Patti and Jeff Hall, a married couple of 30-plus years, call themselves the ‘Dream Team,’ whose artistic styles and personality temperaments perfectly complement one another.
With fast-paced banter and a rapid volley of ideas, the two only pause long enough to ask, “Well, what do you think?”
Throughout the duo’s repartee, it is clear that their successful collaboration has been achieved through effective teamwork. Each is a sounding board to the other’s individual creative goals.
Like opposite magnetic poles, an invisible force holds them together.
“We love doing things together and are always plotting our next adventure,” Patti Hall asserts.
“This year we did our assemblage pieces, ‘Whimsy and Wings,’ at Under the Oaks. It went from weird to angelic. We also have our own theatre production company and have a new play scheduled for next October,” she adds.
“And we’re starting a new series of paintings where we’re going to hand it off to each other. One starts the painting and the other finishes it, and back and forth. It will be a great challenge and fun,” says Jeff Hall.
Their current collaborative show, ‘The Good, The Rad and The Lovely,’ is sponsored by the Cultural Council of Indian River County as part of its Art in Public Places initiative and will be exhibited at the Indian River County Courthouse through Nov. 6.
While the couple’s compositions and styles are strikingly different, they both infuse brilliant color and elicit strong emotions.
Patti’s stylized paintings of women range from humorous to dramatic, and are occasionally punctuated with a single word or phrase. Her mixed-media paintings emote feelings of glamour and confidence, and have an underlying message of how hard women work to sustain their beauty.
This implication is underscored by the figures’ striking coiffures, colorful full lips, enormous eyes and jewelry, causing the viewer to want to touch them, literally and figuratively.
A trio of her canvasses, titled ‘The Artiste,’ ‘The Bold One’ and ‘Eloise the Quirky One,’ all possess distinct personas, making you wonder whether they’re three faces of the artist herself.
“Matisse and impressionistic art are influences in my work. Especially Matisse’s use of bold colors and painting out of the box. He started Fauvism which was the use of vivid saturated color.
I admired Renoir. His people have personalities, and his paintings tell a story,” Patti explains.
Jeff, on the other hand, has a penchant for painting musical instruments that are so sexy and smokin’ hot the viewer can almost hear the jazz playing at the Nashville wine bar the couple once owned.
His abstract and semi-abstract acrylic paintings are immersed in music and architecture, such as his piece ‘Yellow Piano,’ with its flawlessly detailed piano keys. The curves of the wood and swirls of the piano legs are as intoxicating as a cocktail.
Originally from Jamestown, N.Y., Jeff studied theatre design and art at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia before starting a career in set design at Opryland Theme Park and the Nashville Network. He also worked on freelance projects with Matt Davenport Productions, Live on Stage, Busch Gardens, Dollywood and Six Flags.
“My mother was an artist and a window designer at Bigelow’s Department Store in Jamestown. She encouraged me to pursue art and helped me to think creatively. My high school art teacher emphasized ‘Don’t do what everyone else is doing. Explore and experiment,’” Jeff recalls.
“My early influences were Norman Rockwell’s style of composition, Frank Lloyd Wright, whose architecture works well with theater in set-design, and Jackson Pollock; not so much the drip style but the energy the compositions captured,” he explains.
Their lives intersected in a way that seems straight from a romantic comedy. Patti was the training developer at Opryland USA at the same time that Jeff was in set design.
“I called the art director of Opryland USA, and said my team wanted his input before moving forward with a new concept,” Patti says, recalling that she cautioned, “Please don’t send us one of your flunkies.”
The director sent Jeff, whose expertise exceeded her expectations on several levels.
“We met numerous times with various department heads, sketching different ideas, and one day I looked over and thought, she has great legs,” Jeff muses.
The rest, as they say, was spontaneous combustion.
Together they owned and operated a Nashville business where the pair represented artists and artisans, taught art classes, and ran a thriving café and wine bar in the back. While Opryland went from exciting to mundane, the theme park became the Opry Mall and the Halls continued to burst with creativity.
The two collaborated to paint the Mental Health Association TurtleTrax turtle at the Vero Beach Chamber of Commerce, and both are active with the Vero Beach Theatre Guild. Patti, a board member, served for two years as its costume designer, and created all the portraits for the VBTG production of ‘Calendar Girls.’
Jeff is currently the resident set and lighting designer at the VBTG, and has worked on more than 30 shows over the past six years.
“While I thoroughly enjoy theater design, Patti suggested for me to create paintings. She was right!” he exclaims.
The couple have two adult children: Jason Graumlich a lead guitar musician in Brothers Osborne, and daughter Jessica, who has blessed them with three grandchildren. A third “child” is their Chiwawa, Peanut, who has become a celebrity of sorts around town.
The Halls are members of Vero Beach Art Club, the Vero Beach Museum of Art, and Cultural Council of Indian River County.
Photos by Joshua Kodis
