Coming up on February 3rd, we will open a new exhibition featuring three very talented female artists: Katharina Chapuis, Kenson, and Courtney J Garrett. This post will feature our "Q&A", UNDER THE SURFACE, with Courtney J. Garrett. We hope you will join us on Friday, Feb. 3rd from 6-9. All three ladies will be attending the opening.

Under The Surface

PFA: Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Your family?

I grew up in the heart of very rural Alabama. My sisters and I are about as close as sisters can get, and they having always been my number one fans. My mother was a tole painter and my father was a draftsman. I think of them often while working--- my mother painted on a lot of my clothes and my father worked an extra job drawing when I was born to pay the bills…I keep his drawing tools pinned up on the wall in my studio--- It reminds of their sacrifice and passion. Family now is growing and changing, I never dreamed that I would be married to someone who encouraged my passions so intensely. My husband, has rallied behind every move—and hand in hand we have walked through some great creative triumphs together.

PFA: How would you say our background influenced your career? And at what age did you become curious about art?

I was always making things for as long as I can remember. My favorite parts of the day were always the “free thinking” moments. I seemed to constantly excel is public speaking, writing, and the language arts. As for my background, it provided a visual basis for what I knew and what I visually could understand. I had very limited travel experience, and did not even board an airplane until my 21^st birthday…it was 2 seater prop plane flown by my husband. I believe from that point forward, I realized I was going to experience things much bigger than me. Years later, and with many world travels under my belt…I still look back at the south with much visual integrity. For some reason, I was born with the notion that there was a lot outside of my Alabama upbringing, but maintained the idea that what I had known was still precious. I remember in design school hearing of other countries and constantly being absorbed in books that expanded the horizon of what I knew. It was a gift, to walk down the streets of Paris and feel like I had been there a million times, but still be able to close my eyes and see white front porch swings and my great grandmother’s handmade tiny cotton dresses. I didn’t have a clue how to use a camera but something electric happened when you put it in my hand. My mother, my dad, and my sisters would take turns driving me around town so that I could photograph behind the glass of a moving car. It was the first time, Wal-Mart’s and strip malls didn’t make since to me anymore. I realized there was an incessant need to save the southern American landscape or at least document it as it dissolved. The day one of my favorite houses that I had photographed for years got bulldozed…I was so upset I called the fire department to make sure it would happen properly. If something as horrific as that, could happen properly. I was living out of state at the time and my parents drove to the demolition site with there own cameras and photographed the carnage. My sweet mother was literally climbing over piles of debris when she was kindly asked to leave. The firemen sat her and my dad artifacts to the side of the rubbish that they in turn brought home for me as keepsakes. I can’t describe what circles in my head when I discuss the visual imagery I absorbed as a child, but I can promise that my work is a conduit for it. I can’t escape the memories of my fathers old green truck and hanging my head out the window screaming in excitement for a truck ride to the car parts junkyard…or climbing on the back of the junkyard dog that lived there, and riding him around like a horse. You just can’t erase those things…and sometimes in attempt to “move up” in society, I think we do forget the most precious visuals we own.

PFA: What inspires you, and how do you stay inspired? How has this shaped your artistic philosophy?

Visually, I am intrigued by artifacts- I am constantly surrounding myself with natural curiosities…and it keeps me thinking… I get on kicks where I collect things and after a few months of carrying them around or staring at them long enough they become my work. I’m also music crazy—I don’t paint without music and certain compilations. Also, this past year I learned what the word “grace” actually means for me as a person. The forgiveness, love, and acceptance in this tiny little word has shifted my paradigm from simply emotional works to extravagant attempts at inspiring hope. This required more and more contemplation, research and study. How to evoke emotion was easy for me, but how to engage the most withdrawn individual with simple color and imagery took completely absorbing myself into the work.

PFA: What artist(s) has (have) had the biggest influence on your work?

Firstly and most passionately it would be Matisse… at 80 years of age feeble and bed ridden, he was still creating works of art from his bedside…they hung paper on the walls and he drew with charcoal attached to a pole. I knew I wanted to be that driven, and I knew my passions had to run that deep. My heart beat faster when I was a young painter and I read those words…something rose up in me to create at all times and to be completely involved with something that must come into existence.

Secondly, to Maya Lin, one of the most thought provoking artist and architects of our time. At age 21 she designed the Vietnam memorial and thousands upon thousands began to engage. She has the simple ability to create spaces and works of art that encounter the whole person, and the whole heart… I remember holding her book in my hands for the first time and contemplating it’s size and shape…she is constantly inviting the viewer to great moments of reflection. I have always been moved by her ability to anticipate the moment of encounter between art and observer—with that anticipation she creates successfully broad yet intimate works. Works that cause us to interact beyond our initial expectation.

Thirdly, to William Christenberry . Who made famous the Southern Landscape he grew up on… when I first picked up William Christenberry’s work I didn’t feel alone anymore. His passions for the rural south echoed my own, but with the maturity I desired.

PFA: What is your artistic philosophy?

Be honest, and unapologetic.

PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?

Food… and lots and lots of music, and my life sized (foam) horse gifted to me by my friend Todd Murphy.

Although, my contemporaries would argue that it’s my propane heater. I physically cannot work when it is cold. (and we do not have heat so this can often be a problem)…

PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not painting?

I’m always painting. Really. I mean it.

PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?

Paris. No need to elaborate.

PFA: If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

A contemporary dancer.

"Under the Surface with Elise Morris"

Under The Surface:

This month we are featuring the work of California Artist, Elise Morris. Read below to learn more about Elise and her inspirations.

PFA: Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Your family?

I grew up in Southern California with my parents and younger brother. We had a big backyard and my brother and I had a very funky tree house. We made a museum for rocks and mixed up ‘chemistry’ concoctions. Looking back we were very creative kids.

PFA: How would you say your background influenced your career? And at what age did you become curious about art?

I have always been artistic, especially as a young child. My mom was a wonderful seamstress and made all kinds of crafts. Making things with my hands was second nature. I started taking art classes outside of school when I was seven. Throughout school I had amazing art teachers who encouraged me every step of the way.

In college, I had to major in art in order to take art classes, so I ended up doing a double major with Environmental Studies. I had become very focused on environmental issues and felt that was going to be my career. My art major became more and more important to me, and I really grew artistically.

PFA: What inspires you, and how do you stay inspired? How has this shaped your artistic philosophy?

I am deeply inspired by color. Achieving certain color shades or intensities can really drive a painting. Currently I seem to be drawn to more subtle color shifts and reflections of light. I am also interested in the shapes found in nature, how they can be so unexpected. There is a lot of detail that is overlooked, and my goal is to really see my surroundings. Painting is a way of understanding something I have seen.

PFA: What artist(s) has (have) had the biggest influence on your work?

I have a vivid memory seeing work by Terry Winters at the Temporary Contempory in Los Angeles. I was a teenager at the time, and I remember being utterly disturbed and frightened by his large abstract paintings. The work was raw and immediate, and not at all about beauty. At the same time I was in love with paintings by Bonnard, and his gorgeous way with color and light. On another museum visit, I was blown away by the power of the sculptures by Martin Puryear. His oversized, elegant forms seemed to live and breathe. Seeing work in person has always been important, and I had been blessed as a young person to have that opportunity.

Last year I saw Squeak Carnwath give an artist’s talk at the Oakland Museum. Her studio is actually just several blocks from mine. She talks about being present in her work – even though my work is really different, I am very influenced by her approach. Similarly, I love reading Agnes Martin’s writings about her process.

PFA: What is your artistic philosophy?

My work is really about following intuition. I am very interested in process. I don’t sketch or otherwise prepare for a painting. I start with a pencil line drawing and build the surface in many, many layers.

PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?

I love my studio to be completely quiet, just the hum of the fan and once in a while the train in the distance. I find music distracting – I need to hear my own voice. I also need pads of paper, since I write myself lots of to do-lists as I paint. And right now in winter, large mugs of green tea and my radiator heater!

PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not painting?

My focus right now is on my son. On the weekends we take long outings at parks, doing errands, or going to the zoo. He’s three so everything is fun! I bring along my camera and loads of snacks and we spend the whole morning together. Then we head back for naptime. I have just started taking him to museums and also on short hikes. He has a wonderful ability to see the smallest detail, which I am learning to do myself.

PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?

One summer in college, I met my friend, Anne, in Oxford where she was studying abroad, and we traveled to Italy. We only took backpacks and bought a guidebook on the way. I had a list written by an art professor of must see paintings, mostly in small town churches. It was an amazing way to see the country.

More recently I spent two weeks in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana with my family. We stayed in a house right on a river. We saw so much wildlife, including a moose and her calf. We explored the whole area, and my son became quite the little hiker.

PFA: If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

A zookeeper! I love to be around animals, they are so instinctual. As a teenager I worked for a woman who cared for exotic animals who were being rehabilitated. I experienced some pretty unbelievable things, between getting kicked by an ostrich and raising a baby raccoon. That experience had a profound impact on me and I will forever be an animal lover. For the time being, my son and I frequent the zoo and marvel at all the creatures together

During the month of January, we will feature new work by California artists Ursula O'Farrell and Elise Morris.

Ursula's dramatic figurative work, done in the abstract expressionist style, is soulful and sensual. As the artist says, "I think we work too much in our minds, trusting science over our emotional intelligence. In effect, I think we turn our backs on the abundance available to us if we just learn to listen to whatever we call that voice of our soul".

Elise Morris paints abstracted florals that are beautifully colored, and are inspired by nature's beauty.

We hope you will come by during the month and see this wonderful body of work.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to Pryor Fine Art! 2012 will be an important year for the gallery and for our collectors. We believe that our effort to find the most inspiring and dynamic contemporary American artists has culminated in presenting some amazing solo and group shows.

The artists chosen for a 2012 show are masters of their execution and style. Ursula O’Farrel for example, is well known for her dramatic figurative work. For striking color and an ethereal beauty, there is no better than the work of Elise Morris. Courtney J Garrett is a young artist currently soaring to the top of her career with her atmospheric landscapes and mixed media work. A new artist to PFA, Katharina Chapuis, is a Swiss born artist and innovator in her use of space and hue. Also innovative is the immensely talented Atlanta artist Dusty Griffith. Through his use of mixed media, specifically encaustic, and a depth of color, he creates a restful space for the eye to relax and enjoy. More Atlanta artists include Kenson and Felice Sharp, exhibiting new work in Spring shows that will not fail to impress. Kenson, with one of the most unique styles in our stable, will present new works of figurative, still life and abstract for her upcoming show. The ever strong and spellbinding figures and landscapes of Felice Sharp capture our imagination every time.

The Spring season will conclude with shows by Santa Fe artist Peter Burega. Peter’s multi-layered complex landscapes impress us each year. Lastly, we are very happy to welcome Atlanta artist Helen Durant to the gallery. Her work has captivated us for many years and we cannot wait to share her work with you.

The shows we are presenting for 2012 have been carefully curated with our broad range of collectors in mind. We look forward to seeing you this year. Please visit the gallery at our new location on Miami Circle to see our complete inventory or online at www.pryorfineart.com

Under the Surface: Saliha Staib

PFA: Tell us about your background.
Staib: I grew up in Mulhouse (Alsace Lorraine, France) and my husband was born in Paris, France. We moved to the States 10 years ago for my husband's work as a plant manager in a chemical plant. We have 3 kids, Jules (16), Antoine (14), and Edward(9). Two boys are all bilingual and Edward is trilingual (English, French, Spanish).

PFA: How would you say our background influenced your career? And at what age did you become curious about art?
Staib: My background did influence my career as one of my family's friend was an art teacher in the Ecole des Beaux Arts and a painter. He always encouraged me since an early age to develop my passion and talent for the arts.

PFA: What inspires you, and how do you stay inspired? How has this shaped your artistic philosophy?
Staib: My inspiration is drawn from the surroundings of my every day life as well as my dreams and accumulation of feelings and sensations. Art is my own language of communication which is created by the soul for another soul -- like a silent poetry.

PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?
Staib: I need to listen to music (classical, rock, or alternative music).

PFA: What artist(s) has (have) had the biggest influence on your work?
Staib: Pierre Bonnard, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell, Cy Twombly were some of the painters who influenced me.

PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not painting?
Staib: I love playing tennis (actually I play in a league 4.0), and running a lot, as well as running marathon when I have the time. I love skiing. Reading is also one of my pastimes.

PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?
Staib: Summer vacations in our home in the South of France is my favourite time to relax.

PFA: If you weren’t an artist – what would you be?
Staib: Psychology would have been my career if I were not a painter.

Under the Surface: Jeff Cohen

PFA: Tell us about where you grew up and about your family?

Cohen: I grew up in a lot of different places. My father worked for IBM, and we got transferred from New York to Florida, finally ending up in Atlanta in the early seventies. My mother's family is from North Carolina, so I spent every summer as a child on Carolina Beach, where my grandfather built a little cottage in 1933. The cottage is still there and I have put a lot of hours into keeping it going over the years.

PFA: How did your background influence your career?

Cohen: The beach is the closest thing I have to home, in the sense of a place where my childhood memories flourish. Having that has taught me the value of nostalgia, a major component in much of my landscape work. My fascination with water towers stems from this feeling; that iconic imagery that tells you from a distance that you're approaching familiar territory. The beach also taught me about the beauty of decay and weathered surfaces. I've watched things affected by the elements year after year until they attain that peculiar quality I associate with antiquity. It gives you a humbling sense of your own temporary nature; something else I've tried to convey with my paintings.

PFA: At what age did you become curious about art?

Cohen: My father has a wonderful innate artistic ability. He used to draw half a picture and have me finish it, as far back as I can remember. I received praise for my artistic talent from the time I first started making marks on paper and walls. I'm not sure I really showed that much special talent, but my parent's encouragement cemented my desire. By the time I was five, I was fully invested in my identity as an artist. It was then that my mom signed me up for art lessons with an artist friend of hers. I can remember my teacher setting up a still life with some alphabet blocks and a teddy bear for me to paint with tempera. After I worked on it for a while, the teacher kindly took the brush from my hand and said "look what happens when I make these ovals on the feet!" She then PAINTED ON MY ART WITH THE BRUSH. Defilement! I was so mad. That was a seminal moment for me. I think I have resisted artistic instruction ever since.

PFA: What inspires you? And, how do you stay inspired?

Cohen: There's a magical quality to certain kinds of images that I never tire of. I love living in the age of digital photography, when I can capture those incredible scenes whenever I come across them. I'm most drawn to the interaction between natural and man-made things: a glorious cloud-strewn sky behind a majestic, dilapidated water tower, or rusted bolts on an old sign. But I'm also drawn to graceful curves and the play of light on ordinary objects. It's the unexpected beauty that appeals to me most, found in places where it's least looked for. I try to have my camera with me as much as possible, so I can capture those moments when they happen. I also draw a lot of stuff from my head to keep the machinery oiled. I find that going off on tangents with my imagination seems to use a different part of my brain than the representational work. Doing one helps with the other, and is kind of refreshing.

PFA: What is your artistic philosophy?

Cohen: Long ago art had a very different purpose. There was a time when prodigious artistic skill was prized for recording imagery that would otherwise have been lost. Now we have photography for that, and the artist's role has become less definable. But even when the artist's role was more practical, people formed emotional connections with inspiring images that went beyond the pragmatic. That inspirational link is why art has persisted in all cultures throughout the world. The method of creating art, the subject matter, and the relationship to representation are all secondary to the message. That's why I love all kinds of art, from abstract expressionism to traditional realism to everything in between. I think the human connection to art is primal: we recognize signs and artifacts that have clearly been created by other humans and immediately feel a connection with them. I don't like to analyze it too much. If the connection is there for you, the art is working.

PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?
Cohen: My iPod. Okay, my paint and brushes help too.

PFA: What artist(s) has(have) had the biggest influence on your work?
Cohen: When I was very young I became fascinated with Leonardo (that's Leonardo, not "Da Vinci." That's one of my pet peeves! Vinci was where he came from.) I think I identified with the fact that he started so many amazing projects that he never finished. Yes, he completed many things as well, but that guy left a lot of big things uncompleted! My parents' basement was littered with the promising beginnings of many of my grand schemes. I used to make stop=motion super 8 films. I built model robots by buying model kits of tanks and planes and using the pieces for my original creations. I had all sorts of crazy inventions going, most of which I just didn't have the skill to pull off to my satisfaction. Years later, I was diagnosed with ADD. Now I've learned to manage that through medication coping techniques, and I'm happy to say that my creativity is flourishing - and I can actually finish things now! It makes me wonder. What would Leonardo have been able to do if he had Ritalin? Hmmm...

I also love Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and Mark Ryden.

PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not working?
Cohen: I like working in the garden, and traveling with my wife. I started going on cruises a couple of years ago, and discovered that it's a great way to see other parts of the world.

PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?
Cohen: My wife and I went cave tubing in Belize. It was a religious experience. The rain forest is all it's cracked up to be, and more.

PFA: If you weren't an artist - would you be doing?
Cohen: For me, that's like saying, "if you didn't have a head, where would you put your hat?" If I wasn't an artist, I wouldn't be me. I've done other things in my life to make a living, but I was still an artist. It's too much a part of my identity for me to imagine anything else!

Courtney J. Garrett Commissioned by Dian Fossey Foundation

Open, 58x48, mixed media

Earlier this year, Courtney J. Garrett was commissioned by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund to create a series of original works inspired by the personal belongings of Dian Fossey. These personal effects include newspapers, maps, clothing, field notes, grocery lists, and budgets. Garrett has carefully documented all of the artifacts with her camera and thoughtfully arranged them into a special group of paintings using her well-recognized mixed media technique. Five of these important pieces will be up for auction at the 3rd Annual Fundraising Event for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International: "Gorillas in our Midst: A Primate Production." The event will be an evening filled of art, fashion, education and culture. Shop the Rawandan market and explore the lush Rainforest nesteled between Mt. Karisimbi and Mt. Visoke. Peruse the bazaar where you'll find exquisite jewelry, authentic artifacts, savory bites and refreshing beverages. Mind your step and maintain your awareness for the amazing finds you will encounter as you venture into the invigorating Rainforest - from Original Art & Sculptures, to wearable art and fashions, decor, live performances and more.

Details for the event:

Thursday, September 23
7pm - 10pm

Atelier 1789
1789 Ellsworth Industrial
Atlanta, GA 30318


Dress: Safari Chic


General Ticket - $125
Host Patron - $250 (includes VIP Wine Tasting hosted by 10 Degrees South)


To RSVP to this event, please contact Elyse Christensen - echristensen@gorillafund.org



All works that have not been sold at auction will be coming to Pryor Fine Art. To learn more about these works, or any of Courtney J. Garret's work available at Pryor Fine Art, please call Ginger Ann Clark at (404) 352-8775.