About Christy Kinard Mixed Media Artist

Christy Kinard, mixed media artist based in Charleston, South Carolina, known for expressive, layered paintings rooted in the visual language of the South. Drawing inspiration from coastal environments, historic architecture, and interior spaces, her work combines acrylic, collage, and tactile surfaces to create florals, landscapes, and abstract compositions. With over three decades of professional practice, Kinard works from her studio in Old Village, Mount Pleasant, and her paintings are held in private collections nationwide.

• Name: Christy Kinard
• Occupation: Mixed Media Artist
• Studio & Business: Kinard Studio
• Location: Charleston, SC
• Education: Savannah College of Art and Design (Artistic Honors Scholarship); Atlanta College of Art
• Honors: Georgia Governor’s Honors Program; Artist Favorite Award, Callaway Gardens, Hilton Head Airport Mural Winner.
• Instagram: @christykinard
• Wikidata: View Entry
• View Featured Press

Biography

A Life in Color, Resilience, and Reinvention

Christy Kinard began selling artwork to corporate clients, including IBM, at just 18 years old. More than three decades later, the American contemporary mixed-media artist and entrepreneur has built a multimillion-dollar art business, with work held in private and corporate collections across the United States, national editorial recognition, and monumental public installations.

Yet behind her vibrant paintings is a story defined by far more than professional success. It is one of perseverance, reinvention, profound personal loss, and a lifelong commitment to giving back.

Known for her expressive florals, coastal wildlife, landscapes, and richly layered compositions, Kinard creates artwork that celebrates beauty while exploring the complexities of human experience. Combining acrylic paint, handmade papers, vintage textiles, and collage, she has developed a distinctive visual language where color, movement, and texture tell stories of memory, joy, grief, and resilience.

For Kinard, beauty has never meant the absence of hardship. It is often what emerges from it.

Early Life, Training, and Time in London

Raised in Dalton, Georgia, a city shaped by the textile industry, Kinard developed an early fascination with color, pattern, and design. Recognition through Georgia’s Governor’s Honors Program led to further artistic study at the Savannah College of Art and Design and Atlanta College of Art.

Her journey later took her to London, where four years immersed in European art and culture broadened her perspective. Returning to Atlanta, she spent more than two decades cultivating collectors, developing gallery relationships, and refining an artistic practice rooted in experimentation and creative independence.

Exhibitions, Press, and Collectors

Over the course of her career, Kinard has participated in more than 75 exhibitions, with a gallery history including Pryor Fine Art in Atlanta, Shain Gallery in Charlotte, and Jules Place in Boston. She is currently represented in Florida by Dean Street Gallery in Tampa.

Her work has received national and regional editorial attention for nearly two decades, beginning with coverage in Southwest Art in 2008 and 2009 and its 2012 Petal Pushers portfolio. Her career has also been documented in American Art Collector, Fine Art Connoisseur, Professional Artist, The Atlantan, Peachy the Magazine, Savannah Magazine, Charleston Magazine, Mount Pleasant Magazine, CH2 Magazine, Vivant Magazine, and The Post and Courier. She was also included in Schiffer Publishing’s 100 Southern Artists.

Her collectors and corporate clients include IBM, SPANX, Fish & Richardson, Sea Pines Resort, and bestselling novelist Emily Giffin, among others.

Throughout her career, Kinard has balanced the creative demands of painting with the challenges of entrepreneurship, navigating changing markets, professional rejection, and reinvention while maintaining her artistic independence.

Philanthropy and Giving Back

But some of her most meaningful work has never been for sale.

For nearly three decades, philanthropy has remained central to Kinard’s life. She has donated paintings and artwork to charitable auctions, schools, hospitals, and fundraising initiatives throughout the Southeast. Her charitable involvement includes the American Heart Association, Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer, Habitat for Humanity, the Junior League, Safe Alliance, and United Way.

Her contributions have also extended to children’s hospitals and cancer centers, where artwork can bring beauty and comfort to patients and families facing difficult circumstances.

That commitment is deeply personal.

Loss, Resilience, and Renewed Purpose

A life-threatening surgical complication forced Kinard to confront the fragility of life. During her recovery, a close friend’s encouragement became an extraordinary source of strength. When that friend later died following complications from breast cancer, the loss profoundly changed Kinard’s perspective.

Those experiences brought deeper meaning to her work, reinforcing themes of memory, friendship, resilience, and the tension between joy and grief. Rather than abandoning the bold colors for which she is known, Kinard embraced them with renewed purpose.

Public Art: Hilton Head Island Airport and Beyond

In 2025, her career reached a significant milestone when Focused Precision was selected for a monumental permanent installation at Hilton Head Island Airport. Chosen through a blind-juried competition involving 229 submissions from more than 100 artists, the artwork spans approximately 16 by 28 feet across 16 glass panels in the expanded terminal.

Depicting a great blue heron in flight toward the Harbour Town Lighthouse, the installation represents a full-circle moment for Kinard, who spent childhood summers in Sea Pines. The landscape that shaped her earliest memories now welcomes travelers through her artwork.

The project was officially recognized by Beaufort County and subsequently featured in regional publications, including substantial profiles in CH2 Magazine, Mount Pleasant Magazine, and The Post and Courier.

Her public-art practice continued with the selection of May River for Beaufort Memorial’s Heart of Healing initiative at Bluffton Community Hospital. The painting was among 55 artworks chosen from more than 300 submissions, extending her work into an environment dedicated to healing and patient care.

The Studio in Old Village, Mount Pleasant

Today, Kinard works from her studio in historic Old Village, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, drawing inspiration from the changing light, marshlands, gardens, and wildlife of the Lowcountry.

Her artistic practice encompasses original mixed-media paintings, private commissions, collectible fine-art editions, and large-scale public installations. With a growing national audience, she continues to explore opportunities in architecture, luxury hospitality, and creative collaborations that bring her artwork beyond traditional gallery walls.

More than thirty years into her career, Kinard continues to evolve, take risks, and find new ways to connect through art.

Her story is not simply one of artistic accomplishment or entrepreneurial success. It is a story of persistence, generosity, and the belief that creativity can transform even life’s most difficult experiences into something meaningful.

For Christy Kinard, the true measure of a creative life is not simply the art she leaves behind, but the connections it creates and the lives it touches along the way.

Christy Kinard Mixed Media Artist: Available paintings.

Learn more about Christy Kinard mixed media artist identity on Wikidata.

Education

• Savannah College of Art and Design
• Atlanta College of Art

Public & Institutional Works

• Hilton Head Island Airport Art Installation
• Hamilton Medical Center / Vitruvian Health
• University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville, VA
• St Vincents Medical Center, Jacksonville, FL
• Anna Sue Shaw Children’s Hospital, Dalton, GA
• Peeples Cancer Institute, Dalton, GA
• Vascular Institute, Chattanooga, TN

Corporate Collections

• I.B.M., Atlanta, GA
• Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC
• N.A.L.L. Association, Vence, France
• King and Spalding, Atlanta, GA
• Fish and Richardson, Atlanta, GA
• SPANX, Atlanta, GA

Private Collections

• Mary Ellen Imlay (Imlay Foundation), Atlanta, GA
• Emily Giffin, New York Times bestselling author
• Dr. Nancy Snyderman, NBC

Philanthropy

Each year, Christy Kinard donates artwork to charitable causes. For the past 30 years, she has proudly given back to her community through art. Here are just a few of the organizations Christy has supported by donating paintings for auctions and fundraising events:

• American Heart Association
• Austin Hatcher Foundation for Pediatric Cancer
• Habitat for Humanity
• Junior League
• Safe Alliance
• United Way

Christy has also donated artwork to local schools and hospitals—both for fundraising and to be permanently displayed in children’s hospitals and cancer centers, where she hopes it brings comfort, color, and joy.

These contributions have supported communities throughout the Southeast, including Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, and Virginia—where Christy always believed in using art as a way to give back.