Strength & Grace - Michelle Dunaway

Shell Seeker  oil on linen  14 X 29 in.

Currently on view at the M Gallery of Fine Art in Charleston, South Carolina, is a new solo show from New Mexican painter, Michelle Dunaway.  Titled Strength and Grace, the exhibit features nearly two dozen new works from the dedicated young artist.  If you are near the gallery, stop in and see the show before it comes down at the end of the month.

Autumn's Daydreams  20 X 16 in.

Lara's Legacy  40 X 26 in.

Mother and Child  charcoal  11 X 8 in.

Remembering Home  oil on linen  20 X 15 in.

Poetry monochromatic oil study  14 X 11 in.

Among the Aspens  oil on linen  40 X 26 in.

Dunaway painting from her model en plein air outside her New Mexico studio

“There's nothing as exciting and honest as painting from life to me,” Dunaway admits. ”To paint with 

the person or subject directly in front of you, well, there is a communication going on… it is a 

shared moment and is alive and filled with truth.”

Morning Light  8 X 6 in.

Malibu  6 X 8 in.

Strength and Grace - Her Grandmother's Quilt  oil on linen  28 X 18 in.

The title piece for the show Strength and Grace, actually came to Dunaway

in a dream.  She woke up one morning with the vision of her cousin Justyne

wrapped in her grandmother’s handmade quilt. The painting is of a girl, “on 

the brink of womanhood, wrapped in the creative gifts of the woman who 

came before her,” explains Dunaway.  In the painting, strength seems 

particularly visible in the young girl’s eyes, while grace is represented by 

the grandmother’s loving spirit that is implied through the quilt.

Mucha and Peonies  oil on linen  34 X 16 in.

A Moment's Glance  charcoal on watercolor paper  24 X 18 in.

Thistles  oil  8 X 6 in.

Illuminated Marble -  Portrait of a Sculptor

Nude in Window Light  15½ X 10 in.

At the Rodin Museum  oil  25 X 19 in.

Akeba  16 X 20 in.

Thoughtful  oil on linen  26 X 16 in.