The Art initiative featured exhibit Horsing Around showcases the equine art of three fine artists: Len Jagoda, Julie Nestor, and Ulla Strickland.
Each artist has a unique style that captures the beauty and personalities of these beloved animals so enmeshed in our American history.
Len Jagoda former Army captain having served in Viet Nam, utilized the GI bill for college leading to a thirty-year business career. Always interested in art and horses, he became involved in riding hunter, hunter jumpers, breeding, training, and racing that is visualized in his paintings. Len is the recipient of 72 awards at the national, regional, and state levels including nine Best of Show and sixteen First Place Awards. His works have been accepted to many exhibitions including the International Exhibition on Animals in Art and four times to the Grand National Exhibition in New York. He holds Fellow member status with the American Artists Professional League (NY), America’s oldest professional artist organization, and Juried member status with the American Academy of Equine Art (KY). His works can be found on display at prestigious stud farms in Lexington and in the homes of jockeys, trainers and owners of racehorses in the US, England and Ireland.
Julie Nestor is a member of the Booth Artists Guild (associated with the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville , Ga ) ,Newnan Coweta Art Association and National Cowgirl Artists of America. Julie rediscovers the horse in portrait and in western art. Growing up in Texas, her knowledge and passion for horses help her to capture behavioral gestures and mood in oil and pastel mediums. Julie is captivated by emotion, light and clean color. Her long history in professional Nursing also draws her to human anatomy and figure drawing. Her work has been exhibited in juried shows and hangs in local galleries, and private collections. Julie manages her breeding horse farm in Brooks Georgia with her husband Dan.
Ulla Strickland is a native of Germany and has lived in Georgia for 30 years. Riding and painting from an early age on, she has managed to combine her two greatest passions, horses and art. Ulla’s preferred medium has always been graphite and she has won numerous prizes in various juried shows, but she is now working more with watercolors, exhibiting the same almost three-dimensional quality as her pencil work. Besides painting and drawing commissioned work, Ulla organizes art shows at regional horse shows and Ulla Strickland Studios has become a household name among horse lovers – and art lovers – nationwide.
Selected members of the Fayette Society of Fine Art (FSOFS), Newnan-Coweta Art Association (NCAA), and the Peachtree City Photography Club are exhibiting throughout the library.
The exhibits are open to the public during library hours. Peachtree City Library Art Initiative is on Facebook and the library web site. Peachtree-City.org
