The July-August Exhibit in the NARTHEX Gallery is the art of Muriel Hill-Rowley.

Long Past Till Present: A Seventy Year Retrospective.

Primarily self-taught, Muriel has been doing some kind of art since before he started elementary school.  As a child, she drew with crayons on old envelopes, on chalkboard, (and yes, on walls) and the insides of cereal boxes; anything she could find was her canvas.

After graduation from college, Muriel took a couple of oil painting classes at the local community college and she was hooked.  However, teaching/counseling and administrative work in various school districts and in college, plus studying for a post-graduate degree left her little time, so she put away her paints for the next 40 years.

Meanwhile, she did however discover the wonders of cameras and photography.  She worked as one of the photographers for Piccolo Spoleto before moving to Greenville.  

Also while in Greenville, participated in the painting group at GUUF, and briefly studied painting with Elaine Norwood.  

Muriel is fascinated with details and the interplay of light and shadow in everything, particularly in the natural world around us.  

Her main interest in photography currently is flowers, focusing on their details and intricacies.  However, as far as oil painting goes, she tends toward landscapes. 

No longer able to paint or draw as much as she would like because of macular degeneration and double vision, Muriel prefers the old manual film cameras and black and white photography to today’s digital photography and currently uses her iPhone XS for most of her photography with back-up Canon cameras if the iPhone will not do the trick. 

This exhibit is dedicated to Dianne Hill Shirley who believed in my work when no one else did. 

The Narthex gallery is maintained by Steven Chapp