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.

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.

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/.

Landscapes Move to New Location in the Vista

Landscape Artwork by Alicia Leeke Now Carried at Nonnah's in the Vista

Nonnah's at 930 Gervais Street in the Congaree Vista has juried the artwork of South Carolina artist Alicia Leeke into its Gallery. This marks a move from the former location at Fontenay on Devine Street, notes Leeke who will continue to display a few prints at Fontenay.

Currently on display at Nonnah's are a few original Divas, landscapes and historical sketches of Bishopville, SC.

Nonnah's is located in the historic Congaree Vista of Columbia, South Carolina and has always been a top spot in the Vista for lunch. Nonnah's has been voted BEST DESSERTS by the Columbia Free Times nine years in a row.

Alicia's work can be seen street front in the window at 930 Gervais St, between Park St and Lincoln St., but be sure to go inside for a closer view. All works are available for purchase and Works change frequently. For directions, go to http://maps.google.com/.

Hours are: Mon-Thu 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p..m.-11 p.m.; Fri 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5: p.m.-12:30 a.m.; Sat 6 p.m.-12:30 a.m.

Other paintings of Alicia's are available at the House Brand Furniture Store in Columbia, The Charleston Artists Guild Gallery in Charleston, SC and by appointment. For more information visit 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.