bad stuff (and there’s plenty of it). And she seems to swoon over the good stuff. If we let her, we think sometimes she would stay in the gallery until midnight – or at least until she gets it all done. By the way, will our ever-so-slightly over-indulged and over protected children inherit this same work ethic when they hit the work force? We certainly hope so.

Our favorite Schlepperella!

7. Because she loves to travel. Indeed, as an ex-flight attendant, and one who has never lost the bug for traveling, this one is up for anything anytime, even when it means lugging 50 extra pounds of paintings and sconces back from a buying trip in France. No surprise that one of her many terms of endearment is “schlepperella.”

6. Because she’s always upbeat. We have an unwritten rule at the gallery that we will only work with people we like and people who have a positive energy. Linda’s positive energy is positively contagious.

With artist Pascal Bouterin

5. Because she’s wonderful with clients, artists, and us, even when we don’t deserve it. Luckily, Miss Linda has never met a stranger and she always makes everyone feel comfortable and at ease. Again, a note to our children – yes, education comes first, but people skills and connecting with others are the keys to success in most professions.

With artist Georges Nasri

4. Because she’s always furthering her knowledge and always curious to know more. We appreciate that she is studying art history in the evenings and reading books about art. And we love that she is curious and passionate about a lot of different interests, like travel, learning French and knowing where to find the best macaroons in whatever city she happens to visit.

3. Because she takes initiative. As small business owners, we know that feeling of hating to ask someone to do something because it’s almost easier just to do it ourselves. Well, with Linda, we don’t have to ask her to do it, because she’s already thought of it, planned it, and committed to it. Aaaah ….

With artist Ewa Rzeznik in Paris

2. Because she has a great eye. There’s nothing more fun than going on a buying trip with Linda, who will quietly rustle through a bin of paintings and manage to gently point out several that we may have overlooked (but she knows are quite fabulous). Her eye goes much further than art too, since she has a great eye for fashion, for interior design and for gifts! In fact, we kiddingly call her the VP or Corporate Gifts because nobody can find the diamond in the rough like Linda or the perfect quelque chose to bring back to somebody back home.

With artist Andree Thobaty

And the number 1 reason we love working with Linda is ...

1. Because she loves what she does, and it shows. Just as they always say you should ask for the job when you are interviewing for it, you should appreciate it when you’re in it. There is nothing better than to work with people who are enthusiastic, and as employers, there is nothing that we appreciate more than happy employees. It’s contagious, it benefits everyone and it makes us all happier to work together. Merci, Linda!

Linda, who has never met a stranger, with a new friend in Provence!

Ta ta,

HH

PS: Gallerina, M'selle and Sam: We love you too ... and watch out, your turn will come!

A Horse is a Horse…

Purposeful Pony, Georges Nasri, watercolor, 16 x 20"

There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man. ~Winston Churchill

At least one of us here at the gallery (me) never recovered from the common strain of equine crush, most commonly experienced between the years of 7 and 12. Although years have passed (and I did discover boys…), I’ve never lost my passion, love and curiosity for these beautiful and graceful animals. I’ve been thrown, bitten, stepped on (that one really hurt) kicked and bucked off, but something about a horse’s meltingly brown eyes and the velvety texture of their noses brings me back again and again.

Although I always love to, I can't always find the time to head over to Atlanta’s Chastain Horse Park to get my fix. Luckily, my yearnings are quietened with the wonderful procession of equine paintings and watercolors that canter into the gallery and gallop right back out again, usually in the hands of another horse lover.

One of our favorite equine painters is the gorgeous, tall and exquisitely talented Bonnie Beauchamp Cooke, who jokingly calls herself a real cowgirl (although when she comes to the gallery in cool jeans and heels, she seems like a bonafide city girl to us!). She owns a farm in Middle Georgia and delights us with paintings of her own horses, with decidedly family-picked names: Lucy, Zipper Doodle, Leonard the IV (who was actually the son of Shelley) and Cappie. We love these paintings because they are full of texture, lots of different media (including sand and dirt that Bonnie likes to apply with her fingers) and soft, natural colors. I am especially taken with the way Bonnie captures a horse’s eye: it’s the window to their sweet souls and Bonnie paints them big, full of life and light and deep, dark brown. (By the way, Bonnie was recently the subject of a lively and gorgeously photographed blog by journalist/designer/tastemaker, Bryan Flynn, so click here to feast your eyes on it.)

Green, Bonnie Beauchamp Cooke, mixed media on panel, 40 x 30"

One of our French artists, Georges Nasri, paints a pretty fabulous horse, too. His are elongated and elegant equines – the way you’d want to look if you were a French horse. He uses a subtle inky brown watercolor and uses long, uninterrupted brush strokes. Sometimes, he adds a rider – and sometimes I dream that I’m a French girl riding a French horse and we’re both chic and elegant in that 1930s way. Georges’ horses look marvelous when they’re grouped together in a grid or a collection.

Trotting Forward, Georges Nasri, watercolor on paper, 16 x 8"

And, speaking of that, we just sold a number of these watercolors to a client who was adding an “elegant horse theme” to a study. We haven't snagged the photos yet, but we're pretty sure the collection packs a stylish punch.

We have a third artist whose work really sends me to the moon. His name is Jeffrey Terreson and he creates large (really large) horses in the most unhorsey hues. I’m particularly taken with his Quiet Series – these are noble steeds, who look like they come from prestigious bloodlines, but they gleam and glow in the palest celery green, azure blue and even crimson. Jeffrey incorporates all sorts of nameless objects into his media (like tiny plastic beads that get covered in his oil paint and add impossible texture). The newest one that recently arrived at our stable/gallery, was Quiet Mist. I was already in love before the crate arrived and sad for me, Quiet Mist quickly found a new home on someone’s lucky wall. Sigh.

Quiet Mist, Jeffrey Terreson, mixed media on canvas, 38 x 58"

Although we're all patiently waiting for another horsey creation from Mr. Terreson, I'm always looking for the next four-legged steed who will capture my heart...

Mares and Foals in a River Landscape, by George Stubbs, circa 1763-8

And here's one of Leonardo's sketches...

And finally, from Ashley Collins (a most inspired and talented California artist who performs wonders with the equine form), Grace. How beautiful is this?

That’s it, from the horse’s mouth….

Ta ta,

M.

A Huffington in House Beautiful

Yesterday morning as I was jogging on the treadmill trying to shed those uninvited Christmas pounds, I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, The Skirted Roundtable, in a discussion between three designers who all have fabulous blogs and insights into the world of design. In this segment, they interviewed Stephen Drucker, the Editor in Chief of House Beautiful magazine. I hadn’t realized that HB has been around for over 100 years, but I had noticed that in the last few years, it seems to be getting better and better. While other magazines are shedding pages or suffering even worse demises, HB seems to be getting stronger, thicker, with great big pictures, wonderfully varied design features, fabulous “how to’s” and a focus that is both aspirational and approachable.

I always look forward to getting my issue of HB in the mail, but unfortunately my subscription didn’t follow our recent move, and I have missed the last two issues. This became evident when the three ladies went on and on about how fabulous the recent Dec/Jan issue was and particularly praised the cover and story of Jill Brinson’s house in Atlanta. Hmmm, I thought, I don’t remember seeing this. So I sent out a quick S-O-S to a few friends, and was delighted when one responded immediately and brought that issue in to the gallery.

Sure enough, it was a great cover with the pale mauve House Beautiful logo underscored by a gorgeous, chunky rustic beam across the center. But what really caught my eye and jumped right off the page was the painting of a horse by Georges Nasri, smack in the middle of the cover! You have to understand that our paintings are a little bit like our children, and we are enormously proud and excited when we see pictures of little Huffingtons in magazines. Admittedly, not everyone would have noticed this painting at all. But to me, it was glaringly obvious and terribly exciting, kind of like having your child's artwork picked for the cover of the school poetry magazine (never happened to me).

See the Nasri horse hiding to the right of the couch?

I admit that we work hard to get our artist's work published, which is one of the reasons we’re delighted to contribute to show houses and work with designers. But this was the freebie that we’d never dreamed of -- the cover of House Beautiful magazine! We immediately poured over every detail of the article and were thrilled to read about this talented designer and her creative and quirky house in Atlanta. And we were enormously proud that a painting by our very own Monsieur Nasri graced the walls of her amazing sitting room – and upon further inspection, the living room as well!

Spot the Nasri over the mantle?

Monsieur Nasri’s work has universal appeal, but he is especially appreciated among the designer community. His work was also recently featured in Charlotte Moss’s room at the 2008 Kips Bay Show House. So it was no surprise to see him pop up in a beautifully decorated house by a talented Atlanta based designer. Bravo to Georges, and hats off to Jill for her exquisite taste.

By the way, since we became aware of the article, we've now seen lots of coverage of Jill Brinson's gorgeous house, most recently in yesterday's Cote de Texas blog. What a funny coincidence! But the attention on Jill's house is no surprise: It is deservedly delicious. If you haven't feasted your eyes on it yet, this is a treat for you to savor!

Enjoy,

Ta ta,

A.

Jill Brinson's Rustic and Luxurious Design

Understated elegance in the foyer

A place to compose your thoughts in the library

Bright and airy kitchen

Wall of windows in the kitchen

Tranquil dining room

Functional simplicity in the master bathroom

Master bedroom

Interior designer Jill Brinson, owner of Jill Sharp Style and also Creative Director of Ballard Designs, mixes rough, salvaged beams with Moroccan tapestries and industrial steel shelves in her renovated cottage home in Atlanta.

Visit Cote de Texas and House Beautiful for additional information.

By Lisa Cregan

Photo Credit: Simon Upton