Local artist earns invite to Va. Beach Garden Week show
By Marly Fuller
It’s not a photograph; look again. Local artist Terry Lacy has mastered the art of capturing light and shadow, which is one of the reasons she was recruited as the featured artist for the “Painted Garden Art Show” at the Beach Gallery in Virginia Beach. The exhibit runs in tandem with the Historic Virginia Beach Garden Week.
“I like [painting]up close because I want to be able to see the repeating shapes and the patterns,” said Lacy of her contemporary realism work. “Those two things are important and I’m always looking for the light and the shadows.”
While Lacy has been painting for more than 30 years, she attributes her precision and fine detail to her former work as a jeweler. She owned and operated LadySmith, a retail shop in the Old Towne section of Petersburg for 16 years, followed by a decade and a half in her home studio where she has created custom designs.
Vintage Poppies 
Lacy showing her painting Kaktos Rising. 
‘Lewis Ginter’s Orchids’ by Terry Lacy 
‘Everything Has A Season’ by Terry Lacy
Recently she has been expanding her reach by showing her work online through various social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. That’s where Ellen Sinclair started following Lacy’s work and what inspired the invitation to become the featured artist during garden week.
Many artists typically go through a process of finding upcoming exhibits and applying to show their work there, that’s why it was such an exciting moment for Lacy when she was contacted in September of 2019 with the invitation.
There are 11 works that Lacy will display at Beach Gallery. They all started as a photograph, captured in nature or staged by Lacy herself. The prickly pear cactus captivated Lacy when she was visiting her sister in Utah. She was drawn to how the cacti changed each season. The red, barrel-shaped fruit on the cactus is an image from fall, and the yellow and pink blossoms happen during the spring.
Lacy has been drawn to flowers as her subject in the past because of their repeating patterns. She loves a challenge. That’s another reason why she enjoys painting pets and people, achieving not only essence but emotion. She offers commission-based services for any two-or-four-legged loved ones, and she can usually create something from a provided photo.
She’s come a long way since starting with watercolors in 1990. Keeping at it, she expanded into new forms, starting with acrylics, then oils. For the last four years Lacy has been taking classes with her mentor, Chuck Larivey, at Crossroads Art Center in Richmond. She feels her work has stepped up to another level since training with him. He’s even helped her improve her business by offering high quality prints of select paintings.
“I want to find homes for these paintings, so that’s why I am learning about marketing,” said Lacy. “They’re much harder to sell than jewelry because jewelry is universally desired and with paintings there has to be an emotional connection for people to spend money to put something on the wall of their home.”
It’s also a result of exposure. Many people in the area may not have experienced the feelings of inspiration associated with an original artwork.
“I believe that we should surround ourselves with art,” said Lacy. “It is food for the soul. A work of art that you connect with can bring you peace, can be a grounding force, or can energize you and bring joy.”
Lacy’s vision is to share her work nationwide. She’s been successful at gaining acceptance into the Oil Painters of America Eastern Division Show. In the meantime, she’s been in multiple juried shows and won some awards. If Chester is lucky enough, perhaps her work may make its way to the gallery space at the Baxter Perkinson Performing Arts Center, another dream of hers.
When Lacy looks back at her life, she holds deep gratitude. Her family was always supportive of her artistic calling. Growing up in the military made “home” feel transient, but it was here in Virginia that her father retired from Fort Lee and where Lacy would return from Art School at University of Utah to begin her jewelry business in 1978.
It was here that she met her husband, John, who has become a subject of her art over the years. They encouraged creativity in their son and daughter as well. In fact, their son, Sagan, was the cartoonist for the Village News for several years drawing political cartoons and caricatures of columnists. He was only 13 years old when he started drawing for this paper. Today, Sagan works for Floyd County Productions in Atlanta, and he is the assistant art director for a movie they’re creating.
Pulling up to her studio feels inspiring in itself. They renovated a garage on their property that looks like a barn where she is surrounded by nature and natural light. While working there her paintings can take an average of 50 hours over a few weeks, but as long as there is music playing by other talented artists, she finds her flow and gets lost in her work.
Anyone feeling drawn to her work can mingle with Terry Lacy and 30 other artists at the free opening reception on Friday, March 13 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The show runs through May 1, 2020. The Beach Gallery is located at: 313 Laskin Road in Virginia Beach. For more information visit: www.beachgallery.com or www.terrylacyfineart.com.
