PROCTORVILLE — It’s all about color and how to transmit the pleasure that what inspires artist Dreama Tolle Perry to paint.

“I look for color. I am conscious and thinking of color,” she said. “I love sunshine, color, flowers. The ability to go boldly into color. When I am looking at a rose, I am thinking how best can I express the shape of that petal.”

Currently there is an exhibit of the Kentucky artist’s paintings, along with those of friend and student, Kate Wagner, at Ohio University Southern-Proctorville Center.

The exhibit is the first in a series the Proctorville Center plans on hosting throughout the year with a different show every six weeks.

“We try to have art on exhibit at all of our sites,” Gary Tillis, OU art instructor, said. “Mainly it benefits both the artists and ourselves. We get beautiful art work for display purposes and the artists have the ability to sell their work. We don’t charge commission. We pay them a small stipend at the end of the exhibit. Also we just wanted to create a more cultural experience for Proctorville with this great new facility.”

Perry, who began painting in her 30s, is mainly a self-taught artist who has developed much of her technique from workshops and classes.

She focuses on still lifes and landscapes done in the en plein air style where the artist sets up an easel outdoors to work.

“A lot of the metaphor for life come from painting,” she said. “It is to be really truthful in my painting and myself and hopefully the viewer will find something to connect with. Hopefully some of the things I do will resonate with other people. It makes me happy to use color and the pieces in this show are reflective of that.”

Recently, Perry has begun teaching workshops where her first goal is give the students the confidence to work and not be hamstrung from excessive, non-constructive self-criticism.

“For people to be able to fall in love with painting and love themselves enough to do it and not be critical,” she said. “It becomes paralyzing if you beat up on yourself. In a workshop I encourage people to find the things that are working so they can build on that. Good work comes about from showing up and painting.”

A list of workshops Perry is conducting over the next few months is on her Website, www.dreamatolleperry.com.

The exhibit will be up through Jan. 22. The next show at the Proctorville Center l featuring Huntington, W.Va.-based watercolorist Ron Haeberle starts Feb. 1. Haeberle is a realist noted for the interesting perspective he takes on his works.