About the Artists

Click on an Artist's name below for their biography.

• Gayle Bolton
  
  
• Sandy Branam
  
  

Gayle Bolton

Gayle Bolton, a fourth generation native of Jacksonville, Florida, is now a resident of Thunderbolt, Georgia near Savannah and resides beside the boat filled waters of the Intracoastal Waterway. Inspired while sailing the blue waters of the Bahamas and the Caribbean, she picked up the artist's brush and began teaching herself the wonders of painting with watercolors in an attempt to capture the essence of the islands.

Upon moving to Savannah, she studied under local artist, Peggy Cone, to refine her techniques and explore various applications. Armed with a better understanding of the medium, Gayle's passion for art took on a new meaning. By patiently layering washes of transparent watercolor, she preserves experiences vividly dramatic, yet quietly serene. Her exaggerated remarquing, where she continues the artwork onto the mat, draws the viewer deeper into her paintings as if they were standing in that particular location. In addition to her scenic landscapes and "critter" portfolio, she has developed a fun series of "Cool Bars", which she says comes from her time in the islands.

Gayle is a mother of three grown daughters and is now a grandmother. After 15 years of being an Institutional Stock Broker and an Event Planner in South Florida, she is extremely content with the slower paced life of painting. She attributes her talents to God, her family, friends and various sailboat captains along the way.

She wishes all that enjoy her work, fair winds and following seas.

Her work may be viewed at:

1016 Highway 80, Tybee Island, GA 31328
(912) 786-7979

Gayle's work can be seen at these other local galleries:

Atlantic Beacon Gallery
Tybee Beach, GA
(912) 786-9386

Gallery by the Sea
Tybee Beach, GA
(912) 786-7979

Glynn Art Association
St. Simons Island, GA
(912) 638-8770

Purchase Gayle's Artwork Online:

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Sandy Branam

Besides painting in acrylics, pastels, and watercolors, Sandy Branam is accomplished at drawing. Always experimenting, she works in mixed media and recently branched out to three-dimensional work and ceramic sculpture. Her ceramic sculpture “Wow!” won Best of Show at the 2004 Landings Art Association Show, Savannah, Ga. (the first time in the annual show’s seventeen years that a sculpture has been judged Best of Show).

Humor in art has always interested and challenged Sandy. In April 2004, The Savannah Diabetes Society commissioned Sandy to draw a series of caricatures of local volunteer fund-raising captains at the kick-off fund-raiser at the Savannah International Trade Center. During June and July 2003, Sandy had a highly successful one-person show at the Bread & Butter Café in Savannah. Her work has been avidly collected by buyers throughout North America and in England, and she has won numerous awards. In 2003 Coastal Antiques & Art featured her as one of Savannah’s five best artists to collect.

Robin Cembalest, executive editor of Art News, compared her painting “Compassionate Wave” (about the 9-11 terrorist attack on New York City) to Goya’s “The Third of May, 1808” and Picasso’s “ Guernica.” “Compassionate Wave” was one of the works featured in the 2003 national exhibit on 9-11 sponsored by Savannah College of Art and Design.

During 2005, Sandy had a show at Hospice Savannahand broke all sales records for Hospice. In 2005and ’06 she taught watercolor classes at Wild Acres in Little Switzerland, N.C

Sandy painted an acrylic series on musicians, that opened in mid-March and a series on film caricatures in watercolor and ink in October, ‘06 for Off the Wall Gallery at 45 Bistro, in the Marshall House. Currently she is working on a children’s book that will be in full color and a series of watercolors on Thunderbolt, GA and humorous sketches about Tybee Island that will come out in mid March ’07. In Sept.-Oct ‘07 she will have a second show at Hospice of Savannah.

Born in Coral Gables, Fla., Sandy Branam grew up there and in Savannah and Brunswick, Ga., and East Hampton, Conn. She studied art at Berea College, Berea, Ky.; Leeds University, Leeds, England; and the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. (B.A., 1962). For two years Sandy lived in England and traveled in Europe with her husband, a Marshall Scholar. Later, as teachers, they raised two sons in Kentucky and the Philadelphia area.

In 1992 they moved to Savannah, Ga., where Sandy has become one of this art-rich community’s leading artists. She has served as president of the Savannah Art Association, started its life drawing and “Drawing from the Masters” programs, and shown in several local galleries: East End, The Gallery, 3 rd Floor Gallery, Chroma Gallery. Currently she is showing at Off the Wall Gallery in Savannah, and Gayle Bolton Gallery in Thunderbolt, GA. Her work has also been shown at the Jewish Educational Alliance, the Telfair Museum’s art fair, and Hilton Head’s “Evening withthe Arts,” an annual event to support the arts in SC public schools.

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