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About the artist... Terry Walton

Terry was born in 1957 and began her art career in the 1st grade when she took 4th place in the school art contest. After that, her career hit a lull for several years. In high school, the art teacher chose her painting of Leon Russell to put in a showcase. That was just enough encouragement to cause Terry to major in Commercial Art at Western Kentucky University. One of her paintings hung in the Dean's office until she graduated in 1978. After graduation, she apprenticed into sign painting. It was an exciting venture and she enjoyed painting everything from race cars to billboards. Terry moved to Asheville, NC in 1982 and worked as an art director for an outdoor advertising company. Terry married in 1983 and settled into a drafting job at a cabinet company. Sign painting was a dying art due to vinyl letters. Paying the bills became top priority especially after two children came along in 1985 and 1987. By 1989, divorce was imminent and it was obvious that drafting would not pay the bills. Terry began a 15 year career of selling lumber to contractors. In 1994, hustling lumber and raising two children on her own, Terry was not very receptive when her good friend, Randy tried to talk her into entering an art contest to benefit the WNC Aids Project. Having not touched a brush to an easel since 1980, it was a hard sell. She eventually gave in and produced an "oil on canvas" that took first place. She soon after bought canvases and oils, vowing the time to paint. But, along came cub scouts, PTA, ballet, etc. Painting would have to wait. Instead, her pallet was old houses. She restored a 1909 gem in Asheville's historic Montford in 2000 and after that, the infatuation set in. Five houses later and one more career change to real estate found Terry living in her dream house on top of Beaucatcher mountain. The inspiration was irresistible. In January of 2008, she painted for the first time since 1994. By October of that year, the real estate market had fallen off to near nothing, and her good friends Jill and Jenn convinced her to paint. She had considered venturing into different styles so that she could produce art that would be an easy match for current aesthetics and colors of interior design. She insists that this evolution of the career is divinely inspired. Her passion for painting has come alive.