Art Market at Historic Honey Horn to be Held This Weekend on Hilton Head Island

The Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island presents its 9th annual Art Market at Historic Honey Horn April 30th and May 1st.

The juried fine art and craft show features works by artists from around the country in various media including clay, wood, fibers, metals, glass, jewelry, watercolors, oil, mixed media and photography. A few South Carolina artists will also be on hand including Christine Crosby, Jack Thames, Diane Dean and Alicia Leeke.

The event is part of BRAVO - Celebrate the Arts! Festival held in May each year. BRAVO is a month-long celebration of the area's vibrant arts community and diverse cultural heritage in partnership with the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.

The show is open to the public on Saturday, from 10 am until 5 p.m. and on Sunday, from 11 am until 4 p.m. There is a $6.00 per car parking donation, while admission to the show is free. Demonstrations throughout the weekend will be held in glass, pine needle basketry, clay and much more. Food and beverage are also for sale during the event.

For more information, please visit: http://www.coastaldiscovery.org/artmark.html.

Color the Arts Event Showcases Local Talent This Evening

The Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties presents its 7th annual Color the Arts fundraiser tonight at the First Citizens Center Courtyard Plaza from 6-9 p,m.

This “colorfully casual mini-arts festival” celebrates the diversity and quality of the arts in the greater Columbia area and showcases extraordinary local talent in an art exhibition and sale. Other activities include live music, performances and a silent auction.Proceeds from Color the Arts support The Arts Fund which provides grants, technical assistance, and arts education programs for artists and arts organizations in Richland & Lexington counties.A few of the artists participating in the event include Cindy Saad, Warren Brusse, Jennie Branham, Karen Langley, Alicia Leeke plus several others.
Tickets can be purchased online via the Color the Arts website at http://www.colorthearts.info/.

Artista Vista Tonight!

Columbia South Carolina’s largest gallery crawl returns tonight for its 20th annual Artista Vista event to be held from from 5-9 p.m.

Local artists and galleries will open their doors in the heart of the Congaree Vista in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

New paintings of Alicia’s can be seen tonight at the Gallery at Nonnah’s located at 930 Gervais Street. She will also have greeting cards and wine totes available for purchase.

Resident artists at Nonnah’s include: Bonnie Goldberg, Ingrid Carson Edie Biddle, Jan Fleetwood, Betty Mandell, Alicia Leeke, Donna Rozier and Christy Lekeup.

Artfocus: Tuscan Villa

THE STORY BEHIND THE TUSCAN VILLA PAINTING

My work is tremendously inspired by the French. If reincarnation exists, I was certainly French in a former life for my love of the countryside, buildings and food.

This painting, entitled Tuscan Villa, was created in April 2005 and is in my personal art collection; however, prints are available on my website at (www.alicialeeke.com). It was inspired by the Senanqu Abbey in Provence, France, but with my own personal twist.

Creative license played a major role in the creation of this painting. Up until 2008, I painted very little with grey as a major component in my compositions (I think to date only three so far and mostly as color field studies for landscapes). As a matter of fact, I find grey to be the drabbest color in the color spectrum and try to eliminate it from all paintings where possible (Until the painting of Stockholm and Five O’clock Shadows in 2009). In real life, this Abbey is very brown / grey with beautiful contrasting fields of lavender.

But due to my dislike of grey at that time, and my love of harvest gold, I turned this painting into a tropical paradise making the building a creamy gold with a red Spanish-style shingle roof and lush tropical lime-green trees and blue sky. While beautiful, the lavender fields were replaced with lush crops in varying shades of green dotted with hints of red, gold and a tinge of lavender.

This is truly a painting I painted for myself! I love the distorted lines and lack of perfection in perspective. In fact, I believe freedom to create without worry of judgment is what sets my Cityscape paintings apart from other artists.

The two abstract shapes in the foreground are actually people harvesting lavender. I liked the figures so much as they were unfinished; I decided not to clothe them.

In May 2008, I went on a Spiritual retreat in Star, North Carolina with Gary Spivey and met some incredibly interesting people. Later, I was commissioned by a fellow guest to paint a similar version of this piece. This commission is much larger than my 16 x 20 original at 30 x 40 in size, and after a few conversations, the painting is taking an additional direction and turning into a Montresorri School. The requestor asked for stained glass windows to be added signifying her love of children. Ironically, I don’t believe she knew the original piece was of an Abbey.

This is one of the few pieces in my body of work that I created about three open-edition, gallery-wrapped giclees. At this printing, I am not sure if I will do any additional open editions of any of my paintings because I personally prefer signed and numbered limited-editions.

Signed and numbered giclee prints of Tuscan Villa are available for $250 framed and matted, or $80 unframed. The current edition has 250 prints total with some still available as of this posting. The two open edition prints are available at investor prices and will be customized for the purchaser for provenance. For more information or to order your copy, email me at info@alicialeeke.com.

Image copyrighted by the artist. All rights reserved.

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PAINTER ALICIA LEEKE’S WORK SELECTED FOR CHICAGO ARTFUL DESIGN SHOWCASE

Two of Contemporary American painter, Alicia Leeke’s abstract landscapes were selected by Chicago Designer Julia Buckingham Edleman of Buckingham Interiors for Chicago’s One of A Kind Show and Sale Artful Design Showcase held December 2-5.

Pictured here (left to right), the two 30 x 40 paintings, entitled, Five O’clock Shadows and Stockholm painted by Leeke adorn grey and white wallpaper Edleman chosen from Farrow and Bali’s -  The Lotus Paper collection for the wall covering. Centered in the room is a mirrored bookshelf flanked by two white leather chairs and hand-crafted, chain-link side table. Above the chairs sit Leeke’s paintings.

Edleman handpicked the works of for her space out of more than 500 exhibiting artists. According to Edleman, “The space shows customers how to implement hand-made and one of a kind art objects into their living space.”

Edleman believes “there is no such thing as 'luck' in great design." Interior spaces should be filled with the excitement of beautifully crafted environments and her "Out-with-the-boring, in-with-the-bold" style is recognizable in every space she designs.

Edleman has been praised for her design creativity in her client’s spaces and she and her firm bring over 10 years of client relationships and their happily inspired homes to the forefront of many national and local publications. Traditional Home, Metropolitan Home, Home Magazine, The New York Times, Chicago Home + Garden, and The Chicago Tribune to name a few.

The ninth-annual Chicago One of A Kind Show is a holiday tradition where 50,000 shoppers can find truly unique gifts and home décor items by North America’s best artists, artisans, and designers.

Alicia Leeke is a native South Carolinian and an avid painter whose works are highly coveted by corporate and private collectors from New York to California and Paris.

For information on purchasing one of Leeke's paintings please call (803) 429-5456, via fax at 888-429-5456, or via email at leekeka@hotmail.com. Examples of her work and experience can be viewed at www.alicialeeke.com.

Leeke's Work Featured at Courtyard Art Gallery in Charleston through October 31

Courtyard Art Gallery in Charleston South Carolina is featuring the work of South Carolina artist, Alicia Leeke during the month of September.

Her show entitled "Parallel: 32, 47, 79, 56," features vibrant, colorful, abstract landscapes representing the physical longitude and latitude of Charleston, SC and other coastal areas.

"Science, math and art often go hand in hand," notes Leeke. This show explores Charleston from its different vantage points as well as other wetlands areas in the State. Sites on display include the Little Pee Dee River, Jekyll Island, Mount Pleasant, and Cherry Grove. The show will be on view through September 30.

The Gallery is located at 149 1/2 East Bay Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

New Works Expolore Color and Light

Alicia Leeke imagines landscapes in a unique and colorful light. In her new paintings at Tombo Grille in Columbia, South Carolina she intertwines brushstrokes and imagination to develop brilliant landscapes with bountiful movement in this large works series.

The "New Works" show opened in September and is ongoing throughout 2009. Her work is one of three artists on display at Tombo Grille which is located at 4517 Forest Dr # 6 in Columbia, South Carolina and replaces the work of Blue Sky. Call for hours (803) 782-9665‎.

Third Annual Palette to Palate to be held May 15-17 2009

The Village at Sandhill has partnered with The Cultural Council and Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce to hold the Third Annual Palette to Palate Event Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17, 2009.

This three-day art event will take place at Town Center Commons and will include live entertainment, art demonstrations, and the annual Taste of the Village event.

Palette to Palate Event Hours:
Friday, May 15: 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 16: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 17: Noon to 6 p.m.

Schedule of events:

Art: On view and for sale from over 25 of the area’s best known and admired artisans including work by local artist Alicia Leeke.

Music: Friday, May 15: Island Close By – 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 16: Fatback & The Grove Band – 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 17: Coolie G & Lion Soul – 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Taste of the Village: Friday, May 15 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., sample specialties from Village at Sandhill restaurants and beverage places. Just purchase sampling tickets for $1 each at the on-site ticket booths.

Village at Sandhill is located at Clemson Road and Two Notch Road in Northeast Richland County and is owned and managed by Kahn Development Company.

“Celebrate the Faces of Sandhills” Art Gala

The 5th Annual Sandhills Art Gala and sale will be held April 24, 2009 from 6:30 – 10 pm and features the work of over 50 South Carolina artists.

According to Gala Coorinator Powers Strickland, this year’s event is being extended with a sneak preview prior to the Gala Opening on Friday night, which is complete with a silent auction, cocktails and hors d' oeuvres. In the past the event was only held one night, but has become so popular by art buyers that is it being extended with an “Encore” of select works on Sunday, April 26th from 3-5 pm.

Highlights from this year’s exhibit include jewelry by Cindy Saad, mixed media works by Sam Compton, sculpture by Greg Fitzpatrick, photography by Howard Hunt, and paintings by Michael Storey, Leslie Pierce, Marcello Novo, Page Morris, Claude Buckley, Rob Shaw and many others.

The mission of Sandhills School is to provide a successful learning environment for students who learn differently and who benefit from evidence-based, multi sensory instruction. Sandhills School is a resource to the community for information about language-based learning differences and ADD/ADHD.

Pictured are two of Columbia, S.C. artist Alicia Leeke's miniature paintings "Ladies with Hats" and "The Messenger" which will be available for purchase during the exhibition.

To purchase tickets or additional information, please call (803) 695-1400.

Congaree Art Festival Features Art Demonstrations and Sale Saturday, April 25, 2009

The South Carolina State Museum will host their fifth annual Congaree Art Festival in conjunction with Columbia, South Carolina’s Artista Vista celebration Saturday April 25, 2009.

Attendees can observe demonstrations plus purchase paintings, pottery, mosaic compositions and more. Collage and mask-making workshops are also being offered as part of the State Museum’s celebration of art.

“Thursday Afternoon,” a recent painting created Columbia, South Carolina artist by Alicia Leeke, will be just one of many pieces of art exhibited during the event.

“Approximately 25 artists will be selected for this event, which will provide access to artists for the public, and a venue for artists across the state to meet, exhibit, demonstrate and sell their work,” said Paul Matheny, art curator for the State Museum.

The exhibition will take place from 10 am – 4 pm on Saturday at the State Museum which is located at 301 Gervais Street.

About Face Group Presents Art Salon During Turner to Cézanne Gala

On April 18, 2009, attendees of the Columbia Museum of Art’s Soiree du Soleil can purchase local art from members of the About Face Art group who have created a special atlier as part of the evening's festivities.

The “Art Salon” is being held in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibit “Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales.” During the evening, Gala attendees will step back in time and meet with French Impressionist artists dressed in period costumes, visit their studios and be able to purchase works from the area's best artists for this one-night only event.

Throughout the evening, guests will delight in French baguettes, berets, Beaujolais and music, plus Champagne with a drop of Absinthe. The exhibit, which is on view for the first-time in the United States, showcases the personal collection of Gwendoline and Margaret Davies who began collecting art after receiving heir inheritance from their late grandfather David Davies

The two sisters collected French works from 1850–1914 as well as a smaller number of English works. The extraordinary collection they amassed was later bequeathed to National Museum Wales and includes the most important names in the Realist, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist movements.

The exhibit provides a fresh insight into the story of European art from J.M.W. Turner to Paul Cézanne and celebrates the legacy of two pioneers of modern art. The collection is exceptionally strong in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works and includes masterpieces by, among others, Cézanne, Corot, van Gogh, Monet, Daumier, Manet, Millet, Pissarro, Renoir, Turner and Whistler.

Turner to Cézanne features 53 stunning works of art, seen together in the United States for the first time. Some highlights of the exhibition are Renoir’s famous La Parisienne, which was included in the first show of Impressionism in 1874, a Monet Water Lilies, and van Gogh’s panoramic Rain–Auvers, painted during the last week of the artist’s life.

Exhibition Credit: The exhibition is organized by the American Federation of Arts and National Museum Wales. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. National Museum Wales: National Museum Wales, located in Cardiff, runs seven national museums in Wales and celebrated its centenary year in 2007. The art collections encompass both the fine and applied arts, from antiquity to the present. The museum is renowned for its internationally acclaimed Impressionist collections, bequeathed to the museum by the Davies sisters.

The paintings above, Meracages and Wisteria, by artist Alicia Leeke will be just two of over 100 paintings available for purchase during the event.

McKissick Museum Spring for Art Exhibit on View through May 9, 2009

McKissick Museum is hosting the 2009 “Spring For Art” show and sale featuring works by 50 of Columbia’s best local artists with strong South Carolina ties through May 9, 2009.

“Spring for Art!” is an invitational exhibition and sale of works by artists on themes reflecting South Carolina with a portion of proceeds directly benefiting the museum.

“Many of the works have already been purchased including a pair of landscapes by Alicia Leeke and Michael Story, a miniature by Stephen Chesley and works by Eileen Blythe,” said by local businessman, Mike Doran of Fontenay Fine Art, Rugs and Antiques.

McKissick Museum is now in its third decade of collecting, research, exhibitions and public programs. The Museum was established: to serve as a general University museum and to engage in education, research, and collections development as well as campus and public service.

Hours of operation are: Monday - Friday, 8:30
am - 5 pm and Saturday, 11 am - 3 pm.

Courtyard Art Gallery Adds Leeke to Repitoire

Charleston, South Carolina's Courtyard Art Gallery is pleased to announce the addition of its newest artist Alicia Leeke.

Leeke's new textural abstract landscape paintings add new depth and a fresh approach to Charleston's art scene. Her current body of work, now on display at the gallery, focuses on peaceful marsh scenes and estuaries around the Low Country.

Courtyard Art Gallery is located in the French Quarter of historic downtown Charleston South Carolina and features the fine art of 16 local artists. The gallery showcases paintings, paper sculpture, pottery, jewelry, and photography as well as works in mixed media.

Courtyard Art Gallery is located at 149 ½ East Bay Street. Hours are 10:00 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Art Magazine Determines Leeke’s Work to have definite Signature Style

Charleston’s Art Magazine, published by Renaissance Media announced eight artists with signature styles in its Fall 2008 issue.

Known as “the bible to the Charleston art scene,” Art magazine highlights the happenings of visual, culinary, performing and wearable arts. It is a virtual who’s who of venues, artists and the galleries that represent them in the Charleston, S.C. area.

In it’s most recent issue, publisher Olivia Pool points out eight artists with very distinctive styles that set themselves apart by the very nature of their brush stokes, separating them from the rest of the pack. Included in this outstanding group are: John Sheran, Peter O’ Neill, Wilfred Spoon, Don Dahlke, Loet Vanderveen, John Stobart, Alicia Leeke and DAB.

So what exactly is a signature style?

For someone to have a signature style means you can look at their body of work or several pieces of their work and almost immediately know that it is exclusively theirs. It is like a handwritten signature that you sign on a check or your fingerprint. Each artist has developed their own style which sets them apart from what others are creating.

To give you a better understanding of signature styles take a further look at these other famous painters: Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Toulouse Lautrec, Degas, Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’ Keeffe, Dorothea Lange, Freida Kahlo, Suzanne Valadon, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Painters are typically what one thinks of first in terms of a signature style, but other corollaries can be seen in the works of other creative fields such as jewelry designer David Yurman, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, composer Mozart, designers Christopher Lowell and Ty Pennington, Comedian Eddie Izzard and Madonna to name a few.

Why is having a signature style important?

First of all, it says to the world that these artists have a unique, consistent style. This is important because galleries find it easier to market to collectors on their salability. From a collectability standpoint, these works usually increase in value as an art investment.

CHARLESTON ARTIST GUILD GALLERY FEATURES

The Charleston Artist Guild Gallery in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Coastal Inspirations, featuring works by South Carolina artist, Alicia Leeke. The exhibition will be marked with an opening preview reception from 5-8 p.m. held September 12. The exhibit will continue until September 30.

Using the term she coined for a new era of art, called “Fabaism,” Leeke offers her personal interpretations of Charleston and transforms familiar scenes into modern-day masterpieces. This new body of work focuses on the impact color and abstraction has on landscape painting.

The artists' love of the coast extends back into early childhood where family vacations were spent exploring the woods, dunes and tides of South Carolina’s coast.
Called a Contemporary Master, her creativity is inspired by the French Salon painters and how they captured history, social conscience and architecture by painting the people and environments surrounding them.

Complementing each painting is a robust combination of dry brush painting techniques to create texture. She manipulates acrylics to capture the thick rich texture of oils and mixes a palette full of rich reds, vibrant oranges, shocking blues and sharp white accents.

Her gentle distortions of linear perspective are a fundamental element to the overall design of her creations and are a necessary ingredient in the composition of her pieces. In fact, they create such a positive visual response that many viewers want to step inside each painting.

The gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10 am to 5 pm and is located at 6 North Atlantic Wharf, off East Bay Street and across from a convenient parking garage.

You may contact Alicia about her paintings by calling (803) 429-5456, 888-429-5456, via email at leekeka@hotmail.com or by visiting her website at http://www.alicialeeke.com/.

Artfocus: Tuscan Villa

THE STORY BEHIND THE TUSCAN VILLA PAINTING

My work is tremendously inspired by the French. If reincarnation exists, I was certainly French in a former life for my love of the countryside, buildings and food.

This painting, entitled Tuscan Villa, was created in April 2005 and is in my personal art collection; however, prints are available on my website at (www.alicialeeke.com). It was inspired by the Senanqu Abbey in Provence, France, but with my own personal twist.

Creative license played a major role in the creation of this painting. Up until 2008, I painted very little with grey as a major component in my compositions (I think to date only three so far and mostly as color field studies for landscapes). As a matter of fact, I find grey to be the drabbest color in the color spectrum and try to eliminate it from all paintings where possible (Until the painting of Stockholm and Five O’clock Shadows in 2009). In real life, this Abbey is very brown / grey with beautiful contrasting fields of lavender.

But due to my dislike of grey at that time, and my love of harvest gold, I turned this painting into a tropical paradise making the building a creamy gold with a red Spanish-style shingle roof and lush tropical lime-green trees and blue sky. While beautiful, the lavender fields were replaced with lush crops in varying shades of green dotted with hints of red, gold and a tinge of lavender.

This is truly a painting I painted for myself! I love the distorted lines and lack of perfection in perspective. In fact, I believe freedom to create without worry of judgment is what sets my Cityscape paintings apart from other artists.

The two abstract shapes in the foreground are actually people harvesting lavender. I liked the figures so much as they were unfinished; I decided not to clothe them.

In May 2008, I went on a Spiritual retreat in Star, North Carolina with Gary Spivey and met some incredibly interesting people. Later, I was commissioned by a fellow guest to paint a similar version of this piece. This commission is much larger than my 16 x 20 original at 30 x 40 in size, and after a few conversations, the painting is taking an additional direction and turning into a Montresorri School. The requestor asked for stained glass windows to be added signifying her love of children. Ironically, I don’t believe she knew the original piece was of an Abbey.

This is one of the few pieces in my body of work that I created about three open-edition, gallery-wrapped giclees. At this printing, I am not sure if I will do any additional open editions of any of my paintings because I personally prefer signed and numbered limited-editions.

Signed and numbered giclee prints of Tuscan Villa are available for $250 framed and matted, or $80 unframed. The current edition has 250 prints total with some still available as of this posting. The two open edition prints are available at investor prices and will be customized for the purchaser for provenance. For more information or to order your copy, email me at info@alicialeeke.com.

Image copyrighted by the artist. All rights reserved.