Paula Wild of Warren has been named the Artist of the Month at the Wolcott Mill Historic Center for the month of May. Source photo by Matt December

Wild, a Warren resident, will have several pieces of artwork on display at the Wolcott Mill Historic Center for the month of May. The works Wild will display mostly depict different areas of Wolcott Mill.

“I enjoy landscape an awful lot,” she said. “With landscapes, it is just seeing that thing that you enjoy about it, being able to recreate it.”

Wild, who was born in Romeo and raised in Ferndale, has spent most of her life involved with the arts, but it wasn’t until she retired in 2001 that she was able to make it more than just a hobby.

“I really enjoy working in pastels,” she said. “I like the immediacy of it. I like that you don’t have to spend time mixing colors, you just kind of grab the right color and away you go.”

Wild said she has studied art during the years by taking classes at Oakland University, attending workshops, teaching herself independently, as well as working with local artist August Gloss.

Aside from pastels, Wild spends time working on charcoal drawings and occasionally likes to dabble in watercolors. She said she finds herself mostly focusing on painting landscapes and animals, and recently trying to perfect drawing people.

Wild, who does her own matting and framing, said she tries to paint or draw several days a week either on her own or with a group of friends.

“If you do something creative, it is such a high,” she said. “It may not be the best painting in the whole wide world, but you created it and it turned out somewhat the way you wanted it to.

“It will never be as perfect as you want it to be; that is why we keep learning.”

Wild’s work will be on display for the month of May at the Wolcott Mill Historic Center, 63841 Wolcott Road.

For more information about the mill’s Artist of the Month program or about purchasing Wild’s work, call Sharon Feld at 749-5997.