Rotating Art Display

Featured Artist

The featured artist for April 2024 is Colleen C. Conrad. Colleen is a watercolor artist and a fiber artist and loves the outdoors. Colleen began painting in watercolor in the late 1990s, and had the good fortune to study with a few well-known watercolor artists in the central New Jersey area. She and her husband moved to Hiawassee in 2021 after vacationing here for 10 years. Colleen continues to experiment, learn, and grow as an artist. She adores the playful nature of watercolors, and her paintings have been reproduced for note cards, jewelry, and calendars, and are available as limited-edition prints.Painting has taught her how to look at the beauty that surrounds us in regard to light, texture, and color.

Active in the arts, Colleen organized, hung, and ran a small art show and sale with 10 other artists from 2005 to 2009.The show was held on a weekend in early December in an old train station and the town allowed residents to use the building for small events.The show was setup to create the feel of a gallery, and open Saturday and Sunday.

Before Colleen began painting, she was a metalsmith for several years. However, in the early 1990s she and her husband moved to a new home with no room for a metalsmith workshop. She quickly found another artistic outlet when a co-worker told her about a watercolor class. Without any further thought, Colleen joined a class. And as they say, the rest is history. Colleen also knits, spins, and uses her hand spun yarn for rug hooking, needle felting, and wet felting. Her paintings provide inspiration for her fiber work.

Colleen is on the Board of Directors for Mountain Regional Arts & Crafts Guild, a member of the Blue Ridge Mountain Arts, and the Southern Appalachian Artist Guild. You may view her watercolors at Mountain Regional Library.

About the Rotating Art Display

In order to highlight the talented people in our awesome mountain area, the City of Young Harris has put together a community involvement initiative that showcases local artists. The Rotating Art Display currently at the Peach State Credit Union and the Mountain Regional Library has artwork representing dozens of local artisans. Artwork includes pottery, woodwork, jewelry, glass work, quilting, basketry, gourds, felting, photography, and paintings. The artwork will be on display for about eight weeks and is available for purchase through Main Street Director Rosemary Royston. If you are interested in having your art on display, please complete and sign the Rotating Art Agreement below, and submit to roseroyston [at] cityofyoungharris.net (subject: Rotating%20Art%20display) (Rosemary Royston), who will follow-up with you to discuss next steps.

Below is a list of those who have shown work in the Rotating Art display.