2026 EXHIBITIONS
Florence Thomas Art School presents temporary exhibitions featuring artwork of all media.
Winter Reverence: The Appalachian Landscapes of Florence Thomas
December 17, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Step into a serene world of snow-dusted hillsides and quiet mountain moments in this special selection of Florence's paintings. Each piece captures the beauty and stillness of winter across the Blue Ridge region. From icy streams to quiet barns nestled under pale skies, her gentle brushstrokes and harmonious palettes invite you to see Appalachia through her eyes. This enchanting exhibition offers a rare glimpse into her reverence for nature and the soulful rhythms of seasonal life.
​​Image: Florence Thomas, Untitled, oil on canvas © Florence Thomas
Open Submission: Baby, It's Cold Outside
January 21 – February 21, 2026
As the days grow shorter and the air turns crisp, artists were welcomed to submit their pieces inspired by the winter for this juried exhibition. Submitted pieces offered a variety of perspectives on what the season inspires within each artist.
​​Image: Dave Powell, Red Barn in Winter (2025), pastel, © Dave Powell
stART Children's Program:
The Colorful Landscapes of Ashe County
February 26 – April 11, 2026
Using the natural beauty of Ashe County as inspiration, each student selects a local landscape or season they love—mountains, farms, forests, rivers—and learns to reimagine it through a Fauvist lens. With pencil, water-soluble oil pastels, and ink, students sketch, add color, blend, and outline to create bright, imaginative artwork that celebrates both creativity and the scenery of our mountain home.
The finished pieces will be joyful, expressive, and uniquely their own, and will be proudly featured in the 2026 Children’s stART Program Exhibit at Florence Thomas Art School.
Marion Cloaninger: Figuratively Speaking
April 15 – May 9, 2026
Spirals, circles, abstract designs, textures and figures have always intrigued Marion. She uses bright acrylic colors, makes marks, and uses elements of collage to bring excitement to her works of art. She is always drawn to painting female figures that represent confidence and strength, while being a little wonky. Many of her women look at the viewer and invite them into the painting. Flowers, objects, or fascinators in their hair add a fun and soft element. Marion's intention is to make art that brings a smile and happiness to the viewer.
​​Image: Marion Cloaninger, Of the Earth, © Marion Cloaninger
William Schumann: Mountain Joy Ride
May 14 – June 20, 2026
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Mountain Joy Ride brings together pieces created over the past five years, offering a retrospective look at the many ways Schumann has approached and reinterpreted the mountain landscape. It is also a meditation on western North Carolina’s changing landscape and culture. Many paintings address organic forms and patterns in bold colors as a celebration of nature’s remaining vitality and possibility.
Ranging in style yet unified by a deep connection to place, these paintings capture both the joy and the fragility of the natural world. Through saturated layers of acrylic color and rhythmic brushwork, the exhibit invites viewers to reflect, pause, and find their own moments of inspiration in the ever-changing face of the mountains.
​​Image: William Schumann, Mountain Garden from Deep Gap (2010),
acrylic on canvas © William Schumann
Grayson Toal (GERB): Sandcastle
June 24 – July 25, 2026
This exhibition brings together works from 2024 to the present, spanning paper, panel, and canvas. Together, they form a continuous narrative that unfolds in chapters.
Sandcastle examines how childhood experiences are remembered, reconstructed, and sometimes reimagined over time. Rooted in personal imagery and Southern settings, these scenes exist somewhere between truth and fiction. Like real sandcastles, these memories are built and shaped, but also vulnerable to erosion.
Being in the studio serves as both process and inquiry. The figure is approached with a sense of curiosity and wonder. Toal considers how they arrived, what they carry, and whether they fully belong within the space. There is an ongoing dialogue between Toal and the subjects. Across the exhibition, memory is treated as something fluid. It is shaped as much by the act of recalling and fabricating as by the act of making.
​Image: Grayson Toal, Thicket (2025), acrylic on panel © Grayson Toal
High Country Watermedia Society:
Favorites
September 3 – October 3, 2026
​​Image: highcountrywatermediasociety.com © High Country Watermedia Society
Munroe Family Exhibit
October 7 – November 21, 2026
​​Image: Jane Munroe Floyd, Shades of Nature, © Jane Munroe Floyd
Florence Thomas Selection
November 25, 2026 – January 2027
View a curated selection of Florence Thomas' collection featuring oil, watercolor, and pastel pieces that capture a lifetime of creativity and inspiration from life in the Appalachian mountains.
​​Image: Florence Thomas, Untitled (1995), watercolor on paper © Florence Thomas
