[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="216"]<img alt="" src="https://mountainmedianews.com/clients/mountainmessenger/7-5-2013-11-56-41-AM-9165398.Gatens.300.18x18.jpg" width="216" height="216" /> Here kitty kitty[/caption] <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Now through Aug. 31, on display in Carnegie Hall’s Auditorium Gallery, is Pamela Gatens’ "Colorful Cats and Flowers" exhibit. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Pamela Gatens is an artist in the impressionist style who finds her inspiration in colorful cats and flowers. Working in acrylic and watercolor, she is a prolific painter and entertaining teacher. <!--more-->She began her artistic career at a little newspaper in Dallas, TX, setting type and composing ad layouts. Pamela continued working in the graphic art and design industry in various settings including an almost 20-year ownership of a graphic design business in California with her husband, Pat. It was when the couple moved to Pocahontas County that Gatens told herself she would start painting "seriously," which she has for almost ten years now. "My colorful paintings come from the true happiness I feel in front of the easel," Gatens says.</span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">She now paints nearly every day, and when not painting can be found "gazing, studying, or dreaming" about it. She and her husband live outside Hillsboro on the Greenbrier River with their yellow Labrador, Barker and two cats, Pokey and Mack. Gatens is a member of Greenbrier Artists and is a Signature Member of the West Virginia Watercolor Society. You can find her paintings locally at The Colony Gallery at The Greenbrier Hotel & Resort, at Tamarack where she is a juried artisan in both crafts and fine art, and online.</span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The public is invited to a reception for the Gatens exhibit on Thursday, July 25 from 5-8 p.m. The reception will be held in conjunction with the evening’s free Ivy Terrace Concert. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The galleries at Carnegie Hall are open and free to the public Monday through Friday 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. Many of the works are available for purchase. The purchase of artwork exhibiting at Carnegie Hall benefits the artist and the Hall. </span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">To find out more about the Hall’s exhibits or other programming, call 304-645-7917. Visit Carnegie Hall’s website at <a href="http://www.carnegiehallwv.org">www.carnegiehallwv.org</a></span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Carnegie Hall’s exhibits are presented with financial assistance from the WV Division of Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the WV Commission on the Arts.</span></p>
