Bob and Lu Steed, Northwest Atlanta

Background: Bob Steed is a retired lawyer for King & Spalding, and still chairs the firm's art committee. His wife, Lu, is an artist represented by Matre Gallery in Buckhead. They have been collecting works by Georgia artists since they arrived in Atlanta in 1961, with Bob fresh out of law school. They bought their first piece that year at the Piedmont Arts Festival. "We decided to concentrate on Georgia artists because we knew the market better and it was more in our price range," Bob says. Also, because Lu is an artist, they were able to swap pieces with other artists. King & Spalding also focuses on Georgia artists, and Bob has met many artists in his role there.

Joey Ivansco / AJC (ENLARGE)

Lu and Bob Steed still enjoy the abstract painting by James Herbert they've had since the 1970s.

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Favorite piece: An untitled 7-foot-by-6-foot abstract oil painting by James Herbert, a longtime art professor at the University of Georgia. The couple purchased it for $750 in the early 1970s from Image South gallery. Herbert is best known as an experimental filmmaker, with more than 40 short art movies and several independent feature films to his credit. One of his short films is in the permanent collection in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also was R.E.M. front man Michael Stipe's art professor and went on to direct a series of music videos for the band.

Why they love it: Lu says it's one of the few pieces in their home that she never tires of looking at. "It's a very complex painting. It shows the energy involved in making it — he painted it very fast — but there's also a thought process. You can't quite understand it; it's a puzzle," she said. The grand scale and the vibrant colors make it a frequent backdrop for family pictures.

Other favorite piece: A nude painting of California sculptor Louise Lieber by her friend Alice Neel. They purchased it on layaway from Neel in the mid-1970s for $14,000. Lu had found Neel listed in the phone book during one of Bob's business trips to New York and called her. The artist invited her over for a visit. Despite Neel's growing fame at the time, she still "liked to sell out of her back door," Lu says.

My Favorite Piece is a way to let Atlantans talk about the best-loved works in their collections. If you have a suggestion, email Kirsten Tagami at ktagami@ajc.com.