On April 6th, One of a Kind Gallery will resume it’s monthly Meet the Artists series and will feature mixed-media painter, Paula Montgomery, and acrylic painter, Marshall Davis. Art-lovers (and curious browsers) are invited to attend and interact with the artists, see their works, and enjoy a glass (or two) of wine. The event begins at 4:00 pm and continues until 6:00 at the Gallery’s location at 128 West Pennsylvania Avenue (Belvedere Plaza) in downtown Southern Pines.
Paula Montgomery is a name well known throughout the Moore County art community – and well beyond. Her effervescent paintings have graced many shows, won many awards, and currently, hang in a multitude of homes and businesses. Paula has had a love affair with flowers since she was a child; she relies on them as her inspiration and uses brushes, palette knives, bubble wrap, and anything else she can find to apply paint and paper to take the image of the flower a step further. The results are exquisite, elegant, and unique visual poems.
I love art. I love to look at it and to create it. Santa brought me my first set of oil paints when I was nine and a couple of years later, I won first place in an art show in my hometown. The painting was an abstract with flowers. Ever since, I’ve had a love affair with painting flowers. My artistic process begins with a design concept and a color scheme. From there, I smear paint on canvas, paper or board using colors that are complementary to the dominant color in my scheme. I loosely sketch in the design and then apply paint and/or paper using brushes, palette knives, sponges, bubble wrap, textured fabrics, etc., to develop the composition. I paint and scrape until shapes emerge that are pleasing to my eye. My goal is to create images that are my unique creation. For me, a rose is not a rose but merely an inspiration for something yet to come. I feel I do my best work when I make it up as I go along.
Why do I paint? I’ve always admired the work of talented artists but never really considered myself exceptionally artistic. Since my youth I have dabbled with woodcarving and painting and the subjects have always been some type of wildlife. The love of nature and wildlife have led me into various pursuits such as taxidermy, falconry and now painting. In my youth I was surrounded by living things and because of understanding parents I kept a collection of “critters” in my room. I could spend hours watching the gliding, hopping, digging and flying creatures in my personal zoo. Now as an adult my living collection may not be as diverse, but with paint I can still be surrounded be the creatures and wildlife that I love.
So we all need to feel some peace and serenity…it’s why yoga is so popular nowadays…but sometimes we just don’t remember to take some time for ourselves to breathe deeply and rebalance so we can take life on in the most positive way…I love using lots of different gemstones in my jewelry…it seems like each stone can strengthen our bonds to our natural selves in different ways…they can provide us with soothing, inspiring energy, the same way a walk on the ocean or hiking the forest can…
