spring is in the air and we are super excited to virtually open two new exhibitions for sally king benedict and francis livingston. the smell of fresh paint is lingering in the gallery and the energy of the new paintings is pulsating off the walls. hidell brooks continues to be by appointment only. please call or email us and we will get you on the schedule.
sally king benedict hit the ground running after graduating from the college of charlestion in 2007. she is a creative force who pushes herself and her work to new levels at every turn. her creativity has no bounds. for this most recent body of work sally was influenced by the late artist todd murphy. hidell brooks had todd’s last solo exhibition at the gallery in october 2018. todd murphy and sally have a common ground of looking at art as a means to explore the unknown by always pushing the mediums to the next level. the paintings in the show combine her love of working on paper and panel by using an overlay of plexiglass. the combination results in a multi-layer effect that is completely mesmerizing. similar in technique to her layered mixed media canvases which are also on view but stripped down to focus on the medium as the subject matter . the limited brush strokes become the focal point in the larger work. sally king benedict proves once again she has an unlimited well of creativity and we for one cannot wait to see what she does next.
sally king benedict is in her 15th year as a professional artist. she and her work have been featured in major publications including elle decor, architectural digest, domino, garden & gun, and southern living, among others. sally gains inspiration from daily life in her hometown of atlanta, georgia, where she lives with her husband and their 2 children. she started her career in charleston, south carolina, where she earned her ba in studio art from the college of charleston in 2007.
in progress
detail
works in progress in sally’s atlanta studio
francis livingston
cityscapes
francis livingston studied at the rocky mountain school of art in denver before moving to san francisco in 1975 to attend the academy of art. he later taught there for 10 years. influenced by sargent and whistler, livingston painted primarily in a monochromatic style until he began to study the work of the bay area figurative movement, including richard diebenkorn, wayne thiebaud and others. with a love for nostalgia, he paints places which may no longer exist or that have lost their luster. his bold and impressionistic paintings take the viewer back in time to the day when amusement parks with wooden roller coasters, movie theatres with neon signs and buildings with ornate embellishments were in their prime. francis livingston is known for his thickly applied brush strokes that emphasize shape rather than line, creating an abstract approach to realism. his scenes of yesteryear have exciting movement, color, texture and balance.
“painting large. those two words can be intimidating, no matter how many large works i’ve created, it still is a daunting task. the challenge is, how do the pieces look from a distance, and how do i keep the same energy and brushwork that smaller paintings have. i like to work on a group at the same time. one painting informs the others and so it goes back and forth. for this show there were six large, white, empty panels to start with, and a certain amount of visualization was needed to make sure the compositions worked well in a large format. there are different approaches to different exhibitions. in this case, i wanted the paintings to have boldness and visual impact so the viewer feels the largeness of the urban scape and architecture. the color in the works as always was important for mood and time of day. large works have their own difficulties but it’s rewarding to see those white panels develop and become my current show. ”
all available work by each artists can be viewed on our website on the artist page under each individual tab. click on the artist’s name to bring up all work with sizing and pricing. please call the gallery if you have any further questions.