About the Artist

Gayla Parks - Biography

Gayla Parks moved to Athens, Ohio, in 1992 after a fifteen years residency in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Gayla attended Oklahoma State University completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with teaching certification. After teaching high school art in Dewey, Oklahoma, she returned to Oklahoma State University as a graduate teaching assistant while earning a Master's Degree in Art Education. She was selected as the Outstanding Graduate Student in the College of Education in 1974. After graduation she continued teaching as an Instructor in the Art Department of Mississippi State University and served as an Art Therapist for the Mississippi Regional Mental Health Association.

She has belonged to numerous art organizations, including life membership in the Louisiana Watercolor Society, Ohio Watercolor Society, the Southeast Ohio Watermedia Society, Ohio Art League, the Columbus Liturgical Guild, Foothills School of American Art, N.E. Ohio Art Guild, Z.A.P.P of the Zanesville area, the Ohio Plein Air Society, and the Athens Area Art Alliance. A charter member of Ohio Plein Air Society, her gallery, Studio 4 Art Gallery, hosted the first three years state competition and exhibition. She is in the process of forming a Studio Artists Guild in Nelsonville, Ohio.

Gayla enjoys all forms of creative expression including ceramics, jewelry making, calligraphy and printmaking. In the past few years she has concentrated on painting in watercolor, acrylic, and oils. Most of her paintings begin outside, en plein air, inspired by nature and refined in the studio. While not limiting herself to any one type of subject matter, she enjoys portraiture and still life. Some paintings are inspired from drawn journal images.

Gayla has won numerous awards including "Best of Show" in the Dewey, Oklahoma, annual Sooner Bank Art Contest and Exhibition. She has participated in many juried exhibitions and faculty exhibitions at Mississippi State University, Auburn University in Alabama, and Oklahoma State University. Regionally, Gayla has been selected to show her paintings at the Zanesville Ohio Art Museum and the Andrew Kachilla Art Center in Cambridge, Ohio. Two Paintings were selected for the First Annual Appalachian Women Exhibition at the O.U. Zanesville Campus in 2000.

Lamborn's Gallery and the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio, have shown her artwork. She served four years on the board of Foothills School of American Art and has shown in Foothills Gallery. She was a working member of Starbrick Clay Gallery in Nelsonville, Ohio for four years. Gayla was a founding member of Riverside Artist Gallery in Marietta, Ohio, and a working member for six years.