(COLUMBIA, Tenn. - Jan. 7, 2015) - - - Columbia State Community College welcomes watercolor artists Fred Rawlinson, Darryl Steele and John Wilkinson to the Pryor Gallery Thursday, Jan. 8.

"The new year in the Pryor Art Gallery will begin with an exhibit of three gifted artists," said Rusty Summerville, Pryor Gallery director. "Working mainly in watercolor, they have all been featured in public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad."

Rawlinson, a Memphis native, earned a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Memphis College of Art and a Master of Fine Art from Syracuse University. He taught full time at MCA, where he retired in 1992 as the director of the graduate program. Rawlinson continues to teach at his studio and gallery in Germantown.

A Nashville native, Steele is mainly a self-taught artist who briefly attended Watkins School of Art. With awards from the Priest Lake Woman's Club and the Lake Worth Art League, Steele's work can be seen at the Opryland Hotel, Vanderbilt University and the Nissan Corporations, as well as the governor's residence in Caracas, Venezuela and Hotel Triana in Pristine, Kosovo.

Wilkinson, also a Nashville native, earned a bachelor's degree in art history and a master's degree in painting and studio from Vanderbilt. His art can be found in the Jamison Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Aronson Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Cumberland Gallery in Nashville. He is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, the Southern Watercolor Society and the Tennessee Watercolor Society.

The exhibit runs through Feb. 17, and the Pryor Gallery will host an artists' reception Feb. 12 from 5:30 - 7 p.m. All are welcome to come out, meet and talk with the artists.

The Pryor Gallery is in the Waymon L. Hickman Building on the Columbia Campus, located at 1665 Hampshire Pike. The gallery is open and free to the public Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Please visit www.ColumbiaState.edu/PryorGallery for full artist biographies and additional information.

Columbia State is a two-year college, serving a nine-county area in southern Middle Tennessee with locations in Columbia, Franklin, Lawrenceburg, Lewisburg and Clifton. As Tennessee's first community college, Columbia State is committed to increasing access and enhancing diversity at all five campuses. Columbia State is a member of the Tennessee Board of Regents, one of the largest higher education systems in the nation. For more information, please visit www.columbiastate.edu.

Tennessee's Community Colleges is a system of 13 colleges offering a high-quality, affordable, convenient and personal education to prepare students to achieve their educational and career goals in two years or less. We offer associate degree and certificate programs, workforce development programs and transfer pathways to four-year degrees. For more information, please visit us online at tncommunitycolleges.org.