Georgianna C. Conger
fine art & sporting Art
About Georgianna
Georgianna C. Conger known to friends as "Girl", was born in Portland, Oregon, but her family moved to Aiken, South Carolina when she was 6 months old. She grew up there in a home bordering the renowned Hitchcock Woods, surrounded by her family’s menagerie of horses, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese and goats. Until she was 13, her mother, Courtney Conger, ran a boarding and breeding business in the historic Hitchcock stable behind the house, giving Georgianna an early and profound education in horsemanship. She grew up riding and showing all different kinds of horses, and she and her brothers would go out riding in the woods for hours at a time. It was a childhood surrounded by animals and natural beauty.
Georgianna’s passion for art began early. In addition to facilities for boarding horses, her family also had separate accommodations for young horsewomen who came down to ride during Aiken’s winter equestrian season. One of those young women was the artist Sandra Etherington Tucker. Georgianna, 4 or 5 years old at the time, remembers watching her work, fascinated by her oils and pastels. By the time she was 10, Georgianna was studying art with Ann Lattimore, a local artist renowned for her portrayals of horses and exquisite portraits. Meanwhile, she also pored over art books that her mother kept in the house, developing a deep affection for the works of Sir Alfred Munnings, George Ford Morris, Rosa Bonheur, Andrew Wyeth, Windslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and George Stubbs. Whenever she was not riding, she was drawing or painting.
Georgianna attended Sweet Briar College in Virginia where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in studio art, competed on the varsity riding team and served as head of the school’s riding council. After graduation, she returned to Aiken where she began her career as a professional artist, focusing on animal portraits. Her preferred medium is oil, but she also loves to work in acrylics, watercolors and pencil. Her paintings are notable for their ability to capture her subjects’ essential personality, an ability born from her lifelong affinity for, and understanding of, animals of all kinds. Her work can be found hanging in private homes and galleries in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Jamaica and Bermuda.
Today, Georgianna lives in the house next door to where she grew up and where her mother still lives, and she keeps her two horses in her mother’s stable. Her studio is in a converted tack room in that same stable, and she can watch her horses graze in their paddocks as she works. In addition to accepting portrait commissions, she also teaches art to students of all ages, striving to create a low-key, low-pressure environment where artists of all abilities and experience can explore and discover their own distinctive style.
In addition to her work as an artist, Georgianna has continued to ride, and has been actively involved in the Aiken equestrian and animal community. She served on the board of directors of the Aiken Steeplechase (where her father, Ford Conger, was a founding member) for 27 years. For 12 years, she, her mother and her daughter Caroline have fostered mother dogs and raised puppies for FOTAS, the volunteer group that assists the Aiken County Animal Shelter. At last count, they had saved the lives of over 500 dogs and puppies. She has created the covers for the annual Aiken Spring Classic horse show for over 20 years.
In her personal life, Georgianna is especially proud of her daughter Caroline, who, like her mother, grew up next door to the Hitchcock Woods. Caroline’s love for nature took her in a different direction from her mother. A gifted artist, she earned an undergraduate degree from Furman University, then went on to obtain a Masters in Soil and Environmental Science and is currently pursuing her PhD at Virginia Tech.
