The Blue Heron Art Gallery

The Blue Heron Gallery is a non-profit space dedicated to exhibiting work with an environmental thread. We are a small but exquisite gallery in a beautiful architectural space in the middle of a 25 acre nature preserve. We show work on a quarterly basis with a reception for the public. We hope to provide a lens for people to see the very close connection between art and nature.

Interested in exhibiting your work with us? Please contact our curator, Diane Evans at dceart1@aol.com or 404-626-1891.

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This exhibit of beautiful paintings by Sally Sparks Edwards is open now thru May 31st. Join us for the closing reception for her exhibition on Thursday May 30 from 6-7:30.

A native of West Palm Beach, Florida, Sally received a BS degree in English Education from Florida State University in 1965. She moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1966, married in 1968, and continued working in the Atlanta City School System until 1972 when she began her family. Always drawn to the arts, she wrote poetry, studied voice, and enjoyed drawing and painting on a small scale while raising her two daughters. Working out of an attic studio in her home, she began an art on consignment business, Rag Ribbon Rainbow, with her sister in 1985. For these early home shows, she began presenting her poetry three dimensionally  giving visual expression to the written word. She published two collections of her poetry, THE LAYERED WOMAN in 1988, and  SACRED JOURNEY in 1991.

Sally’s nest series, large and small renditions entitled “Petit a Petit”, has been deeply rewarding to her as an artist. A most recent series, “Both Sides Now”, was created for a two month showing at Salon Next in Atlanta. Inspiration for these oil and encaustic works has emerged from an affinity with sea and sky.  For Sally, the language of clouds is seductive and mesmerizing, offering their fluid and vast skyscapes to the imagination of young and old alike. Seeing them through the eyes of four grandchildren has made painting this series pure delight.

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Sally’s work reflects a response to both an inner and outer journey, with the intent to continue finding joy and satisfaction in the process as well as the final product.  She hopes to bring pleasure and offer insight to the artistic heart and soul of anyone who views her work. Sally’s work is currently carried by: Raiford Gallery in Roswell; Main Street Gallery in Clayton; The Burton Gallery in Clarkesville, Georgia; and John Colletti Fine Art in Highlands, North Carolina. 

She welcomes visitors any time during the week at RED CANVAS studios, 49 Bennett Street in Atlanta through the end of March, 2013. She opens her new studio April 1st at Irvindale Studio, 2217 Irvindale Drive, Chamblee GA 30341.

Awareness Of Birds Thru Art: "Ugly Pretty"
an Exhibit by Allison Richter
June 6 -August 31st
Reception: June 6th from 6 - 7:30pm

In Allison's Richters' latest collection "Ugly Pretty", she uses an impasto look and feel to add texture and depth to South Florida Roseate Spoonbills.

In this collection, the foliage, sky, water and light of the day reflects in the feathers of these majestic oftentimes overlooked birds. Roseate Spoonbills have been reported in recent years as being endangered. Their species was over hunted for plumage depleting their numbers from several thousand, to now only having approximately 880 recent reported nests of these shy birds.

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A local McDonough Georgia wildlife artist, Allison Richter specializes in creating artwork of exotic, endangered, and beautiful birds. Born in 1972, Allison grew up in the small town of Stockbridge Georgia where she began learning art from her mother who had been a commercial artist for many years.

"I remember bringing my drawings to my mother to see what she thought. I always admired the things she could draw at the drop of a hat. I would give her the drawing I had created with crayons or pencil, and she would use tracing paper to show me where to make corrections or start over. Then she would crumple up the tracing paper, and tell me to try again. I found it very frustrating at the time, but I believe it made my technical skills all for the better."

Allison studied art in high school with Gregg Green, then continued her art pursuit in college where she studied under Tommy Daughtry at Clayton State for fine arts. A bit of changing majors from fine art to commercial art, then to interactive design at the Art Institute of Atlanta gave her a greater artistic proficiency as well as time to hone in her vision as to what she wanted to paint. She combined this experience along with years of painting, trips to the wetlands of Florida, visits to local Georgia wildlife refuges, as well as backyard birding to bring her experience and talent to her works.

Allison has captured her love for nature and the environment through pigments paired with many long hours in her studio. The ability to bring what she thinks and feels to her fans, collectors and viewers through her work is such a joy.

  "Nature In Transition"

(Mixed media work by one of our members, Win Ratz titled: "Rock Stories I".)

SLMM is the Society of Layerists in Multi-Media. Each member is eligible to submit a work to be juryied by Blue Heron's curator, Diane Evans. Works will be submitted from all over the country to make up this fall show, which is being held in conjunction with a National Convention of Layerists (or Collage Artists).

Show runs from September-December, exact dates and reception to be announced soon.

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As summer came to a close and the plant world slipped into sleep mode, we welcomed  Diane Evan's beautiful images of SEEDS to the Blue Heron Gallery. Rich images of intricate seed pods and fronds carefully executed in mixed media, collage and paint were exhibited.

This show ended December 31st, 2012.

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Exhibit dates were extended for this beautiful show, which ended September 2012. 

The winter winds of 2012 ushered in the work of San Francisco photographer Sharon Beals to the Blue Heron Gallery, which ended in May 2012. Sharon spent 3 years photographing archived bird nests in natural history and zoological museums in California.

This was a rare chance for the public to take a peek at these fabulous nests as the collections were only open to the scientific community. Sharon's photographs are spell binding, reflecting the rich, beautiful nest making ability of birds the world over.

The November/December issue of American Photo (a glossy, nationally circulated, bimonthly magazine) selected the Top 56 Photo Books of the Year.  Of the 7 in the Environment & Nature category is "Nests:  Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them by Sharon Beals". The review is as follows:

"Drawn from the exquisite collections of three California-based academies and institutes, the nests in these delicate, detailed images reflect the meticulous care and skill of their creators---50 species of birds, each described in facing-page text that's as free of scientific jargon as it is informative."

We had a great turnout for the opening and lecture!  Check out her images at www.sharonbeals.com.