The Quinlan Visual Arts Center announced this week their new Summer Exhibition lineup will include solo shows by artists Michael Heffernan and Win Crannell and duel shows by artists Amanda Lovett OPA and Steven Walker OPA and a group show by artists in Suches Brushes.
The center recently revealed the artist's credentials and explored what inspired them to pursue their passion for their medium.
Marrieta–based artist Michael Heffernan was born in Dublin Irland and studied painting and design at Dublin’s National College of Art and Design. He later earned a national design scholarship award to attend graduate school for an MA in Industrial Design at Birmingham Polytechnic, England. Since 2019, Heffernan has worked full-time as an artist following surviving a heart attack that led to his reevaluation of life’s priorities and gave him the desire to dedicate his life to his art. According to The Quinlan, Heffernan has also explored poetry as a medium, after he began writing poems in June 2020 that recalled childhood memories and life in Ireland. The intensity of this focus eventually led to works that are on display in Wayfinding.
Wayfinding, the solo painting and poetry exhibition, highlights a body of work created through the pandemic years that explores the relationship between mark-making and poetic language. This exhibition pairs abstract and contemporary landscape paintings with accompanying poetry, written by Heffernan. Aside from being a part of the Summer Exhibition at The Quinlan, Heffernan has exhibited in several juried group exhibits, and galleries in the Southeastern United States, Dublin, Ireland and the United Kingdom. His work has been sold throughout the United States and sold to private collectors.
“The seamless expression excites me,” Heffernan said. “The search and expression of emotional connection with the viewer, providing just enough for the viewer to participate, interpret and engage in the work. I like to think I can draw the viewer into the paintings, and they discover interesting passages each time they engage with them, especially over time. I strive for consistency in my visual vocabulary that I continue to extrapolate and explore as I progress in my obsession with the materiality of paint and its boundless possibilities.”
Win Crannell of Dahlonega had several careers before indulging in the arts. He has been a policeman in Florida, spent three years in the Army, and sold law books in New York City. Crannell earned his BA and MFA from Florida State University. He also taught and coached at Statesboro High School before joining the art department at North Georgia College and State University where he taught from 1971 to 2000. He is a retired professor emeritus.
The Quinlan said Crannell explored his artistic interests throughout his teaching career and carried his love for that into retirement. Early on in his exploration, he was heavily inspired by Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists, with many of his early works being large non-objective paintings. However, with his most recent pieces, he has put an emphasis on the landscapes of rural Georgia, sometimes taking over five hundred hours to complete one piece. Carnnell’s work has won hundreds of awards at various art festivals throughout the United States.
Crannell has a daughter, Cory, her husband Brett, and son Easton and twin girls Preslie and Rylie, and a son Casey and his wife Nikki, along with grandsons Dylan and Isaiah and daughters, Maddie and Lily.
Amanda Lovett, an artist based in Gainesville, has shown her passion for drawing since she was a small child. Her family claims her childhood doodles were detailed sketches of her father’s horses.
Lovett attended the Atlanta Portfolio Center where she studied Art Direction, Graphic Design, Photography, and Illustration, and joined the advertising firm of McDonald and Little as an Art Director at the age of 19. Later, she would go on to start her firm and move to New York.
In 1998, she attended a watercolor landscape class with Frank Broadhurst, who she would later credit for starting her on a path as a painter. In 2004, after recently switching her focus to oils, Amanda committed to becoming an artist professionally.
Lovett has studied under a variety of professionals, according to The Quinlan. She currently teaches workshops at venues across the southeast with a series of subject matters developed to build the core skills necessary for growth at any level.
Lovett has been accepted into numerous national and regional shows and organizations, as well as earning her Signature Status with Oil Painters of America and being named one of the “11 Artists to Collect Now: The Emerging Plein Air Painters You Need to Know” by Plein Air Magazine. She is currently represented in several art galleries across the country.
She said the goal throughout her art is to capture the vibrancy and energy most people miss in the simple moments of life.
Valdosta/Haira-based artist Steven S. Walker has been creating pieces for corporations and private collectors for over twenty years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in fine arts at Virginia Commonwealth University with a concentration in illustration, and later, earned his master's in fine arts from Marywood University.
Walker is a full-time artist and has been included in several local and national juried competitions including the Oil Painters of America Eastern Regional, Salon and National, Richeson 75 Landscape Competition, Plein Air Salon, the International Salon and the Art Renewal Center. He also was part of a statewide traveling exhibition with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Walker’s career has also included plein air events such as Plein Air South, Forgotten Coast Plein Air, Georgia Colors and the Olmsted Invitational (which earned him a judge’s award from the editor of Art Collector magazine). Most recently, he was given signature status in the Oil Painters of America.
Walker continues to work on his art with the assistance of his wife Evelyn and studio assistant/daughter Poppy.
“If you want to know my secret, ask my wife and daughter … they are the real heroes in my success story,” Walker said.
Currently, Walker’s work is represented in over ten galleries across the United States.
The Suches Brushes, of Suches, is a community outreach project of Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church that began in 2004.
During The Quinlan Exhibition, eight members of the group will display their works. The center said those who attend will notice diversity in the work’s thematic content and mediums, and will see both two and three-dimensional pieces.
The members serve one another by sharing artistic discoveries, techniques, critiques and even refreshments. Occasionally the group plans a field trip to paint plein air and attend a class or art show together. Some members pursue a variety of creative expressions such as drawing, reading, writing, and knitting.
The Summer Exhibition will open June 15 and will run through Aug. 12.
The opening reception for the Summer Exhibition will be June 15 at 5:30 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public. Attendees can look forward to live music, a poetry reading, light snacks and wine.
