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The Animals of Red Bell Run: Flora and Fauna is opening at Tryon Fine Arts Center’s JP Gallery on Thursday, September 8 at 6:30 p.m.

Passion begets passion, beauty begets beauty…this is the thought that is in the mind of Monica Stevenson, a professional, every moment she spends at Red Bell Run. The photographs for this exhibition are inspired by Mary Adams, the owner of Red Bell Run, who is dedicated to the animals and plants that thrive at her equine sanctuary. 

Stevenson is a commercial photographer and creative director who offers a sophisticated outlook built from years of working with high-profile clients ranging from Chanel to Coca-Cola. Stevenson is known for creating intricate lighting arrangements while photographing accessories, liquids, powders, cosmetics, jewelry, and a variety of other ad imagery. She applies a sense of color that is refined, playful, and sometimes unexpected, yet always technically on point for each application. A recognized lecturer and respected fine artist, she has earned numerous industry awards and has seen her work published in a variety of industry magazines and fine art publications. 

 

An avid equestrian since childhood, Monica Stevenson combines a background in technical commercial photography with a love for pastoral equestrian culture to produce artistic portraits and artful explorations of the equine form. Her fine art equine photography has provided a vital creative outlet for a veteran commercial photographer used to working on high-profile advertising shoots. The work is free-flowing and romantic, yet carefully crafted and precise. The resulting imagery has found a home in more than a dozen publications, appeared in collections at Princeton University and the Kentucky Museum of the Horse in Lexington, and earned awards from the Advertising Photographers of America, the Annual Photography Masters Cup and the EQUUS Film Festival, to name a few. 

 

As with much of Monica’s work, this exhibit leans heavily on her own collaborative spirit and the generous nature of her artistic partners–Preston Wainwright, floral designer, Thomas Ignatius and Sean Smith, both illustrative designers, to support some of the exhibit’s featured works. The resulting pictures included in this show, photographed with a large format digital camera and hand printed, display an abundance of beautiful details– flowers, leaves, illustrations, textures, colors, dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, expressions, shapes, movement, fur, teeth, limbs–all the things that make up the natural world that is Red Bell Run.

 

The exhibit will open on September 8 at 6:30 p.m. with a reception open to the public. The Animals of Red Bell Run: Flora and Fauna will be on display to view and purchase Stevenson’s work from September 8 – October 29, 2022. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and on the fourth Friday of each month from 5 – 7 p.m. 

 

Submitted by Debra Torrence