The Journey From Wool to Wood

Painter’s works reveal a vision in multiple layers

A PATTERN OF PLACE
Kim Dills was raised in the mountains of Virginia.
Portrait by Colby Rabon

Kimberley Dills, raised in the mountains of Virginia, wanted to illustrate children’s books when she grew up. But she had a grandmother who was a weaver, and so history took a different turn. 

“That propelled me into my love of fiber arts,” says the artist. Dills went deep: She used her grandmother’s old loom, and when she lived in the country, she raised her own Angora goats and Cotswold sheep for wool to incorporate into her fiber work.

Audrey Alpaca

But about 15 years ago, she discovered wood as a paintable medium, and her focus shifted. Woolly animals continue to show up in her intricate panels, though, and her early impulses toward illustration are clear in the winsome, folkloric quality of her subject matter. 

Dills, who has a BFA from East Carolina University, uses a combination of oils and acrylics, translucent dyes, and hand-mixed stains and glazes, and selects wood by the direction of its grain. Her paintings are composed by the intentional “placing of images on the wood in conjunction with the grain,” and they are distinguished, in a most aesthetically pleasing way, by the use of complex patterns that add visual depth. 

Dancing Dahlia

“I came up with that style almost by chance,” Dills reveals. “At first I was doing mainly illustrative, representative works of flora and fauna — then I started thinking of patterns for my backgrounds and ways to create layers. I have also screenprinted onto my wood paintings as a way to add another layer.”

Dills favors poplar, maple, and birch because they’re light enough to help her achieve the colors she desires, and she starts by hand drawing on the wooden panel in pencil. Sometimes she will leave those marks as a subtle design element. “Then I start to paint the patterns. I might paint the whole pattern along the bottom, and then start to break it up as I go higher, to give it a kind of a floating feel. The painting almost tells me what it wants to be as I’m doing it. … I’ll get lost in it, and then days later, there it is — when my husband says, ‘I haven’t seen you for a week.’”

Guinevere

Her one-of-a-kind pieces range in scale from about five square inches up to 36 square inches, and she also screenprints seasonal items such as tea towels and greeting cards. For her paintings, Dills uses multiple frames tightly snugged together for a seamless look that enhances the overall flow, such that the frames become part of the painting.  

In many ways the ultimate maker, Dills — who identifies with the design principles of the Arts & Crafts movement — is also a self-taught woodworker. She creates her own frames, even down to using walnut pegs in the joinery. “The pegging on the corners gives them a furniture quality,” explains Dills, whose work is sold by the Arts & Crafts-centric Grovewood Gallery adjacent to the Omni Grove Park Inn. 

A limited-edition screenprinted tea towel.
Photo by Colby Rabon

“They’ll pair my paintings with furniture pieces because they look great together.” 

Kimberley Dills, West Asheville, kdills.com, Kim Dills on artfulhome.com and on Facebook, @Kim.Dills on Instagram. The artist is locally represented by Grovewood Gallery (111 Grovewood Road at Grovewood Village, grovewood.com).

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