Paintings by Lehigh Art Alliance Featured Artist Mary Millan Klunk grace the walls of the children’s wing of the Emmaus Public Library, Emmaus, through June 26.

The Salisbury Township-based artist has been a Lehigh Art Alliance member for 10 years.

“I picked up art lessons because I had always wanted to study art,” says Klunk. “As a kid I used to like to draw.”

She studied figure drawing, painting and printmaking at The Baum School of Art, Banana Factory and Barnstone Studios.

Her formal education concentrated on modern languages, majoring in Spanish with a minor in French. Klunk received a BA in Liberal Arts from The State University of New York at New Paltz.

Klunk’s career path took her to The Morning Call newspaper, then later to a Philadelphia-based company which had an office in the Lehigh Valley.

Now retired, Klunk follows her passion, working out of her home studio.

“I do a lot of landscapes. I’m drawn to them,” says Klunk.

She photographs areas, which serve to inspire the landscapes she paints primarily in acrylics from her imagination. “Acrylics dry quickly,” says Klunk, “I happen to be a very impatient person.”

“That’s totally made up,” says the artist about “A Winter Stream” (2022; Acrylic on canvas, 14 in. x 18 in.).

“The sunsets in winter are stunning,” says Klunk about the vivid colors reflecting off the cloudy sky over a frigid winter landscape bisected by a narrow stream.

“I like to keep it loose,” says Klunk. “Sometimes, I fight myself because if I get too tight with the painting, I don’t like it.” She prefers her art to be “more impressionistic.”

The exhibition is arranged through Lehigh Art Alliance. Information: www.lehighartalliance.org

“Mary Millan Klunk,” through June 26, Emmaus Public Library, 11 E. Main St., Emmaus. Gallery hours: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Closed Sunday, holidays. Information: www.emmauspl.org

“Gallery View” is a column about artists, exhibitions and galleries. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com