Newest, Nicholas R.

This is Nicholas. It was a real challenge to get a good photograph of him. He had such a sweet disposition and was very content playing with his trains. He wasn't at all interested in having his pictures taken. The toy trains in the portrait seemed to be his favorites. We settled on this photo but his body was in an awkward position so I put the body from another photo with this face and used a different background. His mother said it captured him perfectly. I wanted to capture him the way he is now for years to come - and I think I have done so.

Any difference?

I am finished now. I darkened the lower corner areas to draw the eye higher. I also pushed the orchid back a bit. I din't want to eliminate the table legs completely since it is her grandmother's. I also worked on the hands and shadows a bit and softened some lines in her skirt. These are small changes but I think it helps. Now that I look at the photo, I might take back the flower a bit more. I used a glaze so it might just be a reflection that makes it look lighter.

Two more in Portrait Society of Atlanta Juried Fall Exhibition

Both of these paintings, "Amanda with Violin" and "Syah", have won previous awards. They have just been chosen as finalists in the Portrait Society of Atlanta Juried Fall Exhibition. The juror for the show is Edward Jonas, an internationally known artist and sculptor. I will post more on this later - I'm tired.

Blairsville Plein Air Paintings

Here are the plein air paintings that I did last week in Blairsville. Anita Louise West did a workshop for Atlanta Fine Arts League in the beautiful North Georgia mountains. West is a wonderful landscape painter who lives in Sante Fe with her husband, Albert Handell, another well respected artist. It was a wonderful and beautiful week to spend with a fun group of artists. I paint a lot of portraits and I absolutely love plein air painting. It's so nice to go out with my easel and come home with a painting. These paintings were done at Meeks Park and Vogel State Park and one was painted on a rainy day at a Crane Creek Vineyard.

Almost there

This is a portrait I have been working on for  while. I signed it today but now I see some things I will change. I will post it again when I make the changes so you can see the difference. These are the children of a dear friend of mine, Alexis Vear, a gifted singer/ songwriter. Many things in the portrait signify things that are important to her and her family. Her mother grows beautiful orchids, the piano represents her music, the picture in the background was her grandmother's, as well as the table. I added the box and the shell on the table for composition - the shell represents renewal. BTW, if you would like to know more about Alexis' music visit www.AlexisVear.com.

"Isabelle" is finalist in National Juried Competition

This portrait of Isabelle was just selected as a finalist in the Art Guild 2008 1st Annual Portrait Juried Competition and Exhibition. The Art Guild is a nonprofit organization providing encouragement, education and a forum for the appreciation of the visual arts. The Guild is located in Manhasset, New York. The exhibition will run October 13 - November 28 with the opening reception October 16 from 6 - 8 pm at the Gallery at Elderfields, Manhasset, NY. The juror for the show is award winning portrait artist and faculty member at the Portrait Society of America's 10th National Conference in 2008, Ying-He Liu.

3 paintings in AGNWG Online Art Exhibition

These 3 paintings were chosen for an online painting exhibition, Still Life with Fruit, Veronika and Joe's Boys. This is the 1st Annual Online Art Exhibition held by the Artist Guild of Northwest Georgia. 

Atlanta Fine Arts League's "Simpy Drawn" reception was a very nice event. The exhibit looks beautiful; it's refreshing to see just drawings for a change. The calibre of all the drawings was very high. The exhibit goes until September 25th, at the Art Station Big Shanty in Kennesaw. In the photo I'm standing with juror John de la Vega next to my drawing "Joe's Boys". -Thanks to Carmen & Joe Kissack for allowing me to borrow it for the exhibit.

Check out my updated website

I have added a few new paintings to my website. It has been a while since it was last updated, which is why this blog was created.  My website is http://www.leahhenry.com or you can just click on me at the top right corner of this page. Make sure you check back here from time to time to find out what's new. Thanks!

This is Cole

This is a charcoal that I just finished yesterday. Cole's grandmother commissioned me to do this portrait for her daughter in law. Another artist drew her granddaughter and she found me 2 years later. She loved it and said that I really caught his likeness and personality. Hey, what more can I ask for? It's nice to be able to create charcoal portraits while having an oil painting on my easel. Changing mediums keeps portrait painting more interesting.

You Must See This /Art From the Heart Video

I have written several posts about Art From the Heart. Georgia Public Broadcasting ran a feature story about this project. It tells the story from the artists and families point of view. Please follow the link and click on watch to view this touching story. 

 http://www.gpb.org/stateofthearts/term/art-heart

I'M NOT LYNNE

My twin sister, Lynne, and I celebrated a BIG birthday in August. Our husbands threw a huge party and lots of our friends came. My husband's band, Uncle Mike, played and had everyone on their feet. Lynne & I wore tops that said "I am not Lynne" and "I am not Leah". Before the party was over, we switched shirts and caught a few people off guard. It was a great celebration! BTW, the black & white picture was set up at the party. We were 25 years old. It's hard to look at.

My Latest Portrait

I'm not sure if I am completely finished with this portrait but I know I am close. This is the 3rd portrait for a family in Washington. I posted the other 2 siblings, Domink and Veronika, in previous posts.  This is Nicholas.

Yuqi Wang Demonstrations

Yuqi Wang, a contemporary master artist, came to Atlanta to hold a workshop for Atlanta fine Arts League. He did two demonstrations during this time. The first was a portrait of the model, Eden, that he did along side of the workshop participants over 4 days. The next demonstration was about 3.5 hours on a 36 x 48 canvas and was open to the public. They are very different but are both beautiful.

"Joe's Boys" in Simply Drawn Exhibit

"Joe's Boys" is accepted in a juried drawings only exhibit hosted by the Atlanta Fine Arts League. The show is at the Art Station Big Shanty and runs September 3rd through 25th. The opening reception is September 6th at 7pm. The juror for this show is John de la Vega.

John de la Vega Workshop

My artist friend, John de la Vega, held a small advanced portrait workshop at my studio. You can see some of John's beautiful work on portraitartist.com. We had 2 models and 7 students. My home studio was the perfect space for the workshop. - I'm also represented on portrait artist.com  (A Stroke of Genius)

Finalists in Portrait Society of Atlanta 2008 Summer Exhibition

Emily and Veronica were both chosen as finalist in the Portrait Society of Atlanta 2008 Summer Exhibition. Ann Manry Kenyon was the juror; She is a highly respected artist and resides in Florida. The show is running through September 20th at the Marietta Museum of Art. The high caliber paintings from across the country make this a beautiful exhibition. You should visit.

Serenbe Plein Air Painting - July

This is a great group of ladies that went to Serenbe, just south of Atlanta for some plein air painting. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this trip. The landscapes were absolutely beautiful and this was a really fun group. If you like to paint en plein aire then I highly recommend this place. We got there around lunch time and we we took a little tour to find our painting spots. We all got a painting that afternoon. A few of us decided to do a little night painting after dinner and a couple glasses of wine. There was a courtyard just outside of the house where we stayed and it had a string of lights and that is what we painted by. Mine turned out very blue because I couldn't see my palette. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw in the light. I did "Crossroads" Friday morning before we left to go back to Atlanta.

Amanda in Atlanta Fine Arts League 2nd Annual National Show

Amanda was chosen to be exhibited in AFAL's 2nd annual National Juried Show 2008. The juror for the show was Yuqi Wang. Mr. Wang is origianally from China and now lives in New York. He is internationally known and is considered to be a modern day master. I was very happy to be a part of this show.

I wrote about Warrior's Walk in an earlier post. At that time I didn't have an image of the presentation at Fort Stewart. I just got this photo from my friend, Patrick Shado, who is the person responsible for my painting Warrior's Walk. This photo shows Major Lynch presenting me with a clock from the Army 3ID.

Pearl

Pearl and George Lucas with the portrait of their son, Victor Langarica who was killed in June 2007. Victor was Pearl's only child and they were extremely close. Pearl was totally devastated when she learned of Victor's death. She has become much stronger since I have known her. I was overwhelmed when Pearl told me that it felt like I had given her son back when she saw Victor's portrait. Pearl and George will always be very special to me.

Ryen King, 19

This is Ryen King. He was 19 years old when he lost his life in Iraq on April 23, 2007. I painted this portrait for his mother Carmen Jordan. The portrait was completed just before the Art From the Heart Exhibit 2008 at the Art Station Stone Mountain. I still have not met Ryen's parents personally but I feel like I know Carmen and Ryen through her emails to me. Carmen wanted Ryen's portrait to remind her of a very happy time in his life; He was the catcher for Franklin County High School's baseball team. The photo that I was given was very small and didn't have the full left side of Ryen's body or his full hand. It also only showed the top part of his catcher's vest. I "made up" those parts of the portrait - I hope they like it.

Memorial Day Service/Art From the Heart

Governor Perdue held a Memorial Day service At Mount Paran Church of God in Atlanta. Atlanta Fine Arts League was asked to exhibit some of the portraits that were created through Art From the Heart. The fallen hero's families were invited to attend; three of the families that I painted for were there. The top photo is Dana Hubbell standing next to the portrait of her husband Darren. He was killed shortly after they married. Dana is now reaching out to other gold star families. The next photo is of Pearl & George Lucas with their pastor and many friends who support them. I had previously met most of their friends at a previous memorial service for Pearl's son, Victor Langarica who died in Blackhawk helicopter crash in 2007.

Atlanta Artist Center Awards

I have been posting pretty irregularly and haven't updated my website lately so I will try to put a few recent news items on this blog. These 2 paintings won 1st (Emily) and 2nd place (Amanda with Violin) in Atlanta Artists Center 2008 Winner's Circle show. The entrants were all winners in previous shows with AAC within a year.

Jan & Joe Johnson

I posted earlier about Art From the Heart. The first soldier I painted was Justin Johnson from Rome, GA. I grew up in that part of Georgia so I felt very drawn to this family. Justin was the first soldier killed in Iraq from Floyd County, he was 21 years old. The first photo here is of the original presentation of the portrait to Jan & Joe Johnson at a memorial service in Rome last year. The next photo is Justin's portrait hanging at the 2008 Art From the Heart exhibit in Stone Mountain this summer.  This family is very special to me and I consider them part of my family. They have reached out and touched many gold star families. Jan & Joe are also the Georgia Patriot Guard Rider family.

Last completed portrait

This is my latest completed portrait. Dominik is the brother of Veronika whose portrait I posted earlier. I just shipped his portrait to Washington D.C. and the family shipped Veronika's portrait back to be in a national portrait show. I am working on the other brother's, Nicholas, portrait and hope to post it soon. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with this family.

Warrior's Walk

I wanted to write about this as soon as I came back from the painting presentation on June 12th but I kept waiting to get photos from the ceremony to post. I never got them so I will now tell you about it. Recently, I had the honor of being asked to create an oil painting of Warrior's Walk in Fort Stewart, Georgia. I got an email from a man named Patrick Shado who had gotten my name from a friend of his with the Patriot Gaurd Riders. I got to know the PGR through another project that I am involved with called Art from the Heart. You can read more about Art From the Heart in a previous post. Anyway, I spoke with Patrick, who is an Army veteran and a Marne Rider down in south Georgia, and he told me all about Warrior's Walk and what it means to the families and soldiers affiliated with that unit. He would get choked up many times when he would talk about the monthly ceremonies at Fort Stewart to dedicate trees to the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice from that unit. The number of trees that are there is a somber reminder of the one's that were lost. In order to get a better idea of what Patrick was talking about, I drove down to Fort Stewart and attended one of the dedication ceremonies in October. I actually rode to the event on the back of a motorcycle along with other PGR and Marne riders. It was very touching and the families of the fallen heroes were clearly distraught but appreciative and were handled with the utmost care. I took many photos from many different areas of the Walk. I then went home and over the next few months decided on the angle and composition of the painting and completed the painting. I presented the painting, along with Patrick, at a special ceremony honoring the fallen soldiers to General Lynch. Lynch had just come back from Iraq with his troops and was truly an honorable man whose love and respect for his guys was so plain to see. I was very humbled and honored to be able to use my talent to give something back to this unit.

Jim Schell

Where do I begin to talk about Jim Schell? It's hard to explain what an amazing person he is. On February 14th he celebrated his 90th birthday. Jim is an exceptional portrait painter and enjoys painting other things as well. I am fortunate enough to be a student of his. He teaches 3 classes a week at Abernathy Art Center in Sandy Springs and still goes to an art class on another day. Jim Schell is certainly a person I greatly admire. Our model in class didn't show up one Friday in March so Jim sat for us. I'm so happy I was there that day!

Italy

These are 2 paintings from Italy that I created for my solo show in March this year. Thanks to my cousin Sherron for the beautiful images!

ART FROM THE HEART

Art from the heart is the most rewarding project I have ever been involved in. Atlanta Fine Arts League created this project to honor the Georgia soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families. We wanted to put a face with the names and numbers we hear on the news and also wanted the families to know their loved ones will not be forgotten. So far over 45 artist have painted over 70 portraits. The artists are happy to donate their time and talents to this project. There is a real bond that is formed between artist and family. I feel that the families I have painted for are now part of my family. Through them I have come to know and care for the soldiers I have painted. These images are 4 of the portraits I have painted; I am currently working on another one right now.
The soldiers pictured here are: Army Specialist Justin W. Johnson, 22, KIA April 10th, 2004; Army Sergeant Kevin Akins, 29, KIA March 12th, 2006; Army Corporal Victor M. Langarica, 29, KIA January 20th, 2007; Army Staff Sergeant Darren Patrick Hubbell, 29, KIA June 20, 2007. For more information on this project please visit http://www.atlantafineartsleague.org