Artists
Lee Brantley
Lee feels almost compelled to create art, with photography being his medium of choice. While his career was in television, his degree from Auburn is in Visual Design. That experience shows in Lee’s photography. He tends to see the world in images, as compositions in the shape of a viewfinder.
Photography helps Lee look at things differently and pay closer attention to his surroundings. He is interested in the details of the close-up. Lee loves the feeling of capturing an interesting, beautiful, or unusual image. As all photographers, Lee keeps a camera close at hand, never knowing when it will be needed!
Lee’s images are currently on display at Gallery on Tenth and Two Sisters Gallery in Columbus. He has had solo exhibitions at Sautee-Nachoochee Gallery in North Georgia and the Rankin Center Gallery in Columbus. Lee’s images have been awarded many ribbons across shows in Georgia, leading to his acceptance into the prestigious Slow Exposures Exhibit.
Lin Brantley
Coming from an artistic family, Lin was trained to see the interesting and beautiful in the world, and pursuing a degree in Visual Design at Auburn University only strengthened that habit and interest. She learned to appreciate the elements of design and also developed a love of drawing.
In Lin’s work, she shares her observation of intriguing objects, many of which are themselves works of art. Putting them together, Lin works with similarities and contrasts of color, shape, and texture. Sometimes a piece emphasizes the pattern produced by multiples of an object. At other times, the objects suggest a similarity to people, places, or things. A series of “nests” combines objects that contrast and cooperate to celebrate color, texture, and form.
Rebecca Connor
Rebecca has always been “Drawn” to bright colors. As a three-year-old, Rebecca would tear the paper wrappers from Crayola Crayons just to see the brightly colored crayons more clearly. Seventy-five years later, she still uses vivid colors in her watercolor paintings. Along with a B.S. Degree in Education from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA., Rebecca has taken various art classes over the years.
Rebecca spent eight years in the South Pacific (Samoa and Hawaii), teaching and painting. She took batiking and acrylic painting at the University of Hawaii. In Samoa, Rebecca took a workshop in sketching while focusing on the carefree island life. After returning to her home state of Tennessee, Rebecca enrolled in a watercolor class, where she was introduced to Plein-Air.
Presently, Rebecca’s works are exhibited at the GALLERY on 10th in Columbus, Georgia. She is also a member of the Columbus Artist Guild. In recent years, Rebecca has been mentoring Columbus High School students in painting at her studio on the river in Green Island. She also gives younger students private lessons.
Geri M. Davis
Geri McGriff Davis was born in Ancon, Canal Zone. As a "Navy-Brat" she traveled throughout the world. She is a graduate of Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Arts. She also holds a Master of Science Degree in Counseling and Human Development with an emphasis on Art Therapy. A unique combination of education has made it possible for her to utilize art in a therapeutic manner within her teaching. She has taught art for 45 years.
Geri also lectures on Art in Therapy and on the environment, with special concentration concerning Endangered Wildflowers. She has produced a poster on the "Threatened and Endangered Wildflowers of Georgia" that was used in the Muscogee County Schools as an educational tool.
Her artwork is in private collections from South America to Japan. She has been featured in Northlight Magazine and has had her artwork selected for the covers of 3 national magazines. Her artwork has won many local, regional and national awards. Geri is a Signature Member of the Georgia, Alabama and The Southern Watercolor Societies, of which she is a former President. Geri is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, where she served as both Branch and State Presidents.
Geri has served on the Dean's Advisory Council for the College of Liberal Arts and the Board of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Auburn University. She is a Founding member and Board Advisor for the Bo Bartlett Center and CSU’s Friends of Art. She presently serves on the Board of Directors of The Gallery On Tenth in Columbus, GA of which she is a Founding Member.
Geri's philosophy is that art is a powerful means of communication. That which you cannot put into words, you MUST paint!!
Susan Dolan
Susan hails from the Midwest and studied art in high school and college. She received a scholarship to attend the Art Institute of Chicago and earned her BFA from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She studied both Graphic Design and Studio Painting and travelled to Florence, Italy as a student. As a military wife, she lived all around the world, allowing her to explore various art, media, and styles. Susan now lives in Piedmont Lake of Pine Mountain, GA where she is enjoying her lake home.
Susan works primarily in oils, as well as oil pastel and watercolor. Her work has been exhibited in several galleries across the south, including the Columbus Museum. She has earned ribbons at the Georgia National Fair and been selected for the Winners Circle at the Albany Arts Show in Albany, GA. She has also been a Featured Artist at the Hapeville Art Crawl in Hapeville, GA. Her work in figure drawing has been in the “Go Figure” and the “Beyond Go Figure” shows at the Bo Bartlett Center at Columbus State University.
You can currently find Susan’s work exhibited at Two Sisters Gallery and Gallery on 10th in Columbus and HRH Antiques and Design in Pine Mountain. She is also a participant in the Physique Art Show sponsored by the Columbus Collective and a member of the prestigious National League of American Pen Women.
Kenneth Funderburk
I am a lifelong resident of Phenix City, Alabama and graduated from Central High School in 1954. In 1957 I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sanford University (formerly Howard College) and with a major in Sociology and a minor in Art and Music. While at Howard College (Sanford University) I was a member of the acapella choir and have severed as a part time choir director in many churches for 35 years. I was a former member and secretary of the board of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. I am also an author of two mystery novels: The Fish House Gang and Medusa’s Lair. Both books are available on Google and Apple books. From 1957 to 1962, I served as an Assistant Hospital Administrator, served 18 months in the military and fall of 1962 entered the University of Alabama Law School where I graduated in January, 1965.
I am licensed to practice in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and I was licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court on November 14, 1983. I was a member of the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society at the University of Alabama and was on the Alabama Law Review. I have served as a Bar Commissioner and the President of the Russell County Bar. Mr. Funderburk is an experienced trial lawyer and has participated in many trials in several states. I am a Paul Harris Fellow, the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. I have a wide business background including as a real estate developer, and was the founder and chairman of the board of a savings and loan association. I am the senior partner in the law firm of Funderburk and Lane and formally served as the attorney for Russell County, Alabama for 15 years. I have won multiple blue ribbons in juried competition for my art, primarily in the acrylic medium. My subject matter is eclectic, and includes portrait paintings.
Renner Loney
Renner Loney is a native of Columbus, GA where she was educated in the public schools. After attending Mercer University, Heidelberg University (Germany) and the University of Georgia, she taught German for thirty years. Then she turned to photography and has studied with Nancy Rotenburg for the past 10 years.
Early on, Renner’s Grandmother taught her to appreciate nature, especially wildflowers and gardens. As an adult, Renner has been an avid gardener at her farm in Harris County.
Her grandmothers training of her eye has played a big role in Renner’s Photography as has her own experience as a gardener. In her pictures of the natural world, Renner tries to reflects “the dearest freshness deep down things” (G.M. Hopkins.)
Betty Jean McLendon
Art has always held a special place place in my heart and soul. I've taken many classes in art both basic and advanced art over the years and loved every second even if my effort didn't look anything like the instructor's.
Watercolor is one of my favorite mediums and has always held the most fascination for me because of the way the painting must be planned. Losing the white of the paper can charge the entire feel of the painting.
I also work with pastels, oils, acrylics and colored pencil.
Arlaine Morrison
Although she always loved to draw and paint from childhood, award-winning watercolorist Arlaine Morrison only started to paint full-time after relocating to Atlanta, Georgia from her native Scotland in 1996. Formerly a teacher, she returned to painting, primarily in watercolor but also working in acrylics, pastels and mixed media. Many of her award-winning watercolors are painted on yupo, a synthetic surface to which her loose, impressionistic style is well suited.
Arlaine is a Signature Member of the Georgia Watercolor Society, a Silver Signature Member of the Watercolor Society of Alabama, a Member of the Southern Watercolor Society, an exhibiting member of the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts Association, and a Merit Member of the Atlanta Artists Center. Her work can be found at the Gallery on Tenth in Columbus, GA, and in private collections in the US and Great Britain. She regularly enters juried shows nationwide and has won many awards, including Best in Show at Arts on the River 2017.
" For me painting is a joy. I love the sense of anticipation when I start a new painting, never quite knowing if it will turn out as planned or take a new direction completely. Nothing could be more exciting than applying paint to a clean white surface and with a few strokes of the brush, watching the "mingling magic" happen. I hope those who enjoy my paintings share my sense of awe at the beauty that surrounds us."
Sharon Nelson
I am drawn to the landscape most frequently as subject matter. Sometimes I find that one painting leads to another and though I always look forward to new places, I tend to return to places where I have had a positive experience or a struggle. My favorite studio is out of doors. Painting becomes a way to communicate how I feel about nature and the lessons I can learn. I also believe that plein air painting over the years has enriched my paintings completed in the studio.
I paint on a toned canvas (usually an “earthy red”) sometimes some of it shows through but even if it doesn’t it gives the landscapes warmth. I abstract the scene into large shapes and “draw” the scene in purple paint. The purple paint disappears as the painting progresses. I emphasize the push and pull of the scene, light and dark, sun and shadow, close and far away. I make use of complimentary and contrasting colors in the process.
I once observed a young woman returning again and again to a particular painting of mine at an outdoor show. I spoke to her several times and she finally asked where I had done the painting. “I think I have been there.” she said. It turns out she had not literally been to that location, but it brought on feelings that linked her to a place that was dear to her. Sometimes it is difficult to measure the success of a painting but for her and for myself that one was a success.
Randy Nguyen
Randy is IN LOVE WITH NATURE. A Vietnamese American, Randy was inspired to move to Columbus when he visited his brother at Fort Benning. Since that time, Randy has called Columbus his home. Randy grew up with his grandfather in the peaceful countryside in Vietnam. His love of the outdoors, with its natural beauty, and his fondness for fishing shaped him into what he is today.
Randy was a character portrait artist in the 1970’s at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia and was an artist in residency at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Randy also studied art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Today, Randy finds enjoyment painting plein-air around Columbus and on our beautiful River Walk, watching the majestic Chattahoochee River. He has won many awards and ribbons around the South and across America, his adopted home country.
He likes to paint in many different styles, from contemporary art to realism, but his true love is portrait art. "Whenever I paint, I enjoy every line, shape, and form. Painting is like music, with the different moods, emotions and colors that make up compositions that take me on the journey of life”
Lugenia Dixon Reynoso
Lugenia was born Georgia, USA and is mostly a self-taught artist. She works in watercolor, acrylic, oils, pastels and pencils. She grew up in Upatoi, GA and currently lives in Phenix City, AL where she moved to after retiring from a career as Professor of Psychology at Bainbridge College, currently Abraham Baldwin, in Bainbridge, GA. Lugenia loved to draw as child but started painting in middle adulthood and has engaged in art since late 1990s. Her educational background is in education and psychology instead of art. She has a BA in Psychology, a M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology all from the University of Georgia (UGA). While at UGA, Lugenia took art courses such as Teaching Art in Elementary Schools, Art Structure, and Figure Drawing. She also has a Certificate in Drawing from Art Instruction Schools in Minneapolis, MN and in 1995 she received the Blue-Ribbon Art Award from Art Instruction Schools. She has studied oil painting with Karen Hewitt Hagan in Tuscany, Italy and with Iris Scott in Columbus, GA; watercolor with Joe McFadden at Florida Arts Gallery in Havana, FL; oil painting with Dargan Long in Bainbridge, GA and acrylic painting with June Stewart in Phenix City, AL. Lugenia’s work has been shown in Immagini: Images of Italy Show in New York at Site/109 Gallery, the Camilla Invitational Art Show in Camilla, GA; Pilgrimage Art Walk in Eufaula, Alabama, Phenix City Art Center, the Columbus Artists’ Guild Member Show, the Synovus Toast of the Town in Columbus, the National League of American Pen Women Biennial Show in Washington, D. C. Her work has also been shown at Front Porch Gallery in Columbus, GA, the Fort Gaines Art Show, Print Shop Gallery in Greenville, GA; Gadsden Arts Center in Quincy, FL, Decatur County Artists’ Guild Annual Artsfest Exhibit, Decatur County Artists’ Guild Southwest Georgia Regional Library Fall Art Exhibition, Bainbridge-Decatur County Council for the Arts Members Annual Art Gallery Show, Southwest Georgia Regional Artists Cooperative, and other locations. Some of Lugenia’s work can also be seen at Gallery on 10th in Columbus, GA and Gadsden Museum and Gallery in Quincy, Florida.
Lugenia’s work can also be found on ArtPal and Fine Art America.
Lugenia can be reached at lugdixon@att.net.
Adleyn Scott
I did not discover that I had any artistic talent until I was about 70. But now, somehow, I find myself as the president of the Columbus Artists’ Guild. Having a career teaching music and serving as a church organist for more than 60 years, my focus has always been on music. During my travels to other countries, I failed to notice all the art around me. But in the past few years during my travels to France, Germany, England and Italy, art now jumps out at me from everywhere.
My art has been a great comfort and stabilizing factor for me during a major illness and times of great sadness due to the loss of loved ones. Although I have dabbled in all media, my mediums are finger-painting, oils, watercolors, pastels, pencil, and acrylics. If I had to pick one, my favorite is finger-painting with oils.
Although I take commissions, I prefer to paint what is in my heart. And if anyone wants to buy it, that’s okay too.
Contact me: adleyn@me.com
Brenda Stevens
Brenda Stevens has been a watercolorist for over thirty years. She began as a hobbyist at the Little Rock Art Center and as she became more committed to the medium she studied under such noted watercolorists as Milford Zornes, Frank Webb, and Jack Shields. She enjoys the challenge of commissions, especially house portraits, but her first love is nature. She says “The sacred is in the ordinary, which I can find in my daily life, in my own back yard”. Her paintings are included in many private collections. Columbus State recently purchased two of her landscapes, Sunflowers, and Cottonwood Creek.
Local and regional awards include the Charles Lamar Davis-Allstate Memorial Award for Excellence in Watercolor, and the Carmike Cinema’s Corporate Sponsor Award. Her work as an illustrator has been published in Postcards from the Palette, LaGrange Industry Magazine, Leffel’s Tales, and Meriwether County’s Chamber of Commerce Guide. In 2016, she was the associate editor and contributing writer for the Columbus Artists Magazine, an online publication promoting the visual arts in Columbus.
She teaches Watercolor Crash Course! at Columbus State, Auburn University, and at the LaGrange Art Museum. It’s a one-day workshop she developed in 2002 for guests at Callaway Gardens. It’s very popular with beginning students. She’s created many watercolor and drawing classes over the years. Watercolor Painting I, and Watercolor Painting II, are the two most recent classes and she offers them at The Rankin, in Uptown Columbus.
Gloria Toelle
Gloria Toelle was a kindergarten teacher for 35 years. She did not start to paint for others until she retired. She paints in all the mediums but she taught China paint for 15 years. She loves to paint dogs and cats, flowers, scenes and chickens.. She has won multiple awards at the fair with her China painting. She has painted with the best local artist and traveled all over the United States to paint with the best china painting teachers She sells original art prints and cards at the gallery on 10th.
Lois Tryon
Raised in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, Lois Tryon began drawing and studying art at an early age, but put this aside to pursue a career in nursing, eventually becoming an RN certified specialist in orthopaedic surgery. As the wife of a career Army officer, she has traveled throughout the world and now resides in Columbus, Georgia. During her travels, Lois began photographing the many different places and sights from Hawaii to Europe. A published author, creative writing remains an interest. Having studied music since pre-school, a piano is still a welcome companion, though vocals are no longer performed in front of an audience.
Searching for a style with which she felt comfortable, Lois took a workshop given by Bill Shultz, founder of the American Impressionist Society. As a result, her paintings are, more often than not, impressionistic renditions of her photographs, or combinations of photographic subjects. Sometimes the paintings are a composite of many things. Colors abound, and are frequently not typical of the object they depict. Other media are occasionally combined with the oil for emphasis, and non-traditional brush work adds interest and effect. Small fragments of trivia become the subject and center of interest.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Though many say, “Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder”, a large part of being an artist is “SEEING”…
Seeing the small things often obscured , and simplifying the large so they can be seen for what they are and thereby understood, then presenting the composition to someone who becomes the “audience”. The real talent lies in the transfer from the brain to the canvas, a process often interrupted by the mind or by the hands.
I firmly believe that for every piece of art, there is a person for whom it was intended. It’s just a matter of getting the two together.
Holly Wolfe
Holly Wolfe an award-winning artist likes to paint a variety of subjects, although she is most passionate about portraits and plein air landscapes. Holly is inspired by the countryside, which is what drew her to paint en plein air. The challenge of painting en plein air is trying to capture the scene as it is happening, as the light quickly changes.
Holly has been interested in art from an early age, remembering weekends with her grandmother, coloring in color books and paint by number paintings and on through art classes in high school and college. Upon retirement Holly pursued art full time and has perfected her skills through workshops from master and award winning artists such as Jeffrey Watts, Dawn Whitelaw, Lori Putnam, Roger Dale Brown, Ken Dewaard and Sue Foell.
Painting for Holly is an emotional response, not an exact copy of the view. Her goal in painting is to draw the viewer into the scene through light and color, maybe even remind the viewer of somewhere they themselves have been. Her goal in her portraits is to convey the spirit and character of the person she is painting.
Gallery on 10th also features the following artists:
Margaret Vollrath
Charles Willis