About

Luna Lee Ray

Luna Lee Ray’s Website

My current paintings are inspired by the interplay of air, water, and light: Rain and sunshine and mist; Moisture in the air at dawn; The charge in the air after a summer storm.

My artistic process involves multiple layers of acrylic paints and graphite-sometimes charcoal, pastel, ink, and collage as well. I begin each piece as an experimental journey, finding the composition and meaning as I go.

I work with both randomness and intentionality. The early stages of a piece involve active drawing, sometimes with my eyes closed. I then add multiple layers of thin and thick paints, adding more graphite between layers. As a piece moves on I will begin to add more complex forms and fine tune the color harmonics. As I layer, some elements are enhanced and some are obscured, resulting in an atmospheric surface rich with history, depth, and luminosity.

Shelly Hehenberger

Shelly Hehenberger’s Website

My work is a meditation on the patterns of nature explored through the process of drawing and painting, the textures and imagery suggesting the natural world and its state of constant change. 

Using a variety of tools for applying as well as carving into layers of carefully selected mixtures of oil based paint, cold wax, and other mediums, I create the topography of the surface. It is through the continuous additive and subtractive process that I create my pieces slowly over the course of many months. This layering and carving of the materials reflects a sense of the creative tension existing between the constructive and deconstructive energies in nature.

I savor the journey of making as an end in itself, and in the process come to know myself better through a deeper understanding of the natural world of which we are all an inseparable part. 

Shelly Hehenberger has been a working and teaching artist since completing a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from the University of Cincinnati in 1994.

We are both members of Frank Gallery in Chapel Hill: Frank Gallery Website