“What, in your estimation, is the most overrated thing in the art world?  Hyper-specificity. Esoteric work that speaks only to very small groups of people or that requires an extensive amount of explanation to engage with. More and more I think about the balance between alienating an audience and inviting them in. I don’t think this has to preclude complexity, and I’m not pro-populism. I just hate giving time to something, and then feeling like, “Ok, so what?” That misses the mark for me. Art has to speak for itself.” – Emma Fernberger, from Artnet   So true! I really don’t like ar ..read more

Fine Art South is proud to announce that one of my oil paintings has won 2nd place in the Sky’s the Limit art show in Marietta, GA. Two of my paintings are in this new art show called Sky’s the Limit in Marietta at the Heart Soul & Art metaphysical shop. My oil painting “Imagining the Best” won second place. See the address for the gallery at the bottom of this post. The reception for this art show was February 10th and I’ve included photos below of the reception. If you are in the area, don’t miss  this show, which will be on display until March 16th.  All paintings are for sale ..read more

Two of my newer paintings are in this new art show in Marietta at the Heart Soul & Art metaphysical shop. The reception for this art show is February 10th from 5-6:30 pm. If you are in the area, don’t miss it! All paintings are for sale! The store is amazing with it’s fancy crystals, candles, jewels, stones, and other unusual and beautiful things so check out their items outside of the art show too.             View this post on Instagram                         A post shared by Heart ..read more

How to respect artists who work hard? Label their work! That is absolutely necessary. You can’t hang up artwork without identifying the artist. As you can see in the photos of the exhibit, this isn’t dentist office decor. This is an art show. Don’t hang an art show like this:   No labels! So who did the artwork? Who knows!  (I do, and I did 4 paintings in this show)   What I shared on Facebook:   No Labels isn’t just a political party! It’s also the status of this art show at the community center in Smyrna. I have four paintings in this show – none of them are labeled ..read more

Greetings visitors, I am so glad you are looking at my artwork on this site! It’s been a very tough week. just when I was going to add some great updates to this website, I was hacked by some very bad people in a foreign country, (either Bulgaria or Singapore, or maybe both). Why do they do this to peoples’ websites? Who knows? But it took me several days of trying to fix this site and get rid of all the malware (thousands of malware files) manually. This took so much time away from my design updates and my own paintings and everything else, I’m very tired and behind with everything. It was li ..read more

There is a new art show up at the Community Center in downtown Smyrna, sponsored by the Smyrna Arts Council.  I have four recent paintings in this show. It’s a new show that will continue until the end of November, but I’m not sure exactly when it ends. Below are the paintings I have in this show and some of the other pieces by other artists. This is a small art show and the first one in the Community Center. I am working on new abstracts and portraits I hope to exhibit in an upcoming show  in 2024. Local Artist Exhibit September-November 2023 The City of Smyrna and Smyrna Arts Counc ..read more

There is a new website for buying Shelly’s art! It offers original, ready to hang artwork and the opportunity to get that artwork in the form of prints. The website is Fine Art by Shelly.  There is still going to be new art here, the site of her primary Gallery of art, Fine Art South, but the place to buy her art will be on the Fineartbyshelly.com website. This change was made primarily for two reasons:  Buyer security, and prints!  I have been looking for a way to sell prints on my website for literally years, and all options I came across were extremely expensive, or not what ..read more

The annual  pop-up PIN UP show returns to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Atlanta this Thursday, May 11th, (hours are 7-9 pm). This is a very brief show so don’t blink or you’ll miss it. See more about this contemporary art show here. I will have one painting in this show and it’s for sale, (pictured below) as are all the other artworks in the show. Here is a small bit of what will be shown in the exhibit. Mayan ruins painting by Shelly Leitheiser   While you are there you can also see the other art displays in the museum including the permanent collection, a sample of whic ..read more

Art Collecting.com is a wonderful art resource website that highlights all kinds of artist websites, artist events, galleries, museums, and affiliated websites. Fine Art South and artist Shelly Leitheiser recently joined Art Collecting and are featured on the artist page and this page. Below is a screenshot of the website and featured art by Shelly Leitheiser. As an artist or gallery you can request to join their catalogue of art resources too.     ..read more

Impressionism is my favorite art style (after abstraction) for so many reasons. This video helps to explain why it’s an important art movement, but it’s also important to know it’s still an important art movement and is enjoying a resurgence right now.     There is a big resistance to painting in a highly realistic style on the part of many artists. The reasons differ, but for me it’s because I strongly feel that artists should not try to emulate a camera. We are not cameras, we are artistic, expressive human beings with our voices to add to our art. You can’t add much of a voice to ..read more