BUCKHANNON – The Colonial Theater Gallery opened its third show Friday with a solo watercolor exhibit by Buckhannon artist Deanna Gillum.
The exhibit will be open on Fridays and Saturdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. through Feb. 6.
“We’re trying to get something new in every month,” Carrie Perry with ART 26201 said of the new Main Street gallery. “We’d love to give preference to people in our area, but we accept proposals from all over. We just added a link to our website so if anyone would like to submit a proposal to do a solo exhibit in the Colonial Gallery. It’s really easy, and we also added a link for proposals when it comes to public art, such as the Chuck Olson mural, which we’re in the progress of refreshing.”
Raffle tickets are available at the gallery for $5 and offer a chance to win two pieces of Gillum’s work.
“We want to have a devoted fine arts space and something to involve the community on a monthly basis,” Perry said. “Each show runs for four consecutive weekends, and we have volunteers that man the gallery so the public can stop in.”
Gillum said she has always been interested in drawing and painting, but when she discovered watercolors, she fell in love with the medium.
“As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to draw and paint,” Gillum said. “When I moved to Virginia with my husband, I took an oil class for about two years, and then we moved back here.”
She looked for another oil painting class, but when that search came up emptyhanded, she signed up for an advanced watercolor class instead.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Gillum recalled. “I actually brought my first watercolor here — it’s awful, but I brought it thinking that if people want to paint, they could see where I started. I was in my mid-30s then, so I hope they see it and realize they can paint too.”
The watercolors featured in the gallery are scenes from nature, including flowers, landscapes and animals.
“Most of them, I take photographs and it gives you an idea,” Gillum said. “The thing to remember is you don’t have to put everything from the photograph into the painting — it’s just an interpretation. The photo just gives you an idea of where to go, and sometimes I totally change the color.”
