Gayle Reynold's "No Stone Unturned : A Ruddy Turnstone", Watercolor on paper, 9" x 12"

"No Stone Unturned : A Ruddy Turnstone" by Gayle Reynolds, Watercolor on paper, 9" x 12"

About Gayle Reynolds

Gayle Reynolds loves palm trees. She loves their colors, the way the fronds quiver in the breezes, their almost abstract arrangement and the way their lines intersect and create unusual shapes.

Reynolds, a Galveston-based artist, has created hundreds of paintings of palm trees that now hang in homes, businesses and restaurants all over the Gulf Coast.

“There is just something about the composition of palm trees that is so interesting to me,” she said.

Recently, she created a painting that included two pink houses behind a row of palm trees on Broadway in Galveston. Locals will immediately recognize the spot because of the houses, but Reynolds said the houses just happen to be there.

“It’s really about the palm trees,” she said.

The palm trees are palm trees, but they each have personalities and when she paints them, she can see the intricate differences, she said.

“They stand together, close together, like two friends,” she said, pointing to one of her paintings. “There are so many colors and they are light and dark.”

In 2000, they built a West End Galveston home, and opened Water’s Edge, a gallery and studio at 1302 21st St. on the island’s East End.

Gayle Reynolds’ artwork lines the two-story building; Rex created a workshop for his passions — building boats and Adirondacks chairs.

Both are native Texans, and Gayle Reynolds grew up near Beeville, where she experimented with drawing and painting. One of her first projects was painting a girl on the side of a cistern.

“No one ever said it was good, but I liked it,” she said.

She continued to draw and paint through her childhood and wanted to major in art in college. But her mother cautioned her that she needed to make a living, so she thought about teaching art. That didn’t pan out. She graduated from Sam Houston State University with a degree in English and taught middle school literature for 13 years. She took classes at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and has been seriously painting since then.

• Name : Gayle Reynolds