Art Expo to be hosted at Franklin County Essig Center

Well-known Franklin County artist Becky Stormer and 17 of her current watercolor students will host an “Art Expo” show and sale May 13-17, at the Essig Center, 295 Technology Drive, Rocky Mount. Featuring some 50 original watercolor paintings – mounted, framed, and ready for sale – the show will run daily 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. 

An artist since childhood, Stormer’s love of art has continued throughout a career as teacher, scientist and artist. Relishing the “expressive spontaneity and freshness” of watercolor, Stormer finds joy discovering what colors and textures emerge as she combines water with a variety of colors. She tells her students to “experiment to find your own style and just don’t copy others”. 

Leaving behind a ten-year career as a research microbiologist, Stormer says she tired of “having to be too serious all the time”. She finds continuity in “a belief that art and science are both the study of nature” and encourages her students to find inspiration in “whatever you’re interested in, whether it be food, hiking, nature, etc.” 

Stormer studied art at Columbus School of Art and Design, and later completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at James Madison University and a Master of Science degree in microbiology at Virginia Tech. Her skills in painting were honed during eight years teaching in Korea and China 

With art housed in private collections around the world, Stormer has won numerous awards and has sold her paintings in galleries and shows in Virginia and North Carolina. She works in gouache, acrylic, as well as watercolor, focusing on impressionistic and folk-art styles. 

She loves using watercolor “in expressive style to look and keep the memory, not from photographs, allowing it the freedom to morph into its own thing”. What she likes best about teaching is “having students express their ideas and helping them develop their own styles”. 

Stormer’s students say she is “an awesome teacher” whose teaching style flows just as spontaneously as her watercolors. One student, Patty Peterson of Ferrum, said “there are many very good students in that class. Each and every one of us has had a moment when we say, Whoa, did I paint that?” Another student, Angela Wilmoth of Burnt Chimney, says Stormer is “always getting us to try new things that can happen with different perspectives.” She said she “likes the unpredictable and surprise that comes from experimenting.” 

Angela also said that it’s “good for women to explore their creativity – anybody can do it. You can join this class with no experience.” 

Stormer currently teaches classes for beginning and advanced watercolor students at the Essig Center in Rocky Mount.