“It is when you realize how little you know that you can truly begin to learn,” Kelly Walters said about her show currently on display at the Lincoln-Lawrence-Franklin Regional Library.

Walters, an instructor at Mississippi School of the Arts, said the exhibit is about her reminiscing about the last four years of her art and life.

“The last four years have brought a new beginning to my life. I completed my Masters of Fine Arts degree, married, gave birth, and moved to Brookhaven,” she said. “With this exhibit, I would like to invite this community that has so graciously accepted and welcomed me to see glimpses of my heart and mind. I find that we are often on this journey together.”

Walters has divided her exhibit into three series – The Family Dinner Series, the Synaptic Sketches Series and the Nightwatch Series.

“In The Family Dinner Series, I desire to create symbolic portraits that reveal the soul of the subject,” Walters said.

Her paintings utilize subtle symbolism that represents the figure as a concept. She describes her artwork as being primarily about personal experiences, but she has worked to allow the viewer to relate to the individuals within the paintings.

“I believe that each person brings to a piece of artwork a unique set of lifetime experiences,” Walters said. “These experiences allow them to interpret the meaning of a painting in a different manner than the artist who created the painting may have originally intended.”

In the Synaptic Sketches Series, she focuses on the concept of light and shadow.

“As I began to work on this series, I was amazed by the tactile quality that light can create,” Walters said. “I experimented with this very textural and direct drawing throughout the entirety of the series.”

The Nightwatch Series was created through Walters painting outside at night in the dark. She said the only thing she was able to see in the dark was high contrast images.

“As the series progressed, I became fascinated with not only the value and texture that were created, but also the light that was created by the application of thin, transparent layers of paint, pastel and ink,” she said.

The show contains 50 pieces and uses media such as pastel, egg, methyl-cellulose, acrylic, charcoal, graphite and ink. Many of her drawings use pastel egg tempera and pastel distemper methods. When painting with egg, she combines ink and egg to build layers of value. Then, she layers pastel and mixtures of egg and pure pigment to produce a translucent effect. Instead of using egg washes, in the distemper method she uses a mixture of methyl cellulose to produce the desired effect.

“As an artist living in Mississippi, I have seen so many paintings destroyed simply by the humidity,” she said. “Pastels are very permanent, but they are usually framed behind glass, which can collect moisture. To remedy this, I paint on wooden panels and seal the layers of pastel with either egg, acrylic, or methyl cellulose. It is a more permanent and archival answer to my problem.”

A reception featuring the artist will be held Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The show will be displayed throughout December.