Greensburg, PA -- The works of local artist and interior designer Doris Wood will be featured at the next “Picture This” exhibit at the Greensburg Hempfield Area Library, beginning on September 6 and continuing through October 11. A free opening reception will be held on Friday, September 20 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Watercolors, oil paintings, and photographs, developed over a period of more than three decades, will give insight into Wood’s artistic journey, which also has included architectural drawing, set and costume design for area high school theatre productions that she also directed, and designing commercial and residential spaces for Westmoreland County businesses and residents.
Her interest in art began early. “I was influenced at an early age by seeing the work of a great aunt, who did a painting that hung in my parents’ home, and by doing art with another aunt who set me up with my own paints and an easel and encouraged me to paint.”
One of Wood’s first works under her aunt’s tutelage was a sunset, a theme she has repeated most recently in “Low Country Sunset,” an oil painting featured in the library exhibit. Appropriately, she has titled the collected works in the exhibit “Horizons.”
“Horizons” also features Wood’s watercolors, and that medium is her favorite. “I like the looseness of watercolor…the simple strokes…and the open areas in the work that the observer can fill in,” she explained.
A local high school English teacher for three decades, Wood took art classes in the evenings and weekends while she worked. Retirement freed her to pursue her art during the day as well, and she frequently takes classes at both the Greensburg and Latrobe art centers, crediting the teachers there with being an important source of information and inspiration for her.
Wood also has taken art and related classes at WCCC and the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, earning a two-year degree at the latter in 2008 to complement her previous B.A. in English from Penn State University and master’s degree classes from Carnegie Mellon.
Wood’s art has been juried into a number of shows, including the Women in Art show at Seton Hill University, the Westmoreland Art Nationals, and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts shows at SAMA Ligonier.
She has won several awards, including the Latrobe Art League Award in 2019, and the Popular Vote Award at The Art Show @ Pitt-Greensburg in 2022.
A dedicated volunteer for the arts, Wood has been an active member of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art for more than 40 years, where she has served as a docent and as secretary for The Committee for the Westmoreland. She also is a 12-year board member of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts.
The “Horizons” exhibition and the opening reception on September 20 are free and the public is invited to attend.
“Picture This” is an outreach program of the Greensburg Art Center.
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The Greensburg Art Center is open to all accomplished and aspiring artists. It offers classes in a wide variety of mediums, special workshops, exhibits, and museum tours. In addition to the Center’s gallery space, it offers a lending library of art books, an outdoor sculpture garden, and a gift shop of handmade art works. One of the Greensburg Art Center’s ongoing public outreach efforts is “Picture This,” a series of local artist exhibits at the Greensburg Hempfield Area Library. For more information, www.greensburgartcenter.org.
The Greensburg Hempfield Library offers not only books and e-books, but also a wide range of programs for children, teens, and adults, including story time, yoga classes, and help with computer basics. It is located at 237 South Pennsylvania Avenue (across from the U.S. Post Office) in Greensburg. For more information, www.ghal.org.
