Elizabeth Guthrie’s Art Endeavors at Cheese House Gallery in April 2010

A career in art doesn’t have a set pattern. Life has a way of getting in the way; the bills have to be paid, the children looked after.  What’s important is to never let go of the desire to create.  The Cheese House Gallery’s featured artist for April is a case in point.

Raised in the South, Elizabeth Guthrie’s childhood homes included North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Her fondest memories are of the time she and her family lived on Oatland Island, just off the coast of Savannah, Georgia.

Nicknamed "Betsi,” Guthrie was an overactive tomboy who showed signs of artistic talent at an early age. Her parents enrolled her in a variety of private classes and she won several art awards while in the gifted programs of public schools. Guthrie attended the University of South Carolina in 1978, married that year, and started her family. Her focus on being a mother of five children took her on a hiatus from the art world. Now settled with her youngest daughter Bonnie in Avery County, she has at last found the time and space to pursue her art.