Photos courtesy of Robert Pienkowski

"Pig with chipmunk coat" (below) and "Surgings" (above) were painted by Joni Pienkowski on birch panel. Pienkowski used to draw animals — even traveling to the Galapagos Islands at one point — but her work had gotten more abstract over the years, she says.

| Amy Matzke-Fawcett

amy.matzke-fawcett@roanoke.com, 381-1674

BLACKSBURG -- The title of a new exhibition neatly sums up the work: "On the Move."

The show is a mix of abstract and realistic paintings by Joni Pienkowski of Blacksburg. The paintings are split between the Miller-off-Main-Street Gallery and the National Bank of Blacksburg lobby on Hubbard Street.

The abstract paintings can be hung either vertically or horizontally, an idea that Pienkowski said she got from thinking about the wind.

"In nature, the wind blows up and down and left and right and back and forth," she said. "So I thought, 'Why can't the pictures be horizontal or vertical?' "

The wind and nature also play into the subjects of the paintings themselves, Pienkowski said.

"I've always had an interest in nature," she said. "I digest all of these natural forms, and then spit it back out the way I like it."

Some of her previous shows have focused on windblown seeds, cocoons and eggs. Often, the forms that inspire her come from the work that her husband, Bob Pienkowski, does as an entomologist, she said.

It's easy to draw a still insect mounted in a box, but there is more visual interest in movement, she said.

"The unboxed insect flies free," she said. "It's much more interesting than a butterfly in a box."

Even while creating the paintings, Pienkowski incorporates movement.

She starts with a piece of wood on the floor, and moves around as she paints or draws on it.

"I don't know exactly what the end product will be, Pienkowski said. "It's so much more exciting that way.

Many of the works in the show also incorporate drawing, Pienkowski's first love, along with painting.

"I think many of them are more drawing than painting," she said.

The detail of her drawings can be seen in paintings of animals, including one of a crow and another of a pig, as well as a clown.

Pienkowski used to draw animals -- even traveling to the Galapagos Islands at one point -- but her work had gotten more abstract over the years, she said. The animals and the clown were inspired by her grandchildren and their interests, she said.

The show originally was going to focus on the animal paintings, but as Pienkowski created new works over the summer, the exhibition changed, said Sarah Miller of Miller-off-Main Street Gallery.

"I really liked them, and I thought they worked well together," Miller said.

Pienkowski has been exhibiting with the gallery since about 1974, when Sarah Miller's father, Robert Miller, started in the art business. But "On the Move" is her first show there in about five years.

"Everything she does is creative," Miller said of Pienkowski. "She's an artist down to the soul."

“On the Move”

New work by Joni Pienkowski

Where: Miller-off-Main Street Gallery, 211 Wilson Ave., Blacksburg, and National Bank, 101 Hubbard St., Blacksburg

When: Through Nov. 28

Contact: 552-6969 or nbbank.com Meet the artist: A reception with Pienkowski will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Nov. 28 at Miller-off-Main Street Gallery