Walls Fine Art Gallery has moved from Wilmington, NC to The Greenbrier’s Alabama Row Art Colony Shops. It is the latest addition to that array of quality craftsmanship and fun, but the owners David Leadman and Nancy Marshall are far from new to the art world.
As painters themselves, they’ve got 40 years each in the production side. David, a West Virginia native, had his first gallery in Huntington, WV, while he was in school at Marshall. After his first semester, he was introduced to June Kilgore and spent the remaining 3 ½ years of GI Bill in her Art Department. Nancy comes to WV by way of North Carolina – mostly. She lived in France for about five years going to the Leo Marchutz school in Aix-en-Provence, painting 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Nancy joined David at the gallery in the mid 90’s following a ten year dalliance with Engineering.
Nancy and David have four kids (and two grands) who grew up, left, came back, and left again – an opportune time to leave Wilmington and the big house for a simpler life that includes a two bedroom apartment above a barber shop, walking to work, and, of course, The Greenbrier.
Like all the Art Colony Shops, the view from Walls Gallery’s porch is spectacular, and Nancy has occasion to set up a still life and paint there.
Having just gotten into their second month, their artists are starting to come visit to paint or just to satisfy curiosity. John Poon was the scout, coming out from Utah last November. Perry Austin, from Alabama, joined for a bit of fly fishing in February. Last week Cameron Smith came from NC to deliver two outstanding big paintings of Wrightsville Beach and left singing the praises of The Greenbrier and West Virginia. Savannah artist, Robert Isley, who is known for his small vignette paintings, will be coming in next week.
Nancy and David look forward to scheduling lectures by Charles Movalli from Gloucester MA, and organizing national competitions around the Greenbrier Valley and West Virginia. David is in charge of framing the paintings in the gallery and he works with framemakers from coast to coast who make frames the way they were made in the 1600’s, hand-carved and leafed in karat gold. Check out Wall's Framing. His workshop is in White Sulphur Springs at 40 East Main St where he has collected enough corner samples to fill a 3 deep sliding wall – which is just the starting point for designing the right frame for an individual piece of art.
Walls Fine Art Gallery at The Greenbrier
300 West Main Street
White Sulphur Springs, WV 24986
(304) 536-1110 ext. 7274
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