By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — As a banking and finance professional focused on commercial real estate, Barb Capeletti reached a slowing down moment with the market crash in 2008 and 2009, so she started to fill some of her time with the painting skills she had learned in high school.

“I am all watercolors. I started in that medium years ago, but it was a pastel, washed out looking thing that was the way my high school teacher taught. I thought it was kind of boring, so I tried oils. I liked oil, because you could get color with oil. It was a little messy for traveling, so I decided to try watercolor again and decided you could get color with watercolors, too,” recalled Capeletti. “I went back and forth, but then decided that I could be mediocre in two things or focus and really try to improve in one — so I decided it was going to be watercolor.”

Part of the appeal, she said, was watercolors’ mystery.

“Sometimes it flows al by itself and you don’t know what you are going to get. What you intended to do, doesn’t happen. With oil, you can control the stroke. With watercolor, I’ve found that you can control it, too, but it is sort of a dance.”

The Masters class helped me see it, produce it better, the composition, everything…

Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Capeletti enjoyed her four years of art in high school, but said her parents didn’t think art school was a real thing.

“So I ended up getting a degree in Finance at Florida Atlantic University. Then I spent 25 years in banking and finance, in commercial real estate, shopping centers and office buildings. I tried to take art classes at night but I was working long hours in the commercial real estate finance career. By the time I finished a day there was nothing creative left in me. So I just dabbled, but never really got anywhere with it,” she said.

But there was a silver lining in disaster.

“After the 2008 crash when everything came tumbling down, banks were shutting down. So I said to myself, ‘You can paint. Why don’t you just paint.’ Admittedly, it wasn’t all just paint,” she said. “There was family stuff that got in the way, too. It wasn’t like I just threw myself into it. I just started to get better.”

Capeletti shared that her first watercolor mentor was Tom Jones — the artist, not the singer!

“He lives in Florida but we were both up here, at Cheap Joe’s,” she recalled. “I studied with Joe Miller for quite a while and he was a big influence, too. You can see it in some of my paintings, still. These were foundational skills, not tricks.”

There is something in me I want to say, but I don’t like to write. I communicate through art, these watercolors.

The Capelettis split their time between a seasonal house in Banner Elk and another home in Sarasota.

“We do the snowbird thing!” she replied. “We moved here five years ago. We had a house in Colorado, but it was just too far to go and I couldn’t breathe at 8,000 feet! The altitude was too much. At Banner Elk, we are at about 3,800 feet in elevation, which is a nice compromise. My husband has been coming up here since he was nine years old for summers, with his parents. They had a house in Blowing Rock. So, this was really the right place for us to be,” she said. “His sister is here. The art is here — and it is really nice here!”

The last couple of years, Capeletti has started taking an online “Masters” class with Thomas Schaller.

“He is an amazing, international award-winning artist and architect out of New York,” said Capeletti. “The class came with online critiques and it just really moved my art up. It helped me see it, produce it better, the composition, everything. I feel like I have been much better since that class. I can see the difference in my landscapes.”

As for motivation, Capeletti said she has done every creative thing she could find since childhood.

“It was crayons, the little watercolor box. My parents bought me every craft. I just love making stuff,” she said. “I’ve settled on a couple things. My grandmother taught me to crochet, so I still do a little bit of that. Not well enough to be showing it like some of the ladies who have come through Edgewood, but I like creating something. There is something inside that I want to say, but I don’t like to write. I love to read, but I can’t write. Maybe it has been too much banking! But there may be something in my head that I want to say but it comes out through my art. I’ll see a scene in my head, with all these beautiful colors and things. I can say it this way. I can’t say it any other way.”

Capeletti had a lot to say about the importance of art for children, too.

“Art unlocks kids’ creativity,” said Capeletti. “Most everybody has creativity, but so often we beat it out of children with ‘Don’t paint outside the lines. The grass is not blue and the sky is not green.’ In my view, let them do it. It helps their thinking process, their creative process. It uses all parts of your brain. It kind of wakes up all parts of the human brain.”

Capeletti, the teacher, likes watching other people.

“I like seeing them because you can just see when they have an ‘Aha!’ moment. They can see that art can be something they can enjoy and express themselves. So, as a teacher, it is something special that you are helping someone find,” Capeletti pointed out.

Painting plein air with watercolors, it turns out, is not necessarily practical in all environments.

“I tried plein air in Colorado but the air is so dry it didn’t work out so well,” said Capeletti. “There are a lot of pretty places in the Banner Elk area. With some friends, I also paint in St. Augustine (Florida).”

Teacher, banker, artist. Without question, Barb Capeletti is full of ideas to go with her passion and creativity.