All about Matt Diffee and his ONE MAN GROUP SHOW that includes not only the original drawings for his cartoons and illustrations, but also for the first time  his more traditional artistic endeavors: realist landscapes, abstract paintings, and collages.

Ben Long grew up in Statesville, NC; and although he is by now a muralist and portraitist of world-wide renown, Long currently divides his time between Italy and Asheville, NC, saying that Asheville "just feels good." 

When discussing Singleton's work, "I would always tell him 'Forget the label self-trained, outsider or whatever,' " artist Willie Birch said. "He was a great artist and at some point in his life his work would be recognized as great art."

As I’ve mulled over what to say about the execution of Reflections II, I’ve found myself learning things about my working process of which I was previously only marginally aware. So it’s been an interesting exercise.

“[My] work is informed by the needlework traditions of southern women since North Carolina was settled. … It bows to the traditions of abstraction, while also striving to clearly represent the depth of my experience of nature.”

This undated oil is one of the works featured in the new HMA show (January 13 - March 11, 2018) "Playing with Light: Reflections from the Hickory Museum of Art Collection." Its painter, Samuel Colman, was a successful 19th century Hudson River School artist. He (read more).

A rotating exhibit of recent new acquisitions will be displayed in HMA's second floor Windows and Objects galleries through the rest of 2017 and continuing until July 15th 2018. Here's a sampling.

On November 18th, 2017, at the conclusion of a day of "Light up the Season" pre-holiday events, Evelyn De Morgan's oil painting The Undiscovered Country was unveiled for HMA dignitaries and visitors. The work will be displayed at HMA throughout 2018. (read more)

Laura Lee Wilfong, entrepreneur, florist, and painter, was also very active in the Hickory community in a number of areas. She was one of Paul Whitener’s biggest supporters in the creation and ongoing success of HMA, including (read more)

“I pull inspiration for my work from my life. Most of my subjects tend to be self portraits but some are visitors representing an emotion, feeling, vice or real people. I use my art to navigate my life and often find putting the pen to the wood is like ... (more here)

" You're looking for a fantastic movement or a fantastic shape that comes in the piece, and that's the whole power to the piece. You want it to explode out when the viewer sees it or you want it to be calm, but yet you still want a powerful presence in the piece, so that it dominates or takes off." (Read more here.)

Eig says that "If my paintings 'speak' to people that view it, and bring good feelings to their hearts, sometimes a smile on their lips, then I am very happy." She was educated as an economist and discovered art by chance when she was nineteen. She (more here)

Between September 16, 2007 and February 25, 2018, HMA's exhibition Endangered: a Joel Sartore Retrospective will showcase Sartore's environmental passion with an installation of fifty-five gorgeous examples of his animal photography. This artwork illustrates both the beauty and the tragedy of animal species threatened by extinction. (More here)

Mickey McKinney Whitener Coe with Dipsey Doodle. The dog's name references two of Paul's & Mickey's favorite activities: the Dipsy Doodle was a popular song and dance in the late 1930s, and it is also a move in football.  Of course, they also founded (Paul) and grew (Mickey) an art museum. (More here.)

At its last meeting of the Museum's 2016/2017 year of art, the Acquisitions Committee was pleased to accept the gift of a painting from Helgi and Buck Shuford in honor of John and Sally Ross. The painting,  In a Summer Garden by Hobson Pittman, was (more here)

"George Pearse Ennis is one of those men, alert and zestful but not officious in their energies who add to the satisfaction we take in living in our own times." Accomplished in many mediums, Ennis turned down an appointment to West Point in favor of becoming an artist.

Most recently, former Board member and current Honorary Trustee Josephine Hambrick donated to HMA the lovely portrait that Paul Whitener painted of her as a young girl in 1938, and the Acquisitions Committee was delighted to accept this gift. Paul of course was the Museum's founder, and (more)