Elizabeth Roy. (Photo by Richard Wolfson)

Taking a short morning break from the painting she was finishing for “Spring into Art,” the art sale and exhibit opening at the Unitarian Church Friday, May 11, artist Elizabeth Roy took a moment to reflect back on her creative career in a multitude of media. Works in oil pastel, acrylic, watercolor, and fabric adorn the walls of Roy’s West Bare Hill Road home, emblems of a prolific artist with a blooming career. A painter, quilter, needleworker, and framer, there are few arts that Roy hasn’t tried—and mastered—in her life. Now that she is retired from the business world, Roy has more time to recreate scenes of the country life she enjoys with her husband, René. The best part of her life now, she said, is the freedom to decide what to create each day.

“I enjoy doing anything that’s with my hands,” she said.

Growing up in New Brunswick, Roy learned to sew at an early age, and still enjoys using her sewing skills to make quilts. Lining the walls of her home are miniature quilts made up of tiny, hand-stitched hexagons, as well as much larger pieces in various traditional patterns like drunkard’s path and cathedral window. Large quilts are often finished by quilting professionals with long-arm quilting machines, Roy explained, which bind the top, the batting, and the backing together with elaborate patterns of thread. Nine years ago, after observing the process herself, she decided to go into business and bought a long-arm machine of her own. Today Roy finishes over 100 quilts a year for people all over New England. Some of her clients have become great friends, she said, including a woman who airmails her quilts from Holland. The day of the interview, Roy was working on a large Baltimore album-style quilt made by a good friend, while a large schoolhouse pattern quilt of her own design was the next in line to be finished. Quilting is only one facet of Roy’s work as an artist, however. “As soon as I finish a quilt, I run up to North Springfield to paint.” The couple’s condominium in that small Vermont town is where she gets fresh inspiration, she said, as well as rest and relaxation.

After learning to paint when her three children were in their teens, Roy gradually refined her technique with acrylics and oil pastels and parlayed them into consistently prize-winning paintings. Large, dramatically colored images of flowers, fruit, and barn animals have won a number of ribbons from the Leominster Art Association over the years, including the Claude H. Munson Award for a startlingly lifelike portrait of her now-deceased Vietnamese potbellied pig, “Chester.” A profile of a ram, with wool that appears so real it could almost be touched, took home the first prize another year. “I love to capture detail,” she said. “I love fine brush strokes.”

Roy has recently begun reproducing some of her work with the giclée method, a print process that duplicates a painting with a high degree of accuracy. A striking pastel of blueberries was the most recent subject she had made into a giclée print, and the reproductions will now be offered for sale, she said. Growing as a professional artist is an interesting process, Roy noted. “When you paint, it’s an extension of you,” she said. “It’s a big step to part with something.” She would like to continue fostering her professional reputation, she added, by exhibiting more paintings in local galleries and increasing her audience. To this end, she has been working prolifically in her studio for the last six months, and estimates that she has finished over 20 paintings in that period of time. Pointing to a large and striking portrait of a sheep in front of a vivid red barn door, Roy beams with modest pride. The painting, created when inspiration was at a peak, was completed in only one day, she said.

Roy is looking forward to sharing her work with the town when the “Spring into Art” exhibit opens. Fellow exhibitors include artists Carol Panek-Clarke, Anita Tilley, Caroline Hebert, and Terri Knoett-ner, a group that meets twice monthly to paint and share techniques. She particularly enjoys the camaraderie of painting with others, she said, and finds that doing so makes it even more fun. Roy’s work will also be on display at the Harvard Historical Society during the house tour Saturday, June 9. Opportunities like these are one of the best parts about painting, she said. “I love sharing my work with the town.”