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A solo exhibition of works by artist Kadra Casseday is currently on display in the Maxwell Gallery at the Randolph County Community Arts Center. The show, titled "Taking Time," features oil paintings and oil monotypes by Casseday. The opening reception for the exhibit will be Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Casseday, a native of Elkins, is a painter and print maker who works primarily in oil monotype printmaking and oil on canvas. She is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College in studio art where she studied with Carol Pelletier. Her images include architectural studies and landscape paintings with an emphasis on realism, complex shadows and high contrast. Most of the subjects depicted in Casseday's works are historically significant or are a documentation of her life, values and family heritage.

Casseday is one of the few artists in the region who uses the process of oil monotype printmaking. An oil monotype print is a transferring of an original, single-layer oil painting from the smooth plate onto cotton rag printmaking paper via the pressure of a printing press. This results in a one-of-a-kind original print featuring the rich velvety oil paint and accenting individual brush strokes. Casseday creates her unique monotype prints on a Conrad C-25 printing press.

As the owner of the Blue Door Studio in downtown Elkins, she has recently expanded her range of media and subjects. She teaches with the YMCA's after-school program, the Randolph County Community Arts Center, Veteran's Upward Bound, the Augusta Heritage Center, The Mountain Institute's Outdoor Education Program and the Arts Bank program in Randolph County Schools. She is a juried artist with Tamarack in Beckley and exhibits her art at Artists at Work and Mainline Books in Elkins and The Blue House Gallery in Helvetia. Casseday also accepts commissioned projects. She and her husband, Adam, live in Beverly and spend their time traveling and being outdoors.

"Taking Time" will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays with weekend and holiday hours to be announced.