Eno Mill Gallery

Featuring the work of Orange County Black and Indigenous artists.

Opening Reception Friday, February 3 | 6-9PM

More details here

For three days, 66 painters from four states painted Orange County en plein air (outside) for Paint it Orange. More than 100 works of art on on sale through the end of the month. The Paint it Orange Wet Paint Sale is a unique opportunity to purchase original art featuring sites and scenery unique to Orange County ranging from landscapes to landmarks and everything in between! Mediums range from oil to watercolor to pastel. The works are in a wide variety of sizes at all price points.

View this year’s winners here and save the date for Paint it Orange 2023 happening October 4-6, 2023.

ESTEN WALKER

Vibrant Matter: Book of Days

a gladdening experience of continuity…admist a fluid medium made up of images belonging to memory and perception, a free to-and-fro between past and present, between solid order, and playful confusion.
– Byung Chul Han, The Scent of Time

Observing the gestalts and the emergences of the world around us––whether briefly encountered, or through a duration in a place––unlocks a creativity in us. I am intrigued by the vibrant matter all around us, of which we are part of its assemblage. This work is from my spring “book of days.” These are moments of attentiveness.

Esten Walker is a multi-media artist interested in exploring the poetic forces emergent and arising from nature, constructed environments, and the spaces of our human psyche. Esten lives and works in North Carolina where she enjoys hiking and walking. This informs her artistic practice, as well as her interest in NC conservation. She has studied with JSS, in Civita Castellana, Italy; Penland School of Craft; and Massachusetts College of Art, among others. In 2021, Esten received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she was a merit scholar, and recipient of the Mary Butler Fellowship Award. Esten is an Eno River Arts Mill resident artist.

Click here to view a pdf of Orange County portraits

Building Bridges: An Exhibit of Latin American Artists in the Triangle

Featured Triangle Artists:

Nana Abreu, Durham
Antonio Alanis, Durham
Fabrizio Bianchi, Durham
Cornelio Campos, Durham
Melissa Garcia Corona, Efland
The Dib Studio, Hillsborough
IKORMA, Hillsborough
Saba Jordan, Carrboro
Eduardo Lapetina, Chapel Hill
Cat de M, Durham
Luis MacKinney, Raleigh
Peter Marin, Raleigh
Sol Ramírez, Carrboro
Miriam Sagasti, Chapel Hill
José Guadalupe Saldaña
Marcela Slade, Carrboro
Natalia Torres del Valle, Hillsborough
Erik Valera, Chapel Hill
Jorge Zuluaga, Durham

Analog Visual by Dibkorma

IKORMA Musicons

Featuring MUSICONS by Eno Mill Studio Artist IKORMA

The Orange County Arts Commission, in partnership with the Orange County Department of Housing and Community Development presented HOME? An Artistic Exploration of Housing in the Triangle, which sought to showcase “home” through the eyes and words of working artists.

The exhibit featured 100 works of art by 53 Triangle-based artists; 16 literary artists read works at the exhibit opening on April 1.

VIEW THE EXHIBIT GUIDE HERE

Featuring work by Eno Mill Studio Artist Mary Ann Rozear

Mary Ann is an award winning artist whose subject matter is as varied as her choice of medium. Whether using watercolors, acrylics, or oils, she strives to elicit an emotional response from the viewer with each painting. Mary Ann began painting in 2002 while living in Blowing Rock, NC, where she studied for six years with many master painters. She was most influenced by Mary Ann Beckwith, Gerald Brommer, and Skip Lawrence, whose philosophy was to encourage each student to paint in their own style. Mary Ann has developed her own unique approach to painting, believing that the enjoyment she gets during the process of painting translates to the finished piece. Mary Ann received the WWA Walter Garner Memorial Award in 2013 and the WWA Gail Henderson Memorial Award in 2014.

“The Shapes of Memories” showcases Mary Ann’s work over the last fifteen years. The title represents the way in which Mary Ann paints – not from photos or images, rather her memories of the places, people, and things she remembers and loves.

Notes From a Rodeo: Ridin’ Sucka Free, Revisited
A photographic exploration of southern Black equestrians by Eno Arts Mill studio artist Kennedi Carter

A Durham, North Carolina native by way of Dallas Texas, Kennedi Carter is a photographer with a primary focus on Black subjects. Her work highlights the aesthetics & sociopolitical aspects of Black life as well as the overlooked beauties of the Black experience: skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community. Her work aims to reinvent notions of creativity and confidence in the realm of Blackness. Kennedi’s clients include British Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, The Fader, Essence, The New York Times, Men’s Health, and TIME.

Ridin’ Sucka Free is an ongoing photographic exploration into the lives of Black southern equestrians. The American cowboy can be traced back to antebellum Texas, when westward traveling white colonists first encountered Mexican vaqueros and later appropriated their equestrian techniques. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, one-third of cowboys in existence were vaqueros and a quarter of them were Black. The systemic white-washing of American history is not an unfamiliar tale. Despite the fact African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexicans made up the majority of the cowboys that existed in the United States, their presence has been erased from contemporary Americana. While a majority of this project is centered around the everyday lives of the American cowboy, the work featured in Notes From A Rodeo was shot in a single night at the RCA Finals in Shreveport, Louisiana.

January, 2022

December, 2021

Featuring works by members of the Orange County Artists Guild!

Featuring paintings, ceramics, fine crafts, and jewelry.

November, 2021

The Paint it Orange Plein Air Wet Paint Sale features 85 works of original fine art at affordable prices.

October, 2021

Photos by Nic Johnson

Click here to view photos of the Opening Reception Friday, October 1 featuring live music by XOXOK, food trucks Yagg Sii Tenn and Mr. Wingz & Mrs. Thingz and beverages by Starrlight Mead, Durty Bull Brewing, and BMC Brewing.