Oil/Acrylic Artists

“I am here on this earth to create. Not only create, but express the beauty I see around me. I feel responsible to render it. I cannot help it. I see the beauty. I am compelled to show it, to interpret what I see and how I see it; to express the warm light from a lamp that enthralls me, the coziness and clutter of a room with all that one person has accumulated over the years, the glint on the edge of a cup, the distortion that only age can render on a rooftop that is now that way because of centuries of wear and tear. What does it matter? It matters not to many… But somehow it matters to me.

This is what obsesses me, what I dwell on, what excites me, what I lay awake thinking of, it’s what I find beautiful. Not the fact that something is perfect, straight; but that it endures with personality and uniqueness. Nature is much more expressive, random, unique, than anything man can construct. The lines of a horse running her heart out, the repeating and exquisite glint of the sun setting on the water, the colors of a room warmed by the glow of a lamp or a fire, how sunlight touches and enhances, the eyes of a cheetah, so steady and concentrated. And the individuality: the difference age has made, how it has created the crookedness of a European rooftop sagging with age. It interests me not the perfection man has made, but the imperfections time and age have wrought on the human touch. I am obsessed."

~ Alice Williams

Award Winning Plein Air Painter

"Beauty Is Truth, Truth Beauty"
 

John  Keats wrote that “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” and I certainly agree.  I paint to share with others my excitement about the beauty and truth  of the visual world.
 

Mostly in oils and sometimes watercolor, I  paint landscapes en plein air. Small studies from life are often a  gratifying step toward larger landscapes, created back in the studio. An  everyday scene, a lingering sunset, a misty mountain, rocks glistening  in a stream—any of these may inspire a piece. I am arrested and  fascinated by God's magnificence as reflected in this ever-changing  world.
 

Working from life, I delight in the way seasons,  atmospheres and changing light alter and enrich scenes and views. Light  and weather bring dramatic changes. Once, in a single afternoon at Black  Balsam, I completed four different visions of the same scene in a  near-trance state.
 

Human interaction with urban environments  intrigues me, too. With cityscapes, I explore this theme, in which  buildings, vehicles, people, streets, sidewalks, trees and plants  combine to reflect the city's mood. Urban lights can impart a carnival  feel at night, while rain and figures with umbrellas may add a note  either somber or joyful. Wet pavements are inspiring. The myriad aspects  of a city scene can stop me dead.
 

My paintings invite an  emotional response in viewers. I want to spark memories. I want to  stimulate the viewer's imagination. In fantasy, I participate in the  viewer’s joy.

 

BS, Art Education, Jacksonville State University
MA, Art History, The University of Alabama, Birmingham
Graduate Painting, Virginia Commonwealth University

Artist, Elizabeth Foley is an advocate for creativity.  She is a painter, poet, and creativity coach.  She is passionate about helping women discover their inner creative spirit.  Elizabeth believes through creativity everyone can experience joy, fulfilment and inspiration in life.  She strives to help women bring creativity into their lives and develop a consistent practice.

After suffering from a 10-year creative block, Elizabeth has gained an array of tools the can help anyone overcome even the deepest creative block.  Elizabeth helps busy, blocked and uninspired women create works of art to be proud of.

If you have ever questioned whether you are creative or don’t believe you can draw – PERFECT!  After a lifetime of identifying as an artist, Elizabeth is still questioning her ability to draw.  Luckily, no drawing skills are required.  Elizabeth knows creativity lives within all of us and she can guide you to finding your inner creative being.

Elizabeth loves to get her hands dirty – whether it’s clay, paint, tending her garden or a fire.  If she isn’t in her studio you will find her climbing a mountain, relaxing in a hammock or on an adventure around the world.  Elizabeth loves her son, nature, ecstatic dancing, challenging herself and helping women find their confidence and joy through creativity.

 Jennet was born in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in 1987.  From 1999 to 2003  she studied at the Nurali Art School for Children.  After finishing  school she worked in retail and did not  pursue a career in art.  Then in 2011 she experienced an artistic  “reawakening” after a trip to the Republic of Adygea in the Russian  Federation.  She was so struck by the visual beauty of the region, that  she decided to take up painting seriously again and make her mark in the  world.  Her paintings are now in demand world-wide.  In addition to  doing customized paintings on a by-order basis, Jennet also participates  in art exhibitions.  In her work Jennet uses various styles and genres  of painting to express her attitude towards life.  Her current artistic  endeavors are heavily influenced by romanticism.  
Jennet Norman is  a master color. Regardless of the motif, her unchanging admiration of  the richness of natural color is palpable in her work. She conveys a  sense of spontaneity and immediacy across a wide spectrum of genres in  her painting.  As an incurable romantic, Jennet strives to comprehend  and reflect these eternal aesthetic categories.    

Jenny Bishop Heaton (aka Virginia Heaton) is an active  and proficient artist in Metro Atlanta, and earned a BFA from Auburn  University studying graphic and fine arts with a concentration in figure  drawing.  She continues her studies, and most recently has attended  workshops taught by California artist Robert Burridge, and Georgia  artists Gena Brodie Robbins, Helen DeRamus and Leslie Newman.

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In addition to creating artwork in many media Jenny has taught art classes

to all ages, sharing her expertise in drawing and  painting, and in silkscreen and woodblock printing.  She has been in a  number of one person and group shows, including a One Person Show in the  main gallery of Dalton Creative Arts Guild.

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She occasionally takes part in competitive art shows.  In October 2016 The Hudgens Center for the Arts selected Jenny’s piece  for their Purchase Award. Other works have received recognition,  including awards from Quinlan Visual Arts Center, The Tannery Row Artist  Colony, Dalton Creative Arts Guild and Cobb Arts Alliance.

Olga Dorenko was born in 1966 in Uzbekistan in the former Soviet  Union. As the daughter of a military official, Olga’s childhood was  spent moving around the vastly different regions of the Soviet Union.  Her family left Uzbekistan after seven years and moved to Sakhalin, in  the far east of Siberia, where they remained for five years before  relocating to eastern Ukraine. 

In Ukraine, Olga received a traditional Soviet education and then  attended the Krivoy Rog Art Institute where she studied for five years,  receiving many top honors during her studies. During her breaks from  school her family traveled throughout the Soviet Union. These trips  greatly impacted Olga. It was here that a deep passion for the  ever-changing landscape was kindled. Olga’s enthusiasm for seeking  beauty and inspiration in her surroundings evolved during this time, her  abiding love of nature is characterized in much of her art. Upon  graduation from the Krivoy Rog Art Institute, Olga worked for the  Russian National Theater as a poster and mural painter. However, when  the Soviet Union collapsed and her country was in turmoil, Olga was  forced to leave her homeland. 

In 1998, Olga arrived in North Carolina, where she has since  remained, becoming a proud American citizen in 2008, and fulfilling her  dream. In 2006, she opened her own gallery, the Olga Dorenko Fine Art  Gallery, and has become a successful and respected artist in the greater  Asheville area. Olga Dorenko Fine Art Studio opened in Autumn 2009 in  Leicester, several miles outside of Asheville, where she interprets the  surrounding mountains and valleys into highly detailed paintings and  vivid watercolors. Olga’s paintings have been described as powerful,  evocative, vibrant, and inspiring, and are often charged with a depth of  feeling, thus allowing the viewer access to her inner joy – truly  compelling for those who appreciate fine art. Olga has clients in twenty  states as well as in Germany, England, and Canada, many of whom have  followed her successes, becoming avid collectors of her work. 

 My passion to paint began at the early age of 5.  Brushes, canvas,  and paint given to me by my late grandmother and Bob Ross’s humorous  and joyful instruction through the rabbit ear television.  Creativity  flourished as I encountered a rare bone disease in my leg that kept me  from school and activities during my childhood, yet provided the quiet  solstice and focus to feed my artistic mind.  Age 9 I had my first solo  exhibit at a local library. After numerous brakes, surgeries, stitches, I  was mended up, healed, and hit the ground running. Now I hike up  mountains, kayak to islands, and drive in my convertible to painting  destinations to capture the beauty of this world that never ceases to  take my breath away.

How  blessed I have been to experience a life on the coast of Florida, the  Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and the White Mountains of New  Hampshire.  Painting excursions to the Hudson River, at Frederic  Church’s Olana Estate, rolling hills of Vermont, coastline of Maine and  Cape Cod, down South to the Appalachian Trail, Emerald Coast of Florida  all the way to the beaches of Aruba.

 I am a 4th generation Frank Vincent DuMond student thanks to a  group of 3rd generation painters that took me under their wing in New  Hampshire. Utilizing that palette and some of my personal “tweaks” to  create depth, distant landscapes and a subtle yet defining light effect  are my strong points and passion. Now back in North Carolina, I am  exercising my experience and eye en plein air  and in the studio to  capture the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
 

 I strive to learn and seek inspiration from the great masters of  the past. I have a respect for their commitment to excellence and  attention to detail. Within every painting, I desire to capture a  pristine moment in time, as the great masters did, so that the viewer  can experience the same beauty of a location that captured me as I stood  in awe and led me to paint it.

I  prefer to paint “en plein air” so that I can experience the beauty of  my subject first hand. I feel an excitement when it has taken some  effort to get to the subject. The seclusion gives me the ability to  digest my surroundings and experience the landscape more intimately. My  greatest days are when I can pack a lunch, take a hike, paddle my kayak,  and find a place to be still and paint. I love to be surrounded by the  flurry of activity that nature provides. I listen intently to the shared  communication between wildlife, feel the warmth of the sun, how the  soft breeze felt on my skin, see how the sun danced on the water and  illuminated the trees.  I hope to capture and record all these things  from that day in the painting I am creating.

Often, I search for a natural light effect to spotlight an element of  my subject so that it draws the viewer’s attention into the depths of  the painting. I continually strive to create distance and dimension in  my paintings and I find that everyday I learn something new. God has  blessed me with the desire to capture the beauty He has created and I  must continue to paint so that I am fulfilling God's will for my life. 

Phyllis Shipley has been producing fine art paintings for the past thirty (30) years and has been a successful gallery owner, a successful  art show participant and award winner, and a continual student in the  details of watercolor and acrylics.  Phyllis Shipley began painting in the early 1980's. Always loving the arts, following  years of playing and teaching music with the organ and piano, raising  children, and a successful career as a purchasing executive with a major chemical corporation, the time was right to pursue her new  found passion of painting.

Artist  Shipley, a native of Johnson City, Tennessee, opened her first gallery in 1984 in a gift shop in Kingsport, Tennessee, where she  painted a large 12’x28’ mural in the Tea Room.  Later, becoming a full  time artist, she opened her gallery in October of 1992 in Johnson City.  Nestled amongst some major chain stores the  simple white building with the maroon awning was often described as a "hidden jewel"  by customers.  Stepping inside, the gallery showed the artist’s vivid imagination in using the  vivacious colors of her palette. Her inclusion of nationally known  bronze and glass sculptures, jewelers, carvings and raku pottery artists completed the essence of her gallery vision.

Shipley  often describes her childhood with the house being full of music and the garden full of flowers. Her mother, grandmother and aunts  all had large flower gardens. This instilled in her a feeling of love of  color and rhythm. “Flowers are a symbol of strength as well as delicacy and beauty. The rains come, beat them down  but then the sun shines and they perk back up again, showing their  strength”. Phyllis applies her "Inner Vision"to create juicy and loose paintings with a musical fluidity of expressions. Her “inner vision” subjects may be referred to as “figurative abstracts”. She “delights” in working with her collectors, personal and corporate, along with interior  designers and decorators to create specific needs enhancing the home or  business of their clients.    

Besides  being a successful gallery owner, Phyllis has participated in many art shows in the Eastern U.S., averaging 18 to 20 shows  annually. She also participated in the Wholesale Art Marts in Atlanta,  New York City, Dallas, Orlando, St. Louis and Charlotte.  Closing her gallery, after a family loss, and then moving to Florida in  2003, her attention has been focused more on using the acrylic medium. “Using  the variety of textures and the wonderful action and reaction of acrylic is nothing but fascinating and fun. I  lose all sense of time when I paint, being totally intrigued with the  process.  The freedom is indescribable.  Having met and made so many wonderful friends who also enjoy the  accessibility of wonderful music and musicians in the Cocoa Beach area, I  am excited to express that joy in my paintings.”

Phyllis states “my desire in painting is to express the zest, the energy, and the joy of life that is all around us and be thankful for that beautiful gift”.