BIOGRAPHY
I am a self-taught artist located in Pinehurst, North Carolina, USA. I was born in Washington, Pennsylvania (near the rolling hills of the Laurel Mountains); grew up in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley in Waynesboro, Virginia (next to the Blue Ridge Mountains); worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 20 years in Northern Virginia; and moved to Pinehurst in 1996 to focus on my love of art. Like I said, I love art! I love to look at it and to create it. Santa brought me my first set of oil paints when I was 9 and a couple of years later, I won First Place in an art show my hometown. The painting was an abstract with flowers. Ever since, I’ve had a love affair with painting flowers.
CV
2003 – Juried into Raleigh, NC Fine Artists Exhibition
2003, 2006, 2008, 2018, 2020, 2023 – Feature Gallery artist at the Campbell House Galleries, Southern Pines, NC
2006 – Commissioned for a 5×7 foot mural for Pine Knoll, St. Joseph of the Pines, Southern Pines, NC
2009-Featured artist at the Gallery of the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC
2016-Featured artist at the Durham Art Guild’s Sun Trust Gallery
2020-2023-Featured artist at One of a Kind Gallery, Pinehurst, NC
2021-Featured artist at Page Walker Historic Art Center, Cary, NC
2014-Best in Show, Fine Arts Festival sponsored by the Campbell House Galleries, Southern Pines, NC
STATEMENT
Lively, effervescent color rhythmically pulsates through the paintings of American artist, Paula Montgomery. Beginning each composition with a particular hue or design, Paula lets her material and concept guide her process as she produces exquisite, unique, textured canvases. Primarily focusing on flora as a subject, Paula passionately transforms everyday flowers into painterly visual poems. Utilizing either a lithe, expressionistic brushstroke or a purposeful palette knife, the artist boldly applies paints with a poetic flourish. Unwilling to limit herself to traditional materials alone, Paula embraces mixed media techniques and materials in order to accumulate the abstract quality of her works. Thus, the paintings hover gracefully between abstraction and representation. Elegant and independent, these painting exude a sense of peace and joy. “If my work can bring a moment of happiness to the viewer, then I feel I’ve accomplished something worthwhile. I am always looking for that inner expression to make its presence felt in my work.”
