Oil painter Rebecca King Hawkinson, who trained decades ago with fresco master Ben Long IV, enjoys a wide base of collectors who seek her globally inspired landscapes and still lifes, painted everywhere from Southern France to the North Carolina coast, from Tuscany to Tuckasegee. This summer, Hawkinson’s canvases and works on panel are blooming in a spot very close to her Black Mountain roots. “Andrea McNair at Seven Sisters [Gallery] just picked up my work,” reports Hawkinson. “The gallery looks beautiful in the new location where the Old Tanner Department store used to be. It’s just up from the Roberta Flack Mural at Black Mountain Brewing on Broadway.”
She adds, “I’ve been working with flowers quite a lot [since the] spring.” The result is a series of vivid, classical depictions of gathered wildflowers, rose bouquets, and, more lately, dahlia studies — and the paintings are being bought up seemingly almost as fast as the artist can finish them.
No delphinium exists in a vacuum, however, and Hawkinson name checks yet another Black Mountain venue, Urban Farm Girl Flowers — which offers a CSA (community-supported agriculture) subscription —as the source of all the lovely abundance. “They’ve been supplying me with great blooms,” she says.
Rebecca King Hawkinson Paintings & Drawings, studio open by appointment, 10 Burnt Ridge Trail, Black Mountain, (828) 664-1828, rebeccakinghawkinson.com. Seven Sisters Craft Gallery, 119 Broadway Ave., Black Mountain, sevensistersgallery.com. Urban Farm Girl Flowers, 19 Mountain View Ave., Black Mountain, urbanfarmgirlflowers.com.