Jeanie Edwards
When it comes to choosing the best car, by standards of cutting-edge engineering, comfort, and status, our minds often go to the Germans. For the most delicious pasta, we turn to the Italians. For porcelain – we look to the Chinese. When we seek excellence, we seek out experts.
Expertise shaped over time, rooted in history and preserved through tradition, carries a unique kind of value. It reflects wisdom passed down through generations, a careful stewardship of heritage paired with a spirit of innovation.
Jeanie Edwards is, in many ways, a “German, Italian, and Chinese all in one” within the world of art in Highlands. Raised in Western North Carolina as a fourth-generation Highlander, her family’s legacy refined her taste and sharpened her eye for local art, making Jeanie a true expert in the field. A commitment to tradition and a return to one’s roots connect her family’s story with the creative spirit of Appalachian artists.
Yet Jeanie is more than a connoisseur – she is also an artist. Her works are impossible to overlook: a mesmerizing shoebill, a family of bears that evokes warmth, or a whimsical creature – part hare, part deer. There is something deeper in these figures, a moment of connection. Their gaze seems to meet your own, inviting you to wonder: What are they thinking? Or perhaps, something even more profound.
“My personal goal, in the long run, I want to hang in a museum,” shared Jeanie. And that ambition is already evident in her work today.
An extension of her aesthetic vision and refined sense of beauty is her gallery. This year, Jeanie Edwards Fine Art Gallery celebrates its 10th anniversary.
“From a teaching studio, to a teaching studio in a gallery, to just a gallery…there were lots of people that thought I wouldn’t make it more than a season,” she recalled.
But Jeanie proved them wrong.
Through a pandemic, a change of location, and countless challenges, Jeanie has created a space that welcomes you with “a big, bright chaotic hug.”
This is a gallery where you can find pieces priced anywhere from $50 to $20,000. As Jeanie confidently puts it, “Fine art can be affordable, and fine art is for everyone!”
Featuring the region’s top artists and exclusively one-of-a-kind works – never mass-produced – the gallery offers carefully curated treasures you’ll want to bring home and live with every day.
Throughout the years, Jeanie has remained true to her mission: to showcase local artists and support fair trade practices within her gallery.
As Jeanie herself might say, it’s been a rich and “delicious” 10 years – full of challenges, growth, and meaningful victories. And there is no doubt many more remarkable decades lie ahead.
To experience it for yourself, and feel that “big, bright chaotic hug” – visit 223 South 4th Street in Highlands; Wednesday–Thursday: 11:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.; Friday–Saturday: 10:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M.
Favorites Count: 0