Located in the heart of North Carolina, The Gallery at Grandover showcases the work of North Carolina’s fine artists. From the mountains to the sea, our state is rich in the arts, and we share this deep history through our art collection. Our walls are filled with original artwork encompassing oils, acrylics, pastels, mixed media, watercolor, metalworks, and photography. Throughout our gallery, you will find original artwork, handcrafted jewelry, woodworking, and sculpture. Our gallery would not be complete without offering a wide selection of clay works. For centuries, pottery has been an art form in North Carolina. We are proud to share works that are both functional and breathtaking.
We, at the Gallery, know that behind every work of art, there is a story. We are committed to sharing our artist’s stories: their inspirations, their vision, their methodology, and the outcome of hours in a studio. We hope you will enjoy our collection as much as we enjoy curating and sharing it with you.
Greensboro, NC artist, Ashley Vanore, has turned a life-long passion for drawing, art, and interiors into a full-time career. Since 2016, Ashley has created original works for individuals, corporations, boutiques, designers, and galleries. From abstracts to landscapes, figures to faces, Ashley prefers to use oil paints applied with palette knives, brushes, and rags to “sculpt” her paintings. Each piece is a combination of methodical calculation and happenstance. While her work can usually be characterized by colorful palette combinations, each piece is uniquely created. Her work can be found in commercial and residential applications across the US and Canada.
Amy is best known for her vibrant use of color, depth and passionate expression. Her work is very much an emotional process, which is revealed in the variety of mediums she uses, with oil almost always being in the mix. Amy’s abstract pieces capture the energy and spontaneity of her approach, while her figures reflect her heart and spiritual tenderness for women. Amy lives and works in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Brownlee Bryant is a social worker and an artist. As a social worker, she appreciates and accepts differences in people. Accepting that every individual is unique and beautiful in their own way, she began working as an abstract artist, working with oil and cold wax, collaging and charcoal drawing. Each piece is unique and beautiful. She often has an expectation of how the painting will be, but the painting reveals itself, leading her to a different place. She finds this exciting and satisfying, and accepts the path her art takes. Here she finds a connection between social work and art.
Celebrating vibrant color and interesting form, Christina explores all types of subject matter. She is drawn to uncluttered compositions – creating a mood or atmosphere through harnessing the power of color and contrast – whether a calm, peaceful scene or a playful, bright abstract. A native of North Carolina and calling home Charlotte, Christina’s deep roots in this beautiful state provide an endless source of inspiration. With her love of the Blue Ridge Mountains, home place in the foothills and Piedmont, and summers on the coast, Christina translates and transforms her love for North Carolina into her work.
Erik Knight attended community college in North Carolina and took art classes with some of his friends. In the first art course, his sketches came out of secrecy and into the open. He found he had more talent than most people expected. Art became more than a picture in his mind. He loves working with traditional and non-traditional media. He appreciates a viewer who comes back and sees something new each time. Working with a variety of media offers that possibility. Art is a place to discover, take risks and make choices. Art is a place of real thoughts.
Painting is how Bridgette Martin captures the joy of the journey. She creates vivid depictions of landscapes using burnt sienna to create deep shadows and brilliant spots of light. Her work has evolved into both abstraction and contemporary landscapes that reflect the light she sees. Her work evokes a sense of calm while connecting the viewer to their own journeys, memories and adventures. “There is a hunger out there for something bigger than ourselves. Nature can be a portal that opens up our hearts and minds to moments of ease and complete abundance.”
Nature is Hilary’s prime inspiration for her paintings, as well as rural landscapes. Her most recent works explore the transition between realism and abstraction and often feature various wildlife. Working primarily with acrylics, with many layers and texture, she creates an abstract element to her pieces to stimulate the imagination and help the viewer fill in part of the story. Abandoned barns and rolling farm hills provide endless inspiration for her as she tries to pull the structures down into the landscape as if they grew up from the ground. Hilary resides in Greensboro.
Geoffrey Johnson continues to mesmerize viewers with paintings capturing the mood and character of the contemporary urban landscape as well as timeless interiors. Using an impressionistic style, his work lies in that seductive space between realism and abstraction. When painting his trademark urban landscapes, he tends towards a monochromatic approach to recreate the feeling of anonymity in the city. For Johnson, “each painting is 1000 different decisions, thoughts and feelings.” The result becomes timeless scenes “dancing on the water of abstraction or of just being.”
“It’s not so much about learning to paint as it is about learning to see.” This is one of the first lessons of painting that set Janine Medlin, Charlotte resident, on the path of learning to see beyond the obvious, into an object or scene. She employs color, contrast and texture to reflect what she feels from the subject. Inspiration comes from life experience in the every day, as well as from places she’s been. She creates movement with heavy brush and palette knife strokes, complimented with the play of colors, light and shadow.
Charlotte native Lynne Miller was drawn to the natural elements of encaustic painting. The unpredictability of molten wax allows her paintings to unveil themselves. With a torch as her brush, the constantly changing surface develops with up to 30 layers of medium. It is the fluid movement while molten and blooms of color that are revealed through the layers that connect Lynne to the art of encaustic painting. It was the lack of control of a situation that brought her to encaustics and that same surrendering to the medium that brings her the most peace and balance in her day.
“Disengaged by the rules of realism, I freely explore emotion, time, space, and subject matter through color interaction, form, and movement. Influenced from studying color theory with Leonard Stokes and utilizing Josef Alber’s teachings on the interactions of colors, and how those interactions alter color perception. It’s in exploring those altering perceptions where I find my subject matter. I play with color variations within organic and geometric forms, sometimes tightly contained, and sometimes in a free flowing, expressionistic style. When I’m painting, I’m seeing the dialogue between colors, and exploring those relationships.”
Soulful figures textured with emotion emerge, revealing colorful, lyrical stories moving fluidly across canvas. Luck models the features of figures and natural forms using fragments of found paper. “The emotion in my work comes directly from the emotions I experience in life,” she explains. “As I assemble a collage, I often wish I could rearrange pieces of my life as I do pieces of colored paper. Each day I am reminded that life choices are not as easily moved.” Luck is an award-winning artist & muralist with a focus on community. Monique believes that water holds memories and life in its hand, with great strength and healing to be found.
Influenced by Georges Seurat and many others, Greensboro artist, Meredith Scott is fascinated by art’s gift of transcendence. She notices the feelings that come from simple happiness, like the sound of the wind through trees or the laugh of a friend and loves to capture that joy in her images. Through her work as a youth minister, she has walked along side many on pilgrimage journeys and mission trips around the world. From opportunities like this and other life experiences, she is inspired to create images that express the beauty of everyday life. Scott says, “with the stroke of a brush and a mix of colors an artist can take the viewer on a journey. My vision is to create work that is uplifting, that takes people to a place of serenity, where they feel happiness and peace.”
Scott Harris is an aluminum artist and sculptor living in Greensboro, NC. He completed his BA in Visual Arts from Brevard College and it was there he first experimented with painting on aluminum due to its flexible surface. As the process evolved, he discovered the reflective quality of the material added depth and movement to his art. Harris enjoys creating imagery that exhibits the contrast between a warm, organic image on a cold, industrial surface. Thankfully, he has been enjoying his craft full time since 2007.
North Carolina native Sherry McAdams is a working artist and graphic designer. Using acrylic paint, ink, water colors, and other materials, she will often have several layers of media, with the more subterranean layers peeking through to add depth and texture. Working primarily with acrylics and other water media, there is no such thing as a “mistake”. I add another layer, another wash, texture and the painting gradually emerges. Sherry states “Each painting is a journey, a challenge, and a wonder. Painting is my passion!”
April Denee Mangum is a mixed media artist. Her work is inspired by her love of layering color, texture and patterns in fun and whimsical ways. April enjoys finding humor in her work and strives to remain “child- like” in her approach. She paints as a way to challenge herself while releasing creative energy at the same time. Through this process she is able to find humor and confidence in life. This allows her to be a more productive and compassionate human being.
As a practicing interior designer, Beverly’s art is inspired by the same principals of design as those found in her interior spaces. A balance of hues, textures and scale combined with the intangible exploration of personality are the driving forces behind her originals. Beverly has worked creatively in North Carolina since 1989 after obtaining her BS in Interior Design from the University of Alabama. Her fine art originals are held in many private residential collections and corporate interiors.
Marissa (Mia), founder of Mia Malcolm Studio is a furniture designer and award-winning interior decorator, as well as an artist.
“I grew up with a paint brush in one hand and a hammer in the other. I carried 2 x 4’s, helped stand walls, then painted murals to pretty up finished spaces. I grew up seeing the process from start to finish” says Mia, who was influenced early on by her mother, a designer, and father, a contractor. She developed that perspective early in her career, when she launched a thriving mural painting business. Later painting for commission on Canvas, leading to a private art collection she has recently licensed with Leftbank Art. Exclusive works from Mia Malcolm Studio are available throughout the country in various venues.
“I remember weekends in my father’s restaurant with my family and extended family cooking, eating and just enjoying our time together.” When she was 46, she needed a creative outlet. She channeled her love of food and family into her own line of dishes. Tammy first embraced clay by making and hand painting cups, plates and bowls. Her business began to boom shortly thereafter, and she even got a nod from Oprah after the iconic talk show host visited Tammy’s home town and was given a gift basket by the artist.
“I believe that everyday rituals like a morning cup of coffee should be enjoyed from a wonderful piece of artwork, that touch and feel are just as important as how something looks, and the integrity of a piece lies in the truth of why and how it was made.”
Ben Owen III is a potter from Seagrove, North Carolina. His forefathers came to North Carolina from England as early as the late 1700s to ply their craft and furnish storage jars and other utilitarian wares to early settlers. Ben III studied pottery as a young apprentice first with his grandfather in the late 1970’s-1980’s and later at East Carolina University. Like his grandfather, Ben III’s pottery reflects a foundation in traditional designs alongside Asian influences.
Leanne Pizio, North Carolina native, worked many different jobs through the years to support her work. She is now happy to be able to work from home in Oak Ridge fulltime in her studio. Leanne has perfected the sgraffito technique which involves coating pottery and scratching off parts to achieve intricate design. Additionally, she leaves no surface unadorned. The back side of her work is usually as intricately detailed as the front! Designs on her pottery include dreamy Alice-in-Wonderland like characters, rabbits, crows and owls.
As a little boy growing up in the country, Joseph Sand loved to mold clay from the root cellar and form little cubes with it. It was not until his early 20s, though, that he knew he would one day make his living as a potter.
Joseph combines traditional, Southern alkaline glaze ware and East Asian design, among others. Using wood-fired kilns, he produces both salt and ash-glazed wares, ranging in size from very large sculptural vases to planters and a variety of beautiful, functional tableware. In 2015, he expanded his creative range to include large, hand-built sculptural ceramics.
The photography of emerging artist Sara Kratt can be described as spiritual, powerful, and poignant in the positive sense that her images evoke keen emotions. As a Behavioral Health nurse, Kratt excels at “seeing someone’s soul first, with its shadows, cracks, and crevices, and helping that someone realize their own light. In a time of personal crisis, the result is self-empowerment; in photography, the result is a powerful image awash with emotion”. This metaphor is reflected in Kratt’s expressive photography. Kratt makes pilgrimages with her trusty camera on her hip, and without intent. She sneaks off at the bookends of the day, sunrise and sunset, and finds those shadows, cracks, and crevices in our everyday. She reaches a harmonious stillpoint, when light and time fuse together as intuition. In this moment, Kratt says, “it’s as though the pictures are taking themselves rather than being taken by me.”
Helen Doemland lives and creates in Wilmington, NC where she works primarily with watercolor and wood. At her studio, Helen carefully removes layers, revealing the story that lies beneath. Each hand-sculpted piece will continue to transform, telling its unique story to collectors across the United States. The wood changes color; it may even crack or split. This is a natural process is not unlike what we go through. Helen and her companion/dog, Mac, walk the coast of North Carolina in search of driftwood in-the-rough. In her studio, Helen enjoys transforming their shared treasures into sculptures and utilitarian objects.
Frank Holder began in the art world as a sculptor in metal where he was able to capture the visual and kinetic movement of the body, as well as in abstract forms which implied movement in space. After experimenting with a number of different media, he currently uses acrylic paint suspended in a glazing medium which lends itself to fluidity. Similar to the painter Morris Louis, he uses gravity as a means to move the paint on the canvas. Layers on layers of colored glazes are used to achieve an effect of softness and transparent color, to the painting.
Contemporary classic designs have been at the heart of Mary Timmer’s jewelry since she began metal smithing in 1996. With a focus on Jewelry as Art, Mary’s work combines artistic designs with technical skill. Using sterling with gold accents for the basis of most production pieces, she adds the beautiful luster of pearls and the shimmer of precious stones to achieve a look of simple elegance. Classic designs that stay in style. Presently, her studio is located in downtown Weaverville, NC. She delights in the personal opportunity to see her jewelry appreciated and enjoyed by her customers.
To reflect the natural beauty of the South, but elevate it with impeccable intricacy, Ben Ross handcrafted turkey feather bow ties for his wedding party in 2007. That gesture begot admiration and inspiration that became Brackish only a few years later. Today Ben and one of those groomsmen, Jeff Plotner, have an operation that honors artisan techniques, distinctive style and the spirit of the South. All handcrafted locally in Charleston, South Carolina by a team of artisans and production assistants. Every single feather is hand selected, no two are alike. Every piece is a sustainable work of art.