Kristin Griffis paints a portrait of Wally Palmer while he plays guitar on the porch of La Petite Gallerie in Bluffton. COURTESY LA PETITE GALLERIE
This month, La Petite Gallerie, an intimate Old Town Bluffton shop featuring local art, is featuring the fun-loving painter Kristin Griffis.
A true Hilton Head Island native, Griffis has been creating and selling her art from an early age. Always a music lover, her paintings often depict dancing, instruments, and people making and enjoying music in all its forms.
In fact, Griffis experiences synesthesia, which, in the arts, is a concept defined as the simultaneous perception of two or more stimuli as one unified whole experience. That is, the music she hears translates to color and movement of brushstrokes on her canvas.
The result is an energetic, colorful, music-filled, and almost primitive style of painting that her customers love.
Her work is in private and corporate collections, including the Folk Art Museum at General Mills Headquarters in Minneapolis, and her “Piano Man” graces the CD cover of local jazz pianist Martin Lesch’s “Journey Through Jazz.”
Griffis is creative and productive in many aspects of her full life. In addition to painting, she is an avid gardener and raises a menagerie of wonderful animals, including turkeys, chickens, and bunnies. She and her husband James have recently bought a home on beautiful farmland acreage in Ridgeland.
After some interesting travels as a youngster, Griffis loves living in the Lowcountry. She enjoys spending time with family at the beach, gardening, enjoying live music and painting – at the same time.
La Petite Gallerie will be celebrating this colorful artist with a reception, featuring music (of course!) by Jared Templeton, from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 7.
Visit La Petite Gallerie anytime to see the art of Griffis and the six other member artists at 56 Calhoun St. in Bluffton.
For more information please visit lapetitegallerie.com.
