Mary Lou Carpenter Selected As Official Artist For Magnolia Ball

Roswell's Bulloch Hall has named Mary Lou Carpenter as the official artist for the 29th Annual Magnolia Ball, which will be held on June 7 at the Country Club of Roswell. 

Carpenter’s work is shown and collected across the country and globe by numerous corporations, businesses, universities, hospitals and personal collectors, according to the city. 

One of many notable commissions was for the JFK Plaza Lobby in New York City. 

Inspired by the impact of nature and her surroundings, "Carpenter is comfortable in both abstract and traditional techniques with both paintings and sculpture," the city said. 

Carpenter was a resident of Roswell in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1970s, she opened her first art studio, Studio One, on Webb Street and taught art to children and adults. 

A year later, she opened Upstairs Art on Bulloch Street over the former Roswell Antique Shop. This was her long-time studio where she created fine art and began to teach gifted children. Carpenter also was an integral part in the establishment of the Roswell Fine Arts Alliance, which she and a group of fellow art enthusiasts formed in 1971. She became their first president and taught art for the Alliance, as well as for her own studio, for many years.

In 1989, Carpenter left Roswell to design and build a live-in studio loft in downtown Atlanta that soon after was featured in the Inman Park Tour of Homes. She remained in Atlanta and maintained a studio on Defoors Ferry for more than 15 years. She now lives in Highlands, North Carolina. 

Her paintings are now sold primarily through Littlehouse Galleries, Homewood, Alabama, where she has been a sought-after artist for 25 years. 

The 2014 Magnolia Ball on June 7 will feature an evening of cocktails, live and silent auctions, dinner and dancing. The gala will raise funds for the preservation of Bulloch Hall — the 1839 childhood home of Mittie Bulloch, President Theodore Roosevelt's mother — and specifically for the restoration of the area on the north side of the Bulloch Hall known as “Orchard Hill.”  

For more information, visit Bulloch Hall's website.