Wading …Waiting, Mark Etherton
2021 Watercolor

I have found that the natural world, if I let it, teaches me a great deal about living. The snowy egret’s patience as it wades in the pools of the Selby Botanical Garden of Sarasota, Florida, is a great example. The snowy egret’s awareness of its environment is a matter of survival.
 

Watering Trough, Charles Campbell
Watercolor
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Genny Jenkins, daughter of Charles Campbell, reflects that the painting depicts a location in Lewis County off of Route 8, not far from the artist's residence at the time. The artist was often drawn to structures that had seen better days. Many of his watercolor paintings are of houses or barns that no longer exist today, because they have simply weathered away or have been torn down. He was inspired by their beauty even as nature was having its way with them as they were deserted by people. The theme of the power of nature through its reclamation of what had once belonged to humans is prevalent in his artwork.
 

Spring Morning, Yvonne Baldwin
1990 Oil on Canvas
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I painted this many years ago in a class with Robert Warren in Canal Winchester, Ohio. With the exception of the placement of the barn, it is my Great Aunt Pearl’s house on the mountain in North Carolina where my family lived when I was a child. My Aunt Pearl loved growing things and I loved to visit her. Her house always smelled of something wonderful cooking or baking. It was surrounded by flowers, beautiful trees, blackberry and raspberry brambles, morning glories, moon flowers, grapes growing around her front porch - so much to see and enjoy. It reminds me of the beauty and joy living close to and caring for the land brings us.
 

The Lady and the Dove, Al Baldwin
2012 Found art (mounted and framed by Melissa Patrick)

Alan retrieved this little piece of trash on the sidewalk on MSU’s campus because he saw an interesting shape in it. When he got to his office, he explained what he saw to Melissa, who framed it and kept it in their offices. When Alan died, Melissa gave it to our family as part of his Vietnam Wall offerings. Alan always saw beauty and treasure in cast offs and dedicated much of his time to restoring, repurposing, or reusing them.
 

Fungus, Ethan Jenkins
2019 Drawing

 This drawing was completed for an assignment in his first college art class in which the instructor told the class to draw something from nature that inspired them. Ethan drew this in response because he wanted to show beauty in something that most people wouldn't consider when looking for inspiration in nature.

​The work resides in the collection of Bob and Lucy Pryor. 
 

The Horses, Mallory Grace Baldwin
2021 Oil pastels on suede board
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I enjoy riding horses and caring for them. For example, I like feeding them, bathing them, brushing and showing them.