Rail Walk Studios & Gallery will host a reception for the new art exhibit, “Multiple Personalities:” An Exhibit of Figurative art by Patt Legg and Marietta Foster Smith. The opening reception is Friday, June 14, from 6 to 8 p.m. Refreshments will be served and live music provided by Sue McHugh. The event is free and open to the public. Rail Walk Studios & Gallery is located at 409-413 N. Lee St. in the historic Railwalk Arts District.
This exhibit marks the second time Patt Legg and Marietta Foster Smith have worked together on a two-person exhibit. The first was in 2008. “We enjoy doing our shows together,” says Smith. “It helps to inspire us. We feed off each other’s creativity. Since we are both currently doing figurative painting, it seemed a natural progression for us to do a joint figurative art exhibit.”

Patt Legg has built a bit of mystery around the works she will exhibit. No one has seen them yet, including Smith. Smith is not concerned. “Patt’s work is always wonderful and I am excited about being surprised when I see them all together. Of course, I get to see them before the opening since we will be hanging the art together.“ Legg is even working on the paintings for the show in her home studio rather than in her studio at Rail Walk Studios & Gallery.
She says of her work for the exhibit: “There is an expression ‘what you see is what you get’ or maybe another is ‘seeing is believing.’” A viewing of her new canvases may not be typical of her older work. “My hope is the viewer will look, see and then take a second look asking themselves if what they see is really what they see?” She also wants viewers to know that she asked permission to paint a similar likeness of about 10 local folks. “Will all ten be in the show….or better yet, will you be in the gallery show at Rail Walk?”

Marietta Foster Smith has been working on a series of oil painted canvases depicting people who have struck her as particularly interesting or whose image has touched her artistic side in a special way. Most are from her travels to South Korea in 2011 or to Italy and Spain last year. Some, however, are of people she has seen here in Rowan County and one from long ago in Stokes County. Smith says, “I like for my paintings to tell a story – what is she thinking? What are they discussing? What has happened or is about to happen? Sometimes the viewer is surprised that I don’t know the answer. Only the piece of art knows or the viewer has their own version of the story. I like that.”

Legg and Smith both have studios at Rail Walk Studios & Gallery and enjoy spending time with the other seven artists working in that facility. There is currently one studio available for a new artist to join the group.
“Multiple Personalities” will be on exhibit at Rail Walk Studios & Gallery June 14 through July 27. The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information visit www.railwalkgallery.com, email info@railwalkgallery.com or call 704-431-8964.

DETAILS

Who: Artists Patt Legg and Marietta Foster Smith
What: Opening reception for new exhibit, Friday, June 14, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Where: Rail Walk Studios & Gallery, 409-413 N. Lee St.
Cost: Free