This is My Love Letter to Asheville

Most of the time I blog about our art installation services near Asheville, but since I'm also the on-staff art consultant, I thought I'd show you the kind of art I make.

I just finished this big commissioned piece which is called "Three Wooden Crosses." It's in three panels and is about seven feet wide. As you can see, it depicts the mountains near Asheville, as well as the French Broad River and the Buncombe Turnpike.

The Turnpike follows an ancient pass through the Appalachian Mountains. It was first carved out by bison, then used as a hunting trail by Native Americans, then as a route for cattle drovers, and finally as the site of the railroad that connects Asheville to points north and south.

Each panel celebrates a different aspect of North Carolina's wildlife and terrain, beginning in the first panel where we see an American eagle flying over the rapids of the French Broad River. Eagles are very common on this river; they love to fly down it in the morning and hunt for fish and small birds.

The middle panel depicts a specific mountaintop near our city, with the clouds catching on it in the morning sunshine. I used old reference photos to show what the hillside would have looked like back when it was still used to pasture cattle. With the slow disappearance of the farming communities around here, more and more mountainsides are returning to forest, so it's good to honor the old ways as they pass by.

The right-hand panel depicts the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as a field of Burley tobacco staked out to cure in the sunshine. Burley is the variety that was traditionally grown in western North Carolina. It's a pipe tobacco and is allowed to dry outdoors before being hung up in the local tobacco barns. Many of my older neighbors have memories of the hard work it took to harvest and hang this crop.

It's hard to get a sense of any painting from internet photos, so let's zoom in and look at some of the details. I really liked the way this picture took on a sunny, sparkling quality as I painted it.

Since art usually hangs in your home for a long period of time, I like to add little special elements that reward contemplation through the years.

​In the middle panel you can see a small flock of the wild turkey that live in the area. The mountaintop also has three wooden crosses on the top, which I added at the special request of my patron.

In the third panel are two white-tailed deer which we see a lot of in the area. If you're visiting Asheville in the summertime, you'll also hear the call of the mourning dove, so I hid two little doves in one of the pine trees.

The whole scene takes place in the fall, when the brilliant green of summer is fading down into a warmer yellow tone. This works particularly well in homes with a lot of white, beige, or blue, or if you have wood tones in your decor.

Although the original is in a private collection, prints of this piece are available, with posters starting at $39 and fine art canvas prints available as well. Just get in touch to learn more.

And if you're moving into a new home and you'd like a real art consultant to help you place your collection, please let us know. I'm always happy to help you decide where each of your cherished pieces should go.

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