TEQUESTA, Fla. — It was opening night Thursday for a new art exhibit at the Lighthouse Art Center Gallery in Tequesta showcasing the incredible talent of a WPTV family member: anchor Ashleigh Walters.
The exhibit of more than 50 paintings is on display through April 22, including a Cup-A-Thon Fundraising $50 benefit event from 3-7 p.m. Friday. Also a raffle will be conducted at 3 p.m. April 22 for one of her original paintings with tickets $100 each and proceeds to go toward a new roof for the 3D studio, renovations and a new kiln.
The show includes acrylic paintings and more than 20 sculptural jewelry pieces.
Guest included fellow local artists, viewers, art fans, and co-workers from WPTV's Mike Trim and his son Braden who found joy in a ring featuring a mini box of Cheez-It.
"It's very exciting to see so much of my work up on the walls with all of these people who are supporting it and taking a look inside my soul and all these things when I've made over these a years of work," Walters, who greeted guests sporting a Kermit the Frog necklace, told WPTV's TA Walker.
In addition to creating all of the art, Walters also put in a lot of work into getting everything ready.
"My husband even is seeing the paintings in a new way for the first time because its different when they're all in one big room," she said. "It's not just one piece up on a wall. It's all of this work -- digging it out of the place -- and you know I've done so many paintings and to look around and say 'wow here it all is.' "
Janeen Mason, the gallery curator, first learned about her art during the pandemic when she was anchoring from home.
Almost every day, a new piece of work was hanging behind her as she reported the news.
RELATED: Walters' painting sold in auction for $11,000 to help feed community
Her art has been featured prominently in a variety of publications, juried shows, galleries, on-air news stories and commercials.
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Walters received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Painting, a Bachelor of Science in Broadcast News Journalism and a Minor in Business Administration.
"While her award-winning journalism career as an anchor and reporter took Ashleigh to Denver, Colorado; Columbia, South Carolina; and West Palm Beach, Florida, her art reflected the stories of people in those communities and in her personal life," in a post on the gallery's website. "Ashleigh is drawn to understanding the places we go and objects we use in our day-to-day lives. A brand that can be viewed as ordinary or comforting to one person can be seen as exotic or unusual to another.
"The labels on jars, the signs on buildings, the style of a season’s designer shoe: each of these things reflect what’s important to the people who use them, and timestamp that specific moment in history. Ashleigh also loves to manipulate and create objects of giant and tiny scale, including small sets of hands she often keeps in her purse and gives away."
The gallery at 373 Tequesta Drive is open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on Sundays.
