Gallery
STATEMENTS FROM OUR ARTISTS: Art begins as a thought. The following comments will bring a better understanding of why artists are compelled to create.
SONJA ADKINS: "My approach to art is simple. First, search for a subject to paint, then seek out the correct medium that will lead itself to the subject. Always painting in a series, my goal is to do several works to capture the subject. After numerous pieces there may be only three or four that will be framed. I'm always struggling to improve and to learn, somtimes reaching my goal. To me the journey is the greatest joy: the process, the doing, and the completion. I'm in awe of each new day that comes my way, embracing the challenges."
KATHY BOLAND (born 1939 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is a painter and printmaker from Charleston, WV. Mrs. Boland received her BFA from Marymount College (Tarrytown, NY) in 1961 and studied at the Kingston School of Art (London,UK) during 1958.
In 2001, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant in printmaking. More recently in 2011, she was honored by the Charleston Community Music Association for her contribution to art. Finally in 2012, she received an achievement award at the 68th Allied Artist of West Virginia Juried Exhibition Parkersburg, WV.
Mrs. Boland is known for her sketches (oil, watercolor, pastel, mixed media) and prints (etching, woodcut, monotype, dry point) of the colorful gardens and parlor of the Greenbrier Resort. Her presentation of the West Virgnia scenery is a recurrent theme, including series such as "The Road Home" and "The Grand Dames of Charleston".
Painting by: Sonja Adkins Painting by: Kathy Boland
JOE ANN CRAWFORD: "My earliest dream as a child was to become an artist. When I was young, I loved drawing and drew on just about every blank space I could find. Basking in the glory of many sunsets, my father encouraged my dream by teaching me to observe the beauty of nature and to appreciate all the gifts for which I had been given. He taught me how to respect and love nature by showing me newly formed buds of a leaf or how the sunlight dappled the ground, I have studied with many wonderful teachers over the years and each one has taught me something unique. My life has been enriched through my drawings and pantings and lasting friendships have been forged. I feel there is so much to discover that one never stops growing and learning."
Painting by Joe Ann Crawford
Painting by JOYCE WALTZ DANIELS: As a native of Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia, I have always been intrigued by beauty and myriad forms of nature that surrounds us. In college, I majored in biology and explored the wonders of living things, as huge as giant oak trees and as minute as the one-celled paramecium. I also studied photography as a way to capture color and beauty. My career in administration kept me busy, but it didn't keep me from expressing my creativity through crafts such as sewing, weaving, and digital photo art. And after retiring from full-time employment, I discovered the joy of mixed media painting. My art is the result of experimentation with combinations of colors along with textures to produce depth and interest. Using acrylic paints and mediums, as well as occasional collage items, my goal is always to create an artwork that gives pleasure and excites the imagination of the viewer.
Painting by Pat Roberts
Pottery by RANDY SELBE: Growing up in West Virginia, my family instilled great love of the outdoors, travel and art. Life has granted a great diversity of stiumulation and appreciation for natural beauty, from my childhood mountainside home to the many unforgetable scenes of my life's journey. Art dominates my gene pool. Mom, her father and sister, cousins and more were all artists. It seems whoever in my family wasn't an artist was an art collector. It is thus instinctive to be creative and the most natural way to express myself. The creative process provides me indescibable joy and satisfaction. The look and texture of my pottery expresses my life: visions of home, travel out west and abroad, vacations in the Caribbean Islands and many other indelible imprints and influences. My goal and ultimate challenge is to create pottery that balances each sculpture's uniqueness and appeal with true functionality and usefulness.
PAT ROBERTS: Growing up in rural Vermont, with its beautiful scenery, changing seasons and their wonderful colors, much like West Virginia, instilled in me a love of nature and its beauty. I believe art exists to help us see our world more intimately and to stimulate our imagination and perception. It is like a well composed piece of music which never loses its ability to communicate a sense of beauty and emotion. Art carries me away to another dimension where there is color, freedom and tranquility, with the absence of time and pressure." I hope my paintings communicate a mood and feeling that tell a story the viewer can identify with and relate to.
ANTHONY "TONY" JOSEPH PAPA: " After retiring from Union Carbide Corporation, I pursued a long-time passion to paint WV landscapes and chemcial plants and to apply paint to the canvas with a palette knife. The paintings ususally reflect personal memories from the many photographs taken over the years. Recent efforts emphasize improvements the chemical industry has made to minimize/eliminate pollution. Attempts are made to show the chemical industries hidden beauty. The array of colors exhibited by off-gases of manufacturing units, the exotic color of the flues, the complex entanglement of pipes and storage tanks, reactors distillation stills. These are precious to me and so very important to the production of numerous everyday materials which we use and take for granted. More recently I have gained an interest in applying bright colors to images, using mainly reds with minor amounts of yellow and sometimes blue.
Painting by Linda Charles Stone
Painting by AJ "Tony" Papa
LINDA CHARLES STONE: "Nature, especially that found in West Virginia, provides a fascination and produces emotions from which I draw tremendous strengths and a desire to create. My goal is to communicate my feelings, my love of color and of life experiences to others through my painted images. If my paintings have helped you to take a moment to engage in throught or if they have evoked a feeling , then my work is complete."
AWYN DANIELLE MCQUEEN MILAM: Born and raised in Williamson, WV in a musical family it was only natural that I pursue a career in music. After a very busy career performing (singing, dancing, acting, directing, conducting) and teaching music I became aware that my creative output in music would diminish as I aged. As I grow older so will my voice. So, in 2006 I asked my husband if he would give me oil painting lessons for my birthday. This was something I had always wanted to study, but could not afford time. I've always said "when you stop learning you die." As an oil painter I approach my subject, whether it's the face of a person or a flower, as a study. I am constantly trying to see what the subject is expressing. What emotion, secret or thought is behind their expression? What feeling does this subject pull from me? This emotion, feeling thought is what I try to capture when I render a likeness and my hope is that those who view my paintings will experience it too.
Painting by Larry Wolfe
Paintings by Awyn Danielle McQueen-Milam
LARRY WOLFE: "The three influences that led to my great interest in art were my Dad, the Scouts and Walt Disney. My Dad was not a whittler, he was a folk artist. He could look at something, take a block of wood and a pocket knife and it would become a miniature of his vision. His belief that a person is only limited in their ability by what they believe they can do has opened my mind to greater belief in myself and what I am able to create. The Scouts also showed me the outdoors and had a connection with Norman Rockwell. His illustrations in Boy's Life magazine, Scout Handbook and Saturday Evening Post led to a greater interest in art. When Walt Disney movies arrived on televison, they created a desire to be a cartoonist. I didn't follow that dream, but I started to draw constantly and knew that someday I could become an artist and would someday paint in oil."
