The work of three artists will be on display throughout January in the windows of the RAL Art Center, 19 N. Main Street, Kilmarnock.

Fiber artist Mary Ellen Huennekens, mixed media artist Sandy Newman, and fiber artist Sharon Mason will all have their work featured.

Huennekens is a self-taught sewist, quilter, and artist. She said colorful fabrics make her happy and her goal is to inspire that same reaction in others while honoring the tradition of quilt-making around the world and across time. Her art is inspired by traditional American quilting, Asian and African quilt methods, and Aboriginal print fabrics. She uses fabric piecing, embroidery, appliqué, and quilting to create texture, depth, and movement. Her work is shown in galleries in Richmond, Kilmarnock, Gloucester, and Urbanna, among others. She has won awards in the Middle Peninsula Fine Arts Festival and at the RAL Gallery.

Newman’s initial work has evolved from oil and watercolor painting to mixed media art, incorporating recycled glass with resin on canvas. About her work, she said, “The universe buries strange jewels within us all and then stands back to see if we can find them. With degrees in English and Criminal Justice, a career in financial sales, along the way I found those jewels…creativity through art…my joyful retreat!” Newman’s art may be viewed at the RAL Center, the Red Fish Gallery in Irvington, and Crossroads Art Center in Richmond, where she lives.

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mason grew up surrounded by art culture and benefitted from summer lessons in painting, drawing, and crafts, as well as school art classes. She started art weaving in high school. Over the years, she experimented with various types of fiber arts to include quilting, spinning, dyeing, knitting, and crochet. For the past three years, she has been applying painting principles to her weaving to create landscapes as well as whimsical and abstract pieces. Mason exhibits at RAL and the Williamsburg Art Gallery.

Among the pieces that will be on display throughout January in a window exhibit at the RAL Arts Center in Kilmarnock are, from left, “Aussie Birds” by fiber artist Mary Ellen Huennekens, “Petals and Pedals” by mixed media artist Sandy Newman, and “Mountain Moonshine” by fiber artist Sharon Mason.