Jocelyn Beatty often ran into a stylistic brick wall when she would enter her paintings into juried art shows.

Juried shows tend to prefer abstract and Impressionistic works, the Shenango Township artist said.

"I don't think that way," said Ms. Beatty, who favored still-lifes and landscapes. "I want to paint what I see. I want that bark on the tree to feel like bark."

Since the devotee of high contrast and bright colors started painting wildlife about five years ago, jurors have picked up on her attention to detail.

It also has opened up a new market for her work. She travels the country going to wildlife shows selling prints of her paintings.

But, while her landscapes and still-lifes were accepted just fine back home, she has only showed her wildlife works sparingly.

With "Images of Nature," a show that opens tonight at the Valley Arts Guild, Sharon, Ms. Beatty is offering the first show-wide glimpse of these works in her home area, while mixing in the familiar barns and florals.

She paints wherever she is, at home, on her boat -- which is named Wet Paint -- or on vacation.

So, when she's home, she paints a robin she sees in the grass or a blue jay resting in a tree.

"I kind of paint where I live," said the mother of two and grandmother of two. "I've painted every barn in the neighborhood. Most all the wildlife I do is found in western Pennsylvania."

The show includes a fox, geese, a heron, a frog, a red-tailed hawk, deer and a noble turkey she calls "Young Tom."

Although known as a watercolor painter, she's getting more and more into acrylic paints, and has never totally abandoned oils.

"I did oils for 20 years, then I did watercolors for 20 years and now I'm in my 20 years on acrylics," she quipped.

"My watercolor students are afraid I'm going to give up on it, but I won't."

Ms. Beatty calls her students her "support system."

"I get as much out of them as they do out of me," she said.

She teaches at the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, New Castle, and organizes a summer on-location painting workshop.

Since some of her students take classes from her year after year, she's always looking for new techniques.

"It reaffirms all my ideas about techniques and composition," she said of teaching." It improves my work. I do a demo every class, so I do two paintings every week in class."

Some of these works are in the show, including two barns and two florals. One of each set was painted in her morning class, and the other at her night class.

Although she paints for the sheer joy of putting paint to paper, she also finds it therapeutic.

The still-life floral "Remembering" shows a bouquet and an American flag.

While examining a floral arrangement, Ms. Beatty thought about the difference between flowers, and equated that with people.

"We're all different," she said. "We're all beautiful."

Those thoughts, coupled with the matching colors of the flag and many of the flowers, became her artistic reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she said.

"This is my piece working that out," she said.

Ms. Beatty's Web site is at www.artgally.com/jocelyn