Each year, Visit South Walton honors a local artist that represents the style, sophistication and scenic beauty of South Walton to bring attention to 30A’s thriving arts community. The 2014 Artist of the Year is mosaic glass artist Mary Hong!
The Blue Giraffe discovered Mary several years ago and has been carrying her work ever since. Her passion for glass and unconventional mosaic techniques has gained her notoriety in South Walton and beyond. In November, Mary will be featured in Southern France at “A One Woman Exhibition of Contemporary Art” at the Galerie Arthe in GAUJAC.
Mary has been a professional artist for more than 20 years and has been working with glass the last 13 years. She uses dimensional glass techniques to stand glass rigidly on its edge to allow light to pass through the glass while reflecting colors and textures onto a surface.
We especially enjoy Mary’s coastal color palette, unique subjects and one-of-a-kind-style. We think Mary is the perfect choice to represent the South Walton artist community and the Artists of 30A. We invite you to stop by the Blue Giraffe to see some of her latest creations.
Live painting demonstration with Aaron Sutton, local colorblind artist! Join us under the tent Saturday at 6:00pm! The Blue Giraffe is excited to be a sponsor of the 13th Annual MountainFilm Festival at WaterColor Resort on November 1st & 2nd, 2013. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.MountainFilmFL.com.
Jeanie Posey is more than just a fun-loving woman, she is an incredibly gifted artist who paints primarily in oil on canvas. Her artistic journey spans a lifetime, but for many years her focus was on building a successful career in the educational systems of Florida and Georgia. She likes to say that she started painting in 2009 but the fact is, she received a First Place in Portrait award at the Florida State Fair in the early ‘70s. While her artistic creativity may have been on hold for more than 40 years, it was always an integral part of who she was.
After retiring in 2007, Jeanie plunged back into the artistic world. Being a woman who not only loves to teach, but also to learn, Jeanie committed to studying under the best of the best. She credits her new level of artistic skill to her total immersion in week-long workshops with nationally-acclaimed portrait painter, Thomas Nash, expressionist artist, Michelle Torrez, and world-renowned plein air artist, Morgan Samuel Price. Learning from these master oil painters helped Jeanie hone her skills doing what she loves best – painting action portraits. Her training also taught her “how to make the color gray a hundred different ways”; knowledge that only a true artist can appreciate. One of Jeanie’s proudest accomplishments was winning the People’s Choice Award at the Roswell Fine Arts Alliance Show in 2011.
Jeanie lives in Atlanta, Georgia with Ken, her husband of 12 years, whom she met on a blind date. She likes to say she got married so she could have grandchildren “the easy way”. Jeanie has no children of her own and Ken blessed her with five grandchildren – they are her greatest joy! She and Ken live a rich and full life in Atlanta, staying busy with a variety of cultural activities. Their beautiful home in Roswell is where Jeanie paints; in fact, she turned the Great Room into the perfect studio where she can paint surrounded by their home life. It has windows that are two-stories high with beautiful lighting and two sofas, so when guests visit they are surrounded by beautiful artwork! She also has friends join her on a regular basis to paint together and inspire each other.
Jeanie and Ken also love their monthly visits to Scenic Highway 30A and staying in their vacation home in Blue Mountain Beach. Jeanie belongs to a local tennis team that keeps her busy playing her favorite sport. She is also a member of the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, the local Women’s Art Network and the Emerald Coast Plein Air Painters. She feels blessed and humbled by the life she leads and the people who are a part of it.
The Blue Giraffe is proud to represent Jeanie Posey exclusively in the 30A area. We accept requests for commission work and will happily help you obtain a custom oil painting based on your vision, working with photographs of the things you love most. Jeanie has a passion for action portraits but also loves to paint beach scenes and our coastal dune lakes. Contact us at 850.231.5112 for more information. When you’re in the area, come by our gallery to see her amazing, original artwork and browse the variety of prints we now have available.
Below are examples of Jeanie’s beautiful oil paintings on canvas. The original piece titled “Watersound Beach” was commissioned by Larry and Debbie Taylor, co-owners of The Blue Giraffe. You can read more about Jeanie Posey on our Artists page.
Learn to paint with local artist, Aaron Sutton! Sign-up for a semi-private class with an incredibly gifted, colorblind artist. Aaron will meet you at one of the gorgeous coastal areas along 30A and teach you a simple technique using acrylics on canvas. You’ll be amazed at the beautiful artwork you will create and you’ll have such fun doing it! No experience is needed and supplies will be provided. You only need to bring sunscreen, water, and a positive attitude.
Classes are on Thursdays from 2:00 to 5:00 and the cost is $200 per person. Space is limited so sign-up now by calling The Blue Giraffe at 850.231.5112.
Aaron has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Texas Tech University. He has been painting for over 10 years and is a full time artist and graphic designer on 30A. He is also red/green and blue/violet color blind. If he can do it, you can too! Read more about Aaron Sutton by visiting our ARTISTS page and our BLOG.
We would like you to meet Rob and Ginger … they had a blast learning to paint with Aaron while recently vacationing on 30A :
Testimonial from one of Aaron’s former students:
“I am an art major at Union University. For my spring break I got to spend a couple of hours meeting Mr. Aaron Sutton as well as painting with him at a local park on the beach. I am not an experienced painter, but it is one form of art that I enjoy doing. I have taken a couple of art lessons and classes while growing up, but I learned more from Mr. Sutton in just one lesson. I enjoyed viewing his work that was in his gallery as well as a few current pieces he was working on. He guided me while I painted a landscape of the beach. I got to experience techniques that he uses himself, which were very new to me. I had a great time and I was impressed that I painted the painting I did. Mr. Sutton was not only a good teacher, but also very encouraging and intentional. As an art student i appreciated that because pursuing art as a career is my goal and it is usually not an easy one. As soon as I got back home I bought certain things Mr. Sutton uses and I am now practicing the methods and techniques that he practiced with me. Overall my experience with him has given me way more confidence as a painter and helped me explore things about paint I did not know before.” – Kenzie Carter
Interview with the Author – Special to The Walton Sun by Deborah Wheeler.
Karen White, a part-time resident of the WaterColor community, has penned her 16th novel — “The Time Between” — and will be reading from it and signing copies at The Blue Giraffe on June 25.
White said her latest work spans between 1944 Hungary to modern-day South Carolina. “It’s about sisters and forgiveness,” she said. The idea for the book came through an article the author came across in a newspaper a few years back.
The article was about two sisters who escaped Hungary in 1944, never married, lived in the same house together and were very socially active in their community. However, the sisters suddenly became reclusive, and a couple of years later, both were found dead in their home within days of each other. “Obviously something happened to make them become reclusive, and while I didn’t know what it was, it sparked my imagination and I made up my own story. So, it is a work of fiction,” White said. White doesn’t have a sister, but her mother had five and she always enjoyed sitting in on their sisterly talks and watching their close interactions. “I always wished I had a sister and the way sisters interact intrigues me,” she said.
A native of “nowhere” while growing up, White lived all over the world, with the longest time spent in one place — the seven years she lived in London. A constant, though, were summers spent with her grandmother in DeFuniak Springs. So, it became a given that she would bring her own family to vacation in South Walton. White says reading has always been her favorite thing to do. She describes writing as a dream that she never took seriously even though she still remembers a teacher telling her “You’re so creative, you should write!” Instead, she went into the field of business management until her daughter was born and she moved from Washington, D.C., toAtlanta. Ten years later, after leaving the business world, she began writing her first novel in 1996 just to see if she could. “In the Shadow of the Moon” took three years to complete and came out in 2000. She entered it in a literary contest and was thrilled when it won. One of the judges was an agent who asked to represent her. “In the Shadow of the Moon” was nominated for the prestigious RITA award in 2001 in two separate categories. Her books have since been nominated for national contests including two more RITAs and the SIBA (Southeastern Booksellers Association) Fiction Book of the Year. She has also twice won the National Readers’ Choice Award for “Learning to Breathe” and “On Folly Beach.”
She enjoys writing what she refers to as “grit lit” — Southern women’s fiction. However, White’s creative writing sparks could be ignited by almost anything, she said, such as someone saying something interesting, or a picture she might see in a coffee table book. Her interests are varied and easily inspired.
“I know when I get a tingly feeling that I am on to something,” she said. That tingly feeling has paid off as the author’s work has made it onto the New York Times Best Sellers list twice. “That achievement came as a complete surprise, but it is good to know that more than family and friends are buying my work,” she said. Her 2012 releases, “Sea Change” and “After the Rain” debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at number 12 and 14 respectively. Her fourth and final book in her Tradd Street series, “Return toTradd Street,” is scheduled for publication in January 2014.
Debbie Taylor, who co-owns The Blue Giraffe at WaterColor with daughter Christi Sheffield, said White’s publisher contacted The Blue Giraffe to be a part of a multi-city national tour as the author debuts this first hardcover and novel, “The Time Between.” “”The Time Between” is by far one of the best books I have read in many years,” Sheffield said. “I started reading it on a Monday night and was finished by Thursday night. I literally stayed up reading past midnight every night because I didn’t want to put it down. What a beautifully written and enthralling story with such an important life message. We are thrilled to be part of her national book signing tour.”
White will read an excerpt from the book, followed by a short Q&A session before the signing. The event begins at 10 a.m.
