Oil painter Gail Black is a native North Carolinian whose landscape work of local marshlands and wetlands is being featured in Wild Places here at the gallery from Sept.18 through Oct. 24 with an opening reception on the 19th from 2 – 4 p.m. Gail’s painting style is representational but e emphasizes a strong abstract structure with contrasting values and bolt paint application that results in paintings that spark excitement with her abstracted view of nature. The strongly textured work portrays a sense of a subject rather than its precise image. Speaking about the wild places left. in the Carolinas, the artist says, “These extraordinary and untouched areas are vanishing at an alarming pace. I want to share these places with the world before they have totally vanished and leave a visual record for the future. I hope this visual. history will find homes where they can nourish the viewers’ souls and pass on our mutual love of extraordinary places.”