GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Denise Wood, an artist on Fleming Island has a passion for demonstrating her creativity through painting. Recently, Wood’s work was featured in an art gallery at The Art Center Cooperative in Jacksonville. 

While Wood has been painting since high school, she didn’t start earning money from her passion until recently.

“I started working with and selling art to interior designers and then I ended up owning a gallery in Neptune Beach called First Street Gallery,” she said. “I sold that and many years later one of my friends who was a painter asked me to come to art class with her. And then I just fell in love.”

Wood prefers to paint Florida landscapes, beaches and floral designs, but she also enjoys painting classic cars and has a specialty of painting people’s favorite alcoholic drinks. Her style is more detailed and realistic, but she is trying to add impressionism aspects to her art as well.

Clay County residents can see her talent in Green Cove Springs on U.S. Highway 17 and Walnut Street where Wood helped create the “Cove in Bloom Mural Project” with local artist, Sophie Dentiste. The mural was created by local artists who came together to paint the floral mural.

While Wood’s art has been featured in multiple galleries, unfortunately there are not a lot of places artists can show their work in Clay County. Wood sees Green Cove Springs having the most potential for more artwork but believes all of Clay County would enjoy more art. “There aren’t a lot of galleries out here, I wish there were.” Wood said. Although Wood and other local artists are still working on getting more artwork featured in Clay County, they still love what they do and enjoy creating art. For Wood, Painting started out to relax and embrace her creativity.

“Painting just takes me to a different space. It’s another zone, you know, I was talking to a runner at the art gallery opening yesterday about how running helps him get into the zone and I told him that’s exactly what happens to me when I’m painting. When I’m painting I don’t think about anything else,” she said. 

Woods has been selling her artwork for the past seven years. Her art can be seen and purchased at denisewood.com, The Atlantic Beach Arts Market and the Art Center Cooperative.