Art Mag Cover

Thrilled to have my Charleston Lady illustration featured on the cover of Art Mag! My painting was one of nine images chosen to represent “Why I Love Charleston” in the summer issue. An excerpt from my artist statement:

“Charleston awakens my inner artist. I love being surrounded by narrative. Cobblestone streets, hidden gardens, quirky rainbow-colored crooked houses. For me, it evokes an era of flapper girls and Great Gatsby-esque parties. These images are what inspired me to create my “Charleston Lady,” the first in a series of Art Nouveau-inspired oil paintings. I actually created this painting over ten years ago as an illustration for Charleston Magazine, while I was a grad student at SCAD. It was used to promote the Charleston Fashion Walk. It sparked a fascination with vintage travel posters and 1920’s era fashion illustration. Since then, I’ve created similar “City Ladies” depicting travel destinations such as London, Paris and Venice, and vintage portraits which have been licensed to Bed, Bath & Beyond and JCPenney. But it all started with my “Charleston Lady.” After several years of living in Atlanta (my husband and I are both illustrators), we moved to Charleston, the very city that sparked my artist niche. Now I smile when I look at the familiar landmarks that were sprinkled into this painting, knowing that ten years later we would actually live here. In my painting, the lady is holding a magnolia flower. I just noticed this little detail, which is only fitting because we recently gave birth to our second daughter, a baby girl that we named Magnolia. This is why I love Charleston.” – Erin Bennett Banks (www.erinbanks.com)