Excerpt from The Daily Times- Thursday, March 31, 2005
By Melanie Tucker of The Daily Times staff
Call of the Wild
L. Marie Nichols thrives in an environment of feathers, flowers and four-legged friends.
Her studio, Wild Things, is full of raccoons, deer, owls, falcons, irises, magnolias, blue herons, woodpeckers and hummingbirds. These watercolor creations are scenes she has witnessed at the side of the road or in long-forgotten fields or landscapes created in her mind. Husband Bill is at her side, camera in hand, ready to shoot whatever she points out.
This wife, mother of four, grandmother of 12 and great-grandmother of two, has been painting all her life, a fact no one could doubt after viewing her work. She has taken art lessons, but describes herself as a self-taught watercolorist.
Favorite subject: birds. Next favorite subject: wildflowers.
Growing up in western North Carolina, Nichols said she spent her days in the company of Mother Nature and despite a sometimes busy schedule, she still prefers it that way. On a recent morning, she stopped on the bridge on Miser Station Road and counted nine blue herons standing in the mud.
"I wanted to come home and get my binoculars and go back," she admitted. "I just didn't have the time."
This artist usually paints in her home studio in Louisville in the afternoons, when the light is perfect on her canvas. however, the urge is there constantly.
"I would paint all day, every day," she said. "I tell people there are so many paintings in my head they will all never get out."
Her work can be seen several times each year at the Townsend Visitors Center and she has a display at Dogwood Mall, also in Townsend. Nichols will also be part of the spring arts and crafts festival coming to Foothills Mall April 8 and 9.
The one original Nichols can't bear to part with - a family of bluebirds gathered around their wooden box in a country landscape - hangs in her home. She sells prints of it quite frequently, making it her most popular.
Marie Nichols originals and prints hangs in Texas North Carolina, South Carolina Minnesota, New York and even Italy and Germany. She also paints murals and does commission work.
Bill and Marie have made a great team over the years. He does all the photography for her and also all the framing work. Marie knows it must take some patience on his part.
"We will be going down the road and I will say, 'did you see the beautiful dried arrangement? Looks like weeds to me,'" Bill will answer back.
The Nichols property is scattered with hummingbird feeders, bird baths and other feeders to attract all matter of wildlife. And whatever creeps by, Marie is right there with binoculars in hand. She has catalogs and catalogs of photos to pull from anytime a painting starts to emerge from her head.
In some years, Nichols has participated in as many as 20 shows, but slowed down last year to care for her parents. She expects to pick up some in 2005 and looks forward to the one at Foothills Mall.
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You can purchase "Lunch Line Blue Birds" -> here