As Rappahannock-based artist Nedra Smith explains, “I’m happiest outdoors with a brush in hand.”

Having grown up on a farm in Nebraska which inspired her love of the outdoors, she received formal art training at George Washington University and then worked as a graphic artist, ultimately traveling to China to study with master painter He Gong at Sichuan University and, upon returning to the U.S., studying plein-air painting with Kevin McPherson. Her landscapes and gurative paintings have been displayed in galleries throughout the area. This is her second show at Gay Street Gallery.