M. Smith

Background:
M. Smith is a resident of Virginia Beach, VA and Manteo, NC. She holds a BA in art from Stratford College, a Virginia state teaching certification in K-12 art, and master's degree in education from Old Dominion University.

In addition to the degrees and certifications above, she has studied studio arts at the University of NC at Chapel Hill, and most recently at the D'Art Center in Norfolk, VA with Anne McNally. She has attended workshops in Tuscany, Italy, the Bahamas, and at various venues on the east coast. Her works are held in private collections across the US and in Europe. She has exhibited in jurried shows and galleries in Virginia, North Carolina and in Manhattan.

"Much of my work is inspired by the solitude, serenity, and abstract quality inherent in many nature scenes. Where one person may see a flower, the artist sees architecture. I am also pulled by the play of light on my subject. Light not only defines shape and color but allows the artist to express emotion. For me the artistic process is like a shedding of layers with each new layer revealing a more refined expression of self. It's a process!"

R. W. Harper

Regna (Reggie) Worthington Harper was born in Montgomery, Alabama, but has spent her entire adult life in Virginia. Harper has been an artist most of her life, first exploring her love for drawing with Jane Bond, and studying pottery under the tutelage of Paul Bond, while at Stratford College in Danville, Virginia, and many years later with Jonathon Scollo while living in Danville.

2006: began to study painting in earnest with Anne McNally of the d'Art Center in Norfolk, where she continues to study.

2007: traveled to Italy to study en plein aire painting with Hilarie Lambert and Karen Hewitt Hagan, both of Charleston, SC.

2008: traveled to Hope Town, Abacos in the Bahamas again to study plein air painting with Karen Hagan. That same year, Harper studied pastels briefly with a noted colorist, Janice Gay-Maker, at the Blackwater Workshops of Tidewater Virginia. In the summer of 2008, she attended a plein aire workshop in Manteo, North Carolina conducted by John Silver of John Silver Studio.

Her work in oils reflects her love of nature and in particular coastal subjects. "Growing up in Alabama and being so close to the Gulf of Mexico gave me an amazing love for the water and beach. Now, I am extremely lucky to live in Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks, and can feed my soul!"

Harper and her husband, Doug, and their beagle, Casey, divide their time between their Virginia Beach home, their cottage in Duck, North Carolina and on their boat, Second Chance.