Connie Winters


Perhaps best-known for her vibrant Impressionist-style paintings Connie Winters has a unique sensitivity to color. "I see so much color and I’m drawn to it," she explains, "I think I see more than most people; while some would look at a road and see gray asphalt I will see shades of lavender, blue and even red. It’s just the way it appears to me."

Winters’ unusual gift for color has enabled her to excel as a painter, capturing the lush splendor of spring gardens and other colorful scenes on canvas in rich, brilliant hues. She paints intimate interiors, sunny landscapes and riots of flowers, using color as a way of "expressing happiness." A passionate gardener, Winters cultivates her arbors, paths and flowers, encouraging color as on her canvas.

For this North Carolina artist, color is a key ingredient in each of her paintings. "When I’m painting, it’s almost like a puzzle, putting colors together," she explains. "Putting cool reds and warm reds together creates such excitement. Excitement involves the viewer."

Although Winters has painted most of her life, she didn’t initially set out to become a professional. About 20 years ago she decided to sell her antique store and mail-order business and become a full-time artist. She gave herself two years to develop. She started selling her paintings much sooner than expected through a couple of galleries. Now seven well known southeast galleries represent her work.

Over two decades now, Connie has shared her love of France and the inspiration she gathers through travel by conducting painting workshops. Her enthusiasm for the rural regions of Provence and Dordogne, French culture, the ambience of the small villages, wild masses of flowers and bucolic landscapes is shared with her students. In addition to travel workshops, Winters hosts two, three day workshops in Matthews, NC and one to three day workshops associated with some of the galleries and Art Councils.

Connie has studied with notable artists Phillip Moose-Pulitzer Prize for art, the late Shirley Markham, Alice Steadman, Constantine Chatov, Mark Chatov, Alice Williams, the late Henry Barnes, and Quang Ho. More recently she has studied with Kevin McPherson and C.W. Mundy.

Her paintings are found in many notable private and corporate collections, which include, John Randolph Hearst Jr., the Coca-Cola collection, the Duke Mansion in Charlotte and the permanent collections of Erskine College, Presbyterian College and Wingate College