Fall Feast with an American Master: Artist Hunt Slonem Feted at The Halles’ Designer Dinner

Art and design lovers hopped over to The Halles to celebrate museum-collected artist Hunt Slonem at the venue’s biannual Designer Dinner, where the painter and preservationist was guest of honor. Based in Manhattan, Slonem also owns a portfolio of 19th- and early-20th-century estates throughout America which he has refurbished and preserved. A Fare Extraordinaire created a fall culinary fantasy of seasonal flavors and colors in The Halles’ main pavilion for this fun and fabled evening. 

Following the cocktail hour, the crowd found their seats at tables artfully designed by Houston’s Maxit Floral Design. Throughout the evening, DJ Damon Pampolina kept the groove going by spinning perfect Round Top tracks. 

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Ronny Daley, Laura Rathe, Donna Meyers, Leslie Spencer, Ellen Horst, Bobby Davenport, Arlene Sorelle, Megan Cardet, Jayne Edison Davenport. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Brian and Norelle Becker. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Verona Disdier, Mary Ann Hebrank, Wendy Burks. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Renea Abbott, Shanna Schanen. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Natalie Lindsey. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Marcus and Autumn Mohon. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Lizzie Darwin, Maryellen Walsh. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Laura Rathe, Dana Vidal. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Lana Elliott, Meredith Lamberton, Casey Boettcher. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Hunt Slonem, Ester Gamez. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Diego Castillo, Renea Abbott. (Photo by Heather Robards)

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Damon Pampolina, Tonya Hawkes. (Photo by Heather Robards)

Business leader/Slonem collector Jayne Edison of Houston’s Office Furniture Innovations and her husband, Bobby Davenport, presented the guest of honor with a Stetson cowboy hat, which Slonem gracefully donned and transformed into a cattle baron worthy of Yellowstone. Fittingly, art was the grand finale: Gallerist Laura Rathe popped up her eponymous gallery at The Halles, with a collection of Slonem’s latest works, including a warren of his signature bunnies on canvases in vintage frames, a giant neon bunny, and other neo-impressionist paintings of tulips, daisies, birds, and butterflies. 

Round Top Round Up: Linda Plant, Autumn and Marcus Mohon, Norelle and Brian Becker, Ellen Horst, Megan Cardet, Mandy Plaisance Diaz, Round Top Film Festival’s Shanna and Rob Schanen, Eliza Tollette, Kim and Richard Rolland, Verona Disdier, Renea Abbott, Marla Hurley, Ashley Botts Willis, Suzanne Wade, Tonya Hawkes, Wendy and Cade Burks, Slonem Studio director Eric Firestone in from NYC, Mason Rathe with Lindsey Williams, Cherie Lindley, Mary Patton, Stephanie Ann Jones, Todd Freed, Monica Carter, Mary Ann Hebrank, Ronny Ray Daley, Amy McAnally, Selena Mackay, Arlene Sorelle, Leslie Spencer, Liz Taylor, Slonem collector Karen Rush in from Mississippi, and HGTV’s Kim Wolfe, who had just wrapped a day of filming at the Round Top Fall Antiques & Design Show.