Artist’s Statement

    An admitted traditionalist, I prefer to work in oils.  I strive to capture a special light effect of the moment or the serenity of a landscape. Although I use many photos, sketches, and in pleinair field studies, I prefer to spend time sitting quietly absorbing the nuances and the way the scene “feels on your skin."  When painting, I sometimes feel “in the zone,” losing all track of time and place and feel transported back to the sights, smells, and sounds of the scene being captured on the canvas, and many times, the painting seems to take over and demand a life of its own.

 

 

 

 

     As my husband and two sons are avid woodsmen, I love spending quiet time in the woods on our farm in middle Georgia, enjoying over thirteen miles of trails in secluded woods. I especially identify with rural, secluded, country settings.  Having recently added on a new art studio in our Gainesville, Georgia home, I derive much pleasure and inspiration from being able to look out over a bold, rock filled stream that was once the site of an old mill. 

     As for a philosophy of life, there isn’t enough time in a lifetime to learn all that I want to learn, and I will always be a student of nature, light, and the artists before me.  My reverence for the scenes I paint is why I long to try to capture the essence of the moment on canvas, and make that moment a journal and record of my existence, but more importantly, to give voice in some small way to help protect the beauty of this earth we live in.

Exhibitions

2009 – Bowen Center for the Arts-Solo show-“Reflections of Georgia

2009 -  Sautee Nacoochee Cultural Association-Featured Artist for “Travel Memories” show  

2009 –Quinlan Visual Arts Center –Art League Invitational – Dec-Jan.09      

2008 – Bowen Center for the Arts “Home for the Holidays”  juried show.

2008 – 61st Annual Members Show- Quinlan Visual Arts Center

2008 – Hall County Regional Library- One artist show.      

2008 – Quinlan Visual Arts Center –“Memories” juried show.

2008 – “Madison In May” plein air paintout, Madison, Georgia

2008 – Quinlan Visual Arts Center – The Art League –Honorable Mention

2007 - Quinlan Visual Arts Center - "Elements of Light" juried show by Roseta Santiago.

2007- Honorable mention "Paint the Town" Quintan Visual Arts Center                      Plein Air Event

2004 -  57th Annual Members Show, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, Georgia                  

2001-  53rd Annual Members Show, Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, GA 

1996 – Quinlan Visual Arts Center, Gainesville, GA, “Oil + Water”, 12 paintings,   one of five artists

 

Artist Biography

    Nona H. Stephens is a Gainesville, Georgia landscape artist who exhibited interest in art even at the early age of six, entering a Christmas coloring contest of a local department store in her hometown of Forrest City, Arkansas.  She won first prize for girls. 

    As fate would have it, her future husband won first place for the boys’ division.  Although they did not meet until she was fifteen, art has continued to be a nurturing and identifying part of her life.

    Throughout her education years, she always gravitated to the arts, studying at University of Central Arkansas, Tulane, and Louisiana State University at New Orleans.  After living in New Orleans for three years, she and her husband, Charles moved to Georgia in 1967.  While their two sons were quite young, Nona  returned to college to study at Brenau University and received her BA degree in interior design,  graduating magna cum laude.  She later studied for several years from classically trained artist, Chris Didomizio of Atlanta, and has never stopped studying the works and techniques of favorite artists Turner, Bierstadt, Innis, Metcalf, Hassam as well as other artists of the Hudson River School and the Luminist Painters. 

    In 1990 she was given the birthday present by her husband of a trip to London to view the works of J.M.W. Turner in the Tate Gallery. As they climbed the steps to the gallery, the tears could not be stopped, never dreaming she would be able to actually see the paintings she had studied for so long. She applied for permission to study in the archives and was able to privately study some of his over 20,000 watercolors.  And although Turner’s paintings remain at the top of the list as some of the most beautiful paintings ever painted, the artist states, “I could never achieve his level of beauty and do not try to emulate his style, but I can still learn much from his command of paint and emotion to be conveyed.   I feel I have to find my own voice and my own style.”