Toni Carlton

Toni Carlton owns and operates the Carlton Gallery where she exhibits her own pieces as well as work from local, national, and international artists. Carlton, native to the High Country, celebrates over twenty years of business. Her early work was primarily fiber, including traditional weaving patterns, modern wall hangings, and sculptural basketry. Some of her recent works include a vibrant mixed media painting series titled “Spirit of the Heart.” These paintings depict the odyssey of interrelationship amidst personal challenges. “I’m committed to co-creating heartfelt expressions of life’s journey.” Currently Carlton’s work is a series of mixed media collages incorporating images from personal life experiences, a love of dance, and photographic images taken during travels as well as multicultural images to represent the universal connection of all our relations. Many of her pieces represent the deeper levels of feminine awakening by using multiple layers encoded with images that trigger ancient memories. In her most recent compositions, as Carlton combines calligraphic and Asian symbols into her work, many of her collectors find these pieces reminiscent of her early acrylic brush drawings. Through the layers of collage, painting and transfer images, Carlton revisits her spiritual journey as an artist through out the years

Jim Crompton

Born to a family of professional musicians James Crompton chose art as his vocation. Upon completion of high school, he attended Florida Southern College. He then pursued his career in art full-time at The Art students League in New York City. He left The Art Students League to serve in the United States Army, and many of his cartoons found their way into the Stars and Stripes. He continued his art education in Europe where he spent two years attending ecoles in La Rochelle, France and Madrid, Spain. Upon returning to the United States, he was admitted to the Art Center School in Los Angeles, one of the most prestigious and competitive centers for the study of art in the United States.

Crompton has participated in juried art exhibits and has won awards too numerous to mention. He has taught at various art schools, art guilds, and his own studio, The Crompton Art Academy. He has conducted seminars for professional artists as well as art students throughout the eastern United States. Highlights of his career include oil paintings commissioned by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the University of Florida. Over a period of several years, he participated in the Suwanee River project with the Environmental Artists of Florida. A member of Art in Public Places, he has murals in many South Florida Buildings.

Moved by the beauty and serenity of the North Carolina Mountains, Crompton continues to paint a wide variety of subjects, including of course, the scenery of North Carolina.

Louise Pinto

Pinto painted her first oil painting, in a class along with a half-dozen adults, at the age of twelve. However, she was asked not to return to the class as the dexterity with which she painted made the adults uncomfortable. Only a child, she didn’t understand and felt rejected rather than flattered. She went on to paint sporadically despite a consistently positive reception for her work. Her interested turned toward science and mathematics, and she completed her education in these areas. She received a doctorate degree in psychology from Fordham University and sustained a successful career in this area. However, her love of flowers, art, and music continued.

While in New York, Pinto studied at the Art Students League and with Natalie Chase of
Cooper Union. She has continued her studies at the Scottsdale Artist’s School with David
Leffel, Leslie DeMille, and Joyce Pike, to name a few. She also continues to study with local artist James Kerr.

Pinto visited North Carolina for the first time about ten years ago and was especially moved by the pristine beauty of the mountains and the clarity of their colors. Feeling rather like a fish out of water, she had traveled to other parts of the country looking for a comfortable place to settle down, establish roots, and spend the rest of her life. She decided to continue her studies with North Carolina artist, James Crompton, and after spending a week in Jonas Ridge, she sold everything and moved to her new home.

Anderson Giles

Joyce Norwood

Warren Dennis

Andrew Braitman

Andy Braitman is an artist of national stature. His work has been featured in galleries and in one-man and group shows in Santa Fe, Chicago, Atlanta, Millburn, N.J., Washington, D.C., Noorbeek, Holland, and Rio de Janiero and Curitba, Brazil. He has exhibited at Jerald Melberg, Hodges Taylor, Shain Fine Art and now the Redsky Gallery in Charlotte, and in many other galleries throughout North Carolina. He was chosen by Nancy Reagan as one of America’s Leading Artists, along with other notable artists such as Frank Stella and Andrew Wyeth, and asked to contribute a decorated Easter egg to the White House. The egg is now on display in the Smithsonian Institute. He was selected to participate in the prestigious Maryland Biennial Juried Exhibition at the Charles Museum of Art in Baltimore.

Andy was born in Casper, Wyoming and moved to Maryland during his high school years. He attended the University of Maryland, and it was there that he discovered a true passion for art. He took every drawing and art class offered by the university, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with minors in physics and art history. He studied physics to learn about light and took anatomy and physiology courses in the nursing school to learn about the human body. He won the Warton Award Grant for Outstanding Senior Artist—in 1972 and in 1974. Because Andy didn’t change his major to art until the end of his sophomore year, he was a senior for three years.

His next task was to determine if he could make a living to support himself while he pursued his dream of being an artist. He worked mixing colors in a paint store and as an electrician’s apprentice. At times he would work for 6 months in a “real job” to make enough money to paint for 6 months. For approximately 10 years, Andy supported himself solely through the sale of his paintings.

 

Martha Gimlin

A native of Buffalo, NY and residing in Ashe county, NC for over 30 years, Martha Gimlin began painting when she was 12. Martha says, art has been her passion all her life and that she used to come home from school, do her homework, and start painting. Her mother, Betty Herbert worked in a gallery/frame shop and started selling Martha’s paintings when she was 12 years old. “Ten dollars here and fifteen there” she said kept her inspired to continue painting and drawing. She put the money in a savings account which became her college fund.

Taking English as a major at the University of Wisconsin with a creative writing degree she imagined herself becoming a writer. However, in 1971 she and her husband Hal who she met at the university bought a tree farm in Ashe County and began their careers running Omni Farm. Their wholesale business of selling Christmas trees and wreaths and raising Scotch Highland cattle has been a support and inspiration for much of her art. Most of her paintings come from the many gardens and flowers she grows at the farm.

 

Vae Hamilton

Vae Hamilton is a full time artist with over thirty-five years of experience. She works primarily with acrylic and collage, along with computer-generated transfers of her own photography. She has instructed workshops throughout the Southeast, and regionally and at Appalachian State University, The Hickory Museum of Art, and Wildacres. Mrs. Hamilton is featured in Gerald Brommer’s book, Collage Techniques, and created the cover art for Branches, Volume 10, for which she received the 2001 “Editors Choice Award.” She has done work for numerous publications, and has received copious national and regional awards. She is also a popular art show judge. Her exhibitions include Western Illinois University, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Charlotte Art League, Georgetown’s Rice Museum, Valdese Rock School, Caldwell Arts Council, and Mooresville Arts Council, just to name a few. She has exhibited in eleven foreign countries.