Coastal Sunrise. Cindy Wheeler, artist
At a time when the world feels especially loud, new members of Asheville Gallery of Art (AGA) are turning the volume down with Serenity in Color. The exhibition runs through Saturday, January 31, with an opening reception on Friday, January 2, from 5–7:30 p.m.
According to Kate Colclaser, a member artist at AGA, the four participating artists decided to center the show around “peaceful, restful spaces and subtle landscape colors so viewers walk away with a sense of much-needed tranquility.”
Among the featured creatives is Lindsay Keeling. After more than a decade in the corporate world, Keeling moved to Western North Carolina in 2024 and began pursuing art full-time. Her paintings are defined by soft gradients, distant silhouettes and colors that seem to drift across the canvas.
“My abstract landscapes are inspired by the peacefulness of nature,” she says. “My work is an invitation to slow down and notice the beauty. Each painting is a site of reflection where color, contrast and horizon lines create space for stillness.”
Silent Ritual. Lindsay Keeling, artist
For the January show, she has prepared three pieces. “These acrylic paintings bring a sense of calm as you imagine yourself in the landscape, staring off into the distance,” she says.
Fellow newcomers Robin Dail and Cindy Wheeler continue the exhibition’s meditative tone. Dail, a Mills River artist and former nurse and academic researcher, paints impressionistic mountain and coastal scenes. Wheeler, who grew up in Tuxedo before spending 20 years illustrating children’s books in New York, draws on a lifelong affection for light and landscape shaped by travels from the Smokies to South Africa.
The show culminates with the contemplative work of Susan Viemeister, whose three decades in landscape design inform her sensitivity to light and place. Now retired and settled in Asheville, she spends her time engrossed in the “lusciousness of paint.”
For Serenity in Color, Viemeister is presenting landscapes united by atmosphere and emotion. Dock at Cowpasture captures a cool summer morning along a river’s edge, Evening Wetlands reflects the silver sheen of late-afternoon winter light drifting across marsh grasses and Snow Mountain offers a fog-softened view of rolling Virginia hills.
“The charm of natural light and what that evokes in my heart always catches my eye and inspires me to stop and want to capture that moment,” says Viemeister. “Paint is my chosen medium to do just that.”
Asheville Gallery of Art is located at 82 Patton Avenue, Asheville. To learn more, call 828.251.5796 or visit AshevilleGalleryOfArt.com.
