“I tend to work in series,” says Dale McEntire. Both a painter and a sculptor, he says, “I’d say I paint about 40% of the time and sculpt the other 60. Working with stone, steel, bronze, and cast glass is more physical and requires more time.”

All of his work, and indeed his overall view of life, are shaped by Eastern philosophy. On a white board in his studio, he’s written down some of his favorite quotes from the Buddha, Lao-Tse, Tao Te Ching, Milarepa, and others—including Bob Marley. “Oh, Bob Marley definitely held an Eastern view,” says Dale laughing.

Within his paintings, there is at the same time a serenity and an excitement about nature. His landscapes are colorful, detailed representations of the nature which surrounds us all. A Polk County native, he says nearly all of his works are based on scenes he’s encountered within a ten-mile radius of his Saluda studio. “Some of the locations have been hot, muggy, and hard to get to. But that’s all part of the experience,” he says. Some sites are much more accessible. He points to a painting on the wall and says it’s of the scene I’m looking at through the window just below the painting.

He occasionally paints en plein air, but says his works are often too large for this to be practical. “I don’t photograph the scenes either. Instead, I prefer to capture my ideas on location using pastels that later serve as the basis for my oil paintings.” His pastel sketches, also much in demand by the public, hang on the walls of the workplace he calls Red Earth Studio.

After studying art at Mercer University in Georgia, Dale was offered a job in JCPenney’s advertising department. “I worked for them in three different cities during late 1970s and early 1980s, but I was still painting on the side the whole time.” Burned out with the advertising, he returned to Polk County where he opened a small frame shop. “The frame shop was a good experience,” he says, “as I was always around art. But I felt this overwhelming desire to paint full-time.”

By this time, he was married to Wendy, a social worker in a local hospice center. “Wendy believed in me and said I should follow my dream.” She gave him the gift of a two-week sculpture course at Penland School of Crafts. “She’s very intuitive She knew deep down I also wanted to explore sculpture.”

Several artists have served as inspirations for Dale, among them Georgia O’Keefe, Will Henry Stevens, and Charles Burchfield. “You can just feel the energy coming off the trees he’s painted,” says Dale of Burchfield’s work. “But the point, of course, is not to mimic it. Rather, I look for art that connects with us, with me, and then I work to find my own way.”

Dale is a member of Mountain Sculptors in Asheville and Tri State Sculptors based in North and South Carolina and Virginia, and teaches painting at a local community college.

Dale McEntire’s paintings and sculptures can be seen at dalemcentireart.com, at Grovewood Gallery in Asheville (see related story on page 103), The Design Gallery in Burnsville, and Textures in Waynesville. For studio hours, email the artist at mcentire@tds.net.