Debbie Wells will showcase her newest artwork Wednesday (Oct. 21) in Down Creek Gallery’s “Expose Yourself to Art” series of artists’ receptions. All receptions are open to the public from 5 to 8 p.m. and include hors d’oeuvres and live music.
She will show a series of collaged images using “old, discarded paintings as the ground, and depicting imaginary plant forms as they might evolve in nature.”
These works were constructed from vintage botanical imagery, photographs and drawings of insects and birds.
Her themes on this new body of work focused on “transformation, death, rebirth, and feminine symbols, such as eggs.”
Wells is a long-time resident artist whose work has been featured at the Secret Garden Gallery and has shown locally at various venues for many years.
She began creating in the early 1990s, first painting transparent watercolors and attending several watercolor workshops.
Largely self-taught, Wells has shown extensively throughout the state with the North Carolina Watercolor Society on whose board of directors she also served for three years.
Wells began to incorporate collaged into her paintings in 2000, and also began working in wood. She carves each piece which she then finishes with paint and collage elements.
In 2010, she became part of a group of local Ocracoke artists called the “Ocracoke Five.” They exhibited in Asheville, as well as a World War II bunker site on the island, and in 2011, at the Ocracoke “Convenience Site.”
The gallery is at 260 Irvin Garrish Highway. Musical guest Rob King will perform.
