First Annual Juried Exhibition
Our Jurors.....
Viviane Van Giesen is from Porto Alegre, Brazil, where she received her BA in Fine Arts at Federal University of RS in 1986.She first came to Georgia through a Rotary scholarship to study at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at UGA in 1983. She moved to Georgia in 1989 and pursued her second degree in Graphic Design at UGA.
She is passionate about watercolor. She is a Georgia Watercolor Society Signature Members. She has been selected and awarded in various juried shows of state and national scope. Her portraits renderings have been selected to be shown at the Georgia Capitol and at the Portrait Society of Atlanta. She is a board member of art organizations in U.S. and Brazil, where she is the co-founder of the Plein-Air Group "Arte 'a Tarde". Currently she is the President of the Georgia Watercolor Society. She believes strongly in giving back to the art community and collaborating to make local art groups stronger and long-lasting. She practices her art as a means of meditation and communication, conveying the interaction of light and shadow with free-spirit and spontaneity.
Maryann Cox set off to be an artist early on when her grandmother bought her a set of pastels so she would stay out of hers! She spent every free moment of her childhood in art lessons and went to Georgia Southern College as a fine arts major but then changed her focus to special education. Even though she continued to paint, study art, and win awards in exhibits, her art career took a back seat to a career first teaching special education and the elementary art.
Since retiring in 2008, Maryann has been painting full time from her home studio in the Athens area. She is a member of the Atlanta Pastel Society, the American Pastel Society, is a signature member of the Georgia Watercolor Society, and master pastelist member of the Southeastern Pastel Society.