Tryon artist Vicki Van Vynckt will be the featured artist at Carolina Foothills Artisan Center in Landrum for the month of May. A collection of her oil paintings will be on display throughout the month for the public’s viewing and purchase. Much of her work is of landscapes, sunsets, and sunrises. Her opening reception will be Friday, May 1, 5:30-7:30 p.m., and the public is invited.

Van Vynckt has always been inspired by the beauty of nature, particularly sunrises and sunsets. Painting for her is an expression of gratitude for the gifts we have around us. “Stop a moment and take in the magnificence of the changing sky, the sound of bubbling water in a creek, a flower up close, or the glow on the mountain peaks while the sun goes down in the west,” she said. “There is a deep spirituality to everything we find, and it is as close to us as our heartbeat.”

Van Vynckt has been creating oil paintings for 30 years and studied fine art at the University of Southern Indiana. After graduating with a degree in fine art, she moved to Minneapolis and took classical drawing and plein-air painting classes through The Atelier, a fine art school that taught 19th century French painting and drawing techniques. She soon began teaching oil painting classes through adult community education, as well as out of her studio. She has shown her work in over 60 exhibitions.

In 2004, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she began painting her “Above the Horizon” series of large sky paintings of the beautiful sunsets of the high desert. After showing in many galleries there and participating in a large number of exhibits, she moved to Tryon where she now paints local scenes as well as sunsets and dreamscapes.

“As a painter, I draw upon images not only from the external world, but those that come from within my inner self,” she said. “I have so many creative ideas that present themselves and I wonder if I could ever really manifest them all onto canvas during my lifetime. I have a great love for nature and am filled with inspiration to recreate my personal interpretation of what I feel and see. My dream life is very rich and interesting and I often wake up in the morning with scenes of future paintings flowing through my mind. My intention is to uplift the viewer into a higher place through my art. If we stop and take the time to contemplate the beauty around us, we can see what we haven’t noticed before, hear what we haven’t listened to before, and touch that part of ourselves that shares oneness with all of life.”

She currently is represented by galleries in New Mexico, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Her paintings hang in private collections across the United States. Her Website is VanVyncktFineArt.com.

Carolina Foothills Artisan Center is located at 204 Rutherford St. in Landrum. It is a gallery and retail shop for regionally made art and crafts. It is one of the eight funded “partners” associated with Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg, S.C. Its hours of operation are Thursday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. and sunny Sundays. For more information, please call 864-457-1189.

-Submitted by Steve Wong