Alta Vista Gallery artist Jeremy Sams recently won the Best of Show award at the Blowing Rock plein air painting competition. Sams also won this award last year and was asked to teach the week of painting workshops held last week in Blowing Rock.
Sams, who works in acrylics, has been represented by Alta Vista Gallery in Valle Crucis for five years and consistently has at least 25 paintings for sale there. “He has quite a following,” says gallery owner Maria Santomasso-Hyde. “When I get in new paintings from Sams, some of them will sell that day, or even before they arrive here, before the customer has even seen it in person, only on email or Facebook. Customers say they love the lighting in his work and also the details.”
Sams’ list of awards is many pages long, but his most recent honor isn’t even an award, but an invitation. Sams was recently invited to be a member of the prestigious artists group, “Blue Ridge Realists.” The group consists of only 13 members, but those 13 artists are acclaimed, such as Bob Timberlake and William Mangum.
The Blue Ridge Realists Show is hanging at the Hickory Museum of Art through August 18 and will become a traveling show after that.
Sams says, “I’m honored to be invited into this group of such talented artists who I’ve admired for many years; they are my heroes.”
Another honor for Sams is that his painting, “Linville Falls,” will be featured in an online magazine, OutdoorPainter.com. The painting is available now at Alta Vista Gallery, 2839 Broadstone Road, Valle Crucis, N.C.
See some of Sams’ work at www.AltaVistaGallery.com and on the gallery’s page on Facebook and on Instagram. For info and gallery hours, call (828) 963-5247.
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