The Atlanta Fine Arts League is making its Gainesville debut with "Contemplations," an exhibit now on view at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center.

The show, which will be at the Quinlan through June 7, was open to all arts league members and features a variety of realistic portraits, landscapes and still lifes based on the artists' interpretations of the show's title.

Sherry Needle of Stone Mountain, a member of the arts league board and co-director of exhibits, said the league began about five years ago with the mission of painting portraits of soldiers who died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, then donating the portraits to the soldiers' families.

The league continues as a group of representational artists, Needle said.

"We don't do contemporary art," Needle said. "We all tend to want to stay that way. There's a lot of contemporary art in Atlanta, but we feel the traditional art is something to continue."

Needle added that, while contemporary art is still popular, there is a resurgence of realism in the art world.

For "Contemplations," Needle said the 31 artists who participated in the show weren't confined to specific subject matter.

"That's such a wide spectrum of things, but it's all in what it means to you," she said.

"Being our first exhibit there, I think it gave us an opportunity to show what each individual artist's interests are at this time. It opened the doors for people to show a variety of styles as well as subject matter," said Needle, adding that it was easy for artists to pick their favorite works to be included in the show.

"Rustications," an exhibit of found-object sculpture by Gainesville artist Jane Taylor, and "Generations," an exhibit of paintings by mother and daughter Ruth Money and Ann Goble, also are on display at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center.