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Stephanie Lear Henderson
Stephanie is a native of Thomasville, Georgia, and lives in Atlanta.
She received a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and
an M.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia.
Stephanie supplemented her English degree with classes in studio art, art history and architectural history at UVa. Her painting vocation began to take shape around 2011, as her three children entered their teen years and she found extended periods of time to work in her studio.
Her works are available for purchase at Gregg Irby Gallery, Atlanta; Libby Silvia Artstyle, Wellesley, MA; The Newbill Collection, Seaside, FL, and Firefly, Thomasville, GA. Stephanie's paintings have made their way to private collections ranging from Atlanta to Big Sky, Montana; San Antonio, Texas; Boston, Massachusetts; Cashiers, NC, and Charlottesville, Virginia. Photos of Stephanie's works have been featured in The Boston Globe (May 2016) and Washingtonian Magazine (March 2016 and popular blog The English Room (September 2016).
She also participates in the occasional art show, such as Spotlight on Art, held at Trinity School (Atlanta) .
Inspiration
Much of my work springs from the images that dance through my head on the cusp of sleep. A time when the brain lets down its guard and allows the subconscious to assert itself. After experimenting with multiple styles and media over the years, I have focused my painting in two general areas: hard-edged, bold acrylic paintings bursting with color, and softer, more realistic interpretations in oil of the cypress swamps and coastal regions of my native south Georgia. The common thread, though, among all my work is color – bright, beautiful color – because it simply makes me happy.
In my hard-edge, geometric paintings, I am striving for balance and harmony among the shapes themselves and the colors used. Particularly my glossy circles, the placement of each circle balances the work, and each full circle contains all the colors in the painting. My glossy circles paintings invite the viewer, like an optical game, to find each complete circle in the painting and see how it connects to the other circles. In my squares, labyrinths and other geometrics, I’m going with the minimalist approach that a work of art need not be complicated to be beautiful. My idea is that squares, circles and rectangles are uncomplicated forms that allow beautiful colors to speak to each other.
Using a completely different technique, my oil landscapes come out of my brush as if I were scratching an itch. It’s a sentimental idea, and though sentiment isn’t much valued in contemporary art, I have images in my head of canoe trips in the south Georgia swamps and crystal clear spring-fed rivers of north Florida, and visions of the glassy green water of the Gulf coast where I’ve spent much of my free time since I was a child. These I paint because I want to savor the images and to share with others the uncommon beauty of that part of the country.
