In Greenville South Carolina on the first Friday of the month the art studios all over town stay open late. Open studios is the perfect way to spend a date night, and spot some fantastic Southern artist at work. The Pendleton art district attracts a variety of artist to this revitalized quarter sandwiched at the West End between Augusta Road and Downtown.    I have seen this owl triptych in the studio and it was so much more stunning in real life, I think because the metallic leaf is an unexpected and rather abrupt contrast to the hand drawn, sketched, quality of the wildlife. And perhaps because the colors are less contrasting than many of the other pieces that I chosen to feature, it has a very elegant, quite, refinement that I admire and would love to hang in my home.

I am wild about triptychs and the birds in the deer antlers is no exception

One such South Carolina native is Joseph Bradley a nationally known artist showing work in the largest US cities, but choosing to live and create in Greenville. I suspect he would understand why I still miss living there too. I don’t claim to know him, but we have spoken and I admire his work so that practically makes us tight.

On his web site I found a cool explanation about what drove him to become an artist, maybe what helped him realize he had the courage to become an artist. “”I grew up in a old ramshackle farm house in the upstate of SC in a tight knit family.  Honestly, I never thought I would grow up to be an artist.  An experience during my internship in college changed my trajectory:  I was held up in a bank robbery.  Even though that event was traumatic, I was forced to evaluate what energized me and subsequently migrated a great deal of scattered ambitions into being a visual artist.”

A cool fact about his work~ It has been sold in Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters!

He sells these small mixed media pieces for very reasonable prices because they are originals that are printed on block and then the metallic leaf is hand applied individually. Go check out his studio, located at 1211 Pendleton St, Greenville, SC 29611