Picture Your Walls in Eden honors the legacy of Thelma Winter as well as other local artists

Although it has been three years since popular local artist Thelma Winter passed away, her work – as well as that of other local artists – is alive and well at “Picture Your Walls,” located at 8260 East Eden Road, in Eden.

“It is my wife’s baby,” said Eric Adams about the store.

Adam’s wife, Sue, is daughter of Winter, and Adams said it has been enjoyable “learning about the artists and the business.”

The location is more than just a gallery, it is where much of the artwork originated from.

“This was her gallery,” said Adams, noting that since Winter’s death the gallery has been open. It is only recently that it has been “promoted as a business.”

The name, ‘Picture Your Walls,’ was created last year, Adams noted.

He said the concept is to pretty much “fill in the blank” to picture how you want your walls to look.

This includes offering a service to companies in which the gallery could work out an arrangement that would be almost like a lease option, in which pictures could be rotated periodically or the company could ultimately purchase the pictures or paintings.

At this time, Picture Your Walls sells the work of eight artists, including Winter, as well as four photographers.

The artists include Carol Clark, Dan Predmore, Gwen Parysek, Judith Hartke, Margaret Hixson, Nancy Prusak and Robin Mols.

The photographers include David Eckhardt, Brian Schmitt, Jim Schwabel and Kathy and Garry Dole.

“They’re all from Western New York,” said Adams.

And he noted the artists range in age, with Parysek being the youngest at 25.

“She gets her inspiration sometimes from music,” said Adams, noting she enjoys painting on stage as musicians perform.

According to Adams, there are various parts of Picture Your Walls. The first part being that it is a studio.

Also, they do custom matting and framing.

Picture Your Walls also serves as a wholesale location for artists and photographers, along with selling wholesale matts and frames.

Adams said the artists make their own decisions on what choices they would like to sell.

The styles range, and in large part, what is popular depends largely on who is purchasing the product, Adams said.

Being that the studio is in Eden, he said it is common that those who live locally may want agricultural imaging, where as a business in the city of Buffalo is likely looking for something else.

With businesses, he is looking forward to continuing to work with anyone who is interested in putting together a program to rotate the artwork.

“It’s a lease-to-purchase option,” said Adams.

He said Picture Your Walls will help develop a program to find artwork that both fits the wall and the budget.

Customers need something which fits their personal style.

Adams said Thelma Winter’s work is still very popular with customers. He said there are some limited edition prints available as well as a few originals for sale.

Besides the artwork, Adams noted this is a big year in Eden and Hamburg as each community is celebrating its bicentennial and if anyone finds a historical document, that Picture Your Walls is working with Laura Schell, a paper conservator based in Lockport, to preserve and clean up old documents.

He said the first step would be to place the document on an “acid free matt board” to help protect it.

Schell and Adams will be holding a program at the Eden Public Library on March 21 to discuss paper conservation.

He said he has seen old documents with water damage and stains cleaned up and restored. Adams cautioned that this process can not be done on old photographs.

Also, Adams said they now offer 3-D matting, which he noted has become popular with artists who are showing off their work at shows.

“It’s brand new that we’re offering this,” said Adams.

He also said they can custom frame other items, such as old uniforms.

Picture Your Walls is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and by appointment by calling 992-9147.

For more, visit www.pictureyourwallswny.com.