Elizabeth Rundorff has pencil-sketched on canvas several apples and onions sitting on a table.

Taped to the top of the easel are two photographs of the scene.

The Hermitage woman, who is preparing for a solo show that opens Friday at the Valley Arts Guild, Sharon, painted over the sketched lines with black.

"I got that from (Henri) Matisse," she explained of the painted lines. "I really love his black outlines."

The outlines may or may not be visible once the painting is completed. Her paintings are the result of what she calls a layering process and change with each layer.

As she adds colors, she "gets clues" about shapes and how the colors will work together, she said, acknowledging the influence of Paul Cezanne in the process.

Ms. Rundorff compared the layering process to setting up a photograph.

"If I would take a photograph, it would be really blurry at first," said the 1996 Hickory High School graduate. "But as you focus, you get a sense of the shapes."

In painting a still-life, such as the one she’s working on, Ms. Rundorff is primarily concerned with shape and color. But the painting will mean something more when she is done.

Ms. Rundorff said her still-lifes are about the simplicity of home life, the importance of things we see every day.

"In simple settings, you find the most meaning," said the program assistant and children’s workshop teacher at the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, New Castle.

The Valley Arts Guild show will have several meanings for Ms. Rundorff. She titled the show "Finding Home" to reflect the traveling she’s done and how it has affected her art.

The travels include her college years at the College of Wooster (Ohio), a semester spent in France at the Marchutz School of Painting, and pursuing jobs in Nantucket, Mass., and Vermont.

"I’ve collected subject matter and (decided) what I wanted to do," she said.

Ms. Rundorff’s show will include watercolor still-lifes, oil still-lifes, landscapes, portraits, a couple of Paul Klee-influenced abstracts and a sampling of photographs.

In a photographic series called "The Simplicity of Change," she shows her acceptance that change is inevitable, even when you don’t see it happening. The photos show things washed up on a beach in Nantucket.

"A lot of times I’m trying to force things to change," she said. "By seeing these things on the beach, I realize things are changing."

In Ms. Rundorff’s art, change has been thrust upon her. At Wooster, from where she graduated a year ago, she concentrated on ceramics. But without a kiln, she hasn’t been able to work in ceramics since she left.

The show will not feature any of her ceramic sculptures because they are too big for the guild’s gallery.

"This will be my first solo show since my senior exhibit at school," she said. "I think it will be fun because my friends and family will be able to see my work. Most of them have never seen my work, so they’ll get to see what I’ve been doing with myself."