Bracelets by Melissa Manley

The Golden Gallery is currently showing a selection of bracelets by Melissa Manley. There are bronze twists bangles, sterling cuffs, and embossed bronze cuffs. We also have Melissa’s Viking knit bracelets in sterling for both men and women. First developed in ancient times by the Etruscans and Romans, Viking knit gets its common name from its popularity in ancient Scandinavia. It appears in Viking “hoards” or caches of buried treasure dating from 700 to around 1100AD. The true name of this type of wire weaving is “Trichinopoly”.

Crystal Pier

John W Golden began exhibiting his scenic photography nearly 25 years ago. He has chronicled the southeastern North Carolina scenery as some of it has become memories only. Crystal Pier stood at the south end of Wrightsville Beach as the hurricanes gradually destroyed it. This photo is an iconic view of Crystal Pier in its glory. The Golden Gallery has more than 20 views of this pier through the years.

Autumn glow

When I opened the Golden Gallery in 1977, my father bought a 35 Mm camera and began to take pictures for me to paint from. In his work as a timber farmer, he saw wildflowers and old barns and houses that I might never see. Many of my paintings are seen through his eyes and his memory remains alive in The Golden Gallery. Autumn glow is beautiful in the autumn light.

Day of the Race by Phyllis Tyler

Near the entrance to the Golden Gallery you will find a portfolio of spiritually guided paintings by Phyllis Tyler. Beautiful abstracts created in colored markers that begin as a blank surface and finish as amazing art. Day of the Race combines watercolor and marker in a composition that reminds you of a sailboat race.

Read A Book Series

Read A Book is part of a series of more than 60 "signs" that John W Golden created, after realizing that there are some things every parent says over and over again. Then he realized that many of these parental mandates are good rules for adults to live by too.  These images have been used in One Tree Hill nurseries and offices for adults. Teachers and librarians love Read a Book.

Japanese Maple Seeds Midnight Blue

There is only one example of bokeh in this photo, but the early evening photo when the sprinkler had been running is filled with lots of sizes and shapes created by the water droplets reflecting back into the lens. 

Japanese Maple Seeds Midnight Blue

These are the ones that made me realize that the photographs stood alone far more beautifully than I could ever paint them. I am still painting in watercolor because I love the process and love to see where it will lead me, but I also get excited with the images that fill my camera when I point it toward the light and keep on clicking.

Japanese Maple Rainbow

When I bought a Nikon D3000 camera, I was amazed at the color in photographs that was not in the subject. My favorite early Japanese Maple seed photograph entitled Japanese Maple Rainbow was blessed with a turquoise green that does not exist in my front yard.

Photographic Bokeh Watercolor

I have been fascinated with photographic bokeh since an ice storm in the 1980s that filled the 35 mm photo I took with hundreds of tiny hexagons.The Japanese word boke or bokeh is attached to the blurred areas of a photograph created by a very narrow depth of field. Loving the telephoto lens as I do, I fell in love with bokeh before I ever knew that name.. I liked to recreate the effect in watercolor by cutting hexagonal stencils and lifting areas from the watercolor background of a painting like my Gingko.