Inside the Art: Stephanie Wheeler

Today’s local artists spotlight falls on Stephanie Wheeler, whose unique marble abstracts have found a place within the art collection here at Little Home. According to Wheeler’s personal website, she creates “depth on canvas” through her exploration of “color relationships” present within her work. Wheeler calls this exploration a “color language” in which she is practically fluent–as her “About” page suggests, she’s devoted considerable amounts of time to learning it. Read on to learn more about Wheeler’s “color language” and her locally-based artistic practice.

Wheeler’s personal website showcases her creative background and her education and artistic training, both of which contributed to her interest in visual and fine arts. Wheeler grew up in an “art-focussed” family and cites the education she received at UGA and GA State University as well as creatively immersive experiences she had with her family members as key steps in her artistic development. Although she didn’t go to school specifically to study art and didn’t pursue an artistic career, Wheeler pursued her interest in painting through more unconventional, yet more traditional means. Wheeler incorporated creativity into all of the career paths she followed which include interior, floral, and landscape design. And just like history’s greatest artists, Wheeler decided to learn art by experience by shadowing and studying a number of more experienced artists from around the world, which included a Russian painter and sculptor and Charlotte-based painter Andy Braitman.

After painting “steadily for over 16 years professionally,” Wheeler’s subject matters alternates but her prioritization of color remains constant. Wheeler, who describes the act of painting as “meditation,” writes on her website that she likes “to create harmony and balance” with her use of color and enjoys utilizing color to elicit an “emotional reaction” from her viewers. Wheeler also writes that she “loves exploring new abstract work,” perhaps like the Marble Abstracts we have here at Littlefield Home, which demonstrate a departure, both in color and in scale from Wheeler’s body of work.

Like our previous featured artist Joe Adams, whose work is also featured here at Littlefield Home, Wheeler takes pride in her studio space, which like Adams’s Macon fixer-upper is a historic home. The 1930’s bungalow style home (see above picture) in the heart of Atlanta serves not only as Wheeler’s office but also as a tranquil “sanctuary.” Wheeler says the natural sunlight which filters in through the house’s windows becomes a source of motivation to keep pursuing her artistic practice. Wheeler’s other sources of motivation and inspiration include rock and roll music, travel, and time spent in nature.

Find more information on Wheeler’s studio, work, and artistic practice here.

Find Littlefield Home’s selection of Stephanie Wheeler artwork here.

Wheeler’s work is also available at Atlanta’s Jennifer Balcos Gallery.