“I love that quote,” says local artist Jo Kelley. “And I guess my painting is my way to play.”

Jo Kelley is sitting in the office of Ridge Runner Naturals, the business that she and her husband, Ed Kelley, have operated on Waynesville’s Main Street since 1989. Dressed today in muted colors, Kelley is a woman in the middle of her life who speaks quietly and confidently of her watercolors and of the major changes that have occurred in her work in the last two years.

“I let the water and paint flow on happily, letting the watercolor paint itself with a little help from my brushes and fingers,” she says, following up on the John Muir quotation and glancing at a card on which she has written some thoughts concerning her approach to painting. That she has taken the time to write down these reflections reveals a part of her personality that also appears in her paintings — an eye for detail, a desire to get things right. “I invent images as I go along, sometimes relying on my memory to capture the subject.”

Rather than depend solely on memory, however, Kelley much prefers to take her brushes and paints, and go out into her beloved mountains to capture her subjects first-hand. Though she and her family are inveterate hikers and campers, and have explored many trails in the Smokies and in Haywood County, Kelley’s favorite locations for these bouts of plein air painting remain the Blue Ridge Parkway and Cataloochee Valley.

“Feeling deeply about your subject makes it come out more naturally,” Kelley says. “You paint with your heart and soul. You paint what you know.”

Kelley, who grew up in Piedmont North Carolina, is a close friend of both art and nature. She majored in art at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and taught art in the Charlotte school system for two years before moving to Western North Carolina, where she taught at Pisgah High School for three more years.

In 1984, Kelley left teaching in the school system to be at home with her newborn daughter, Keri Anna. Five years later, she and Ed moved Ridge Runner Naturals from its Allens Creek location to Main Street.

For a time the Kelleys focused on designing and selling screen-printed T-shirts, usually with a theme from nature. Eventually, they began adding different retail items that reflected their interest in camping and hiking. Bird feeders, nature books and tapes, children’s games and toys, and many other items soon crowded the shop. Soon Ridge Runner Naturals became a favorite shopping stop on Main Street, appealing to children and adults alike.

Despite the great success of their store, however, both Jo Kelley and her husband felt somewhat dissatisfied with their work. Ed, a native of Western North Carolina, longed for more time to devote to playing and recording his music; Jo wanted more time to paint. In 1998, she joined the Blue Ridge Water Media Society and began pushing herself to paint. But with the demands of the retail store she still lacked the time and the energy to give herself to her art.

Then tragedy came to their family. On July 15, Kelley’s mother, Bettye Milliken Ridge, who had urged her to cut back on the retail end of the business and to focus on her art, died in a car accident. More than anything else, Kelley says, the death of her mother pushed her to follow her dream of painting. Her vow to pursue her lifelong dream happily coincided with the artistic aspirations of other family members; Ed was interested in pursuing his music and doing less retail work while Keri Anna, awaiting admission to the pottery program at Haywood Community College, had already begun exhibiting her own line of jewelry.

Though some of the regular patrons of Ridge Runner Naturals were upset that the store no longer stocked as many children’s toys or games — “A few of them just turned around and left the store as soon as they saw what we’d done,” Kelley said — most of the shop’s customers have been very supportive of the decision to carry less retail merchandise and to fill the open spaces with Kelley’s watercolors.

These watercolors glow with color on this particular dark winter evening. Here is Kelley’s latest work, “The Bunny Trail,” in which a trail and the flowers and shrubs surrounding it are suffused with purple light. Here is “Appalachian Aura,” a view of the mountains in which the bluish mist reminds us once again of why these hills are called the Blue Ridge. There is “September Memories,” a fall painting titled “Music of the Mountains,” and a lovely scene of a mountain cabin in winter titled “Gift From The Heavens.”

Kelley’s work has begun to gain a following in the area. “One lady from Oregon somehow saw our ad in the Smoky Mountain News Travel Guide and called to tell us that she wanted the picture of Cataloochee she’d seen there,” Kelley says. “She wanted a print 50 inches wide, which we had made and then shipped to Oregon.”

In addition to her work in the gallery and her involvement with the Blue Ridge Water Media Society, Kelley has also been a member of the Waynesville Gallery Association — she is a past president of that organization — and has helped sponsor Waynesville’s Art After Dark program. She has attended different watercolor workshops and has also helped teach art.

But her primary love remains her painting. Visitors who stroll through Ridge Runner Naturals may see many of the limited edition prints that Kelley has completed. The paintings are bright yet filled with soft colors.

“I use a limited palette — red, yellow, and blue,” Kelley says. “I use lots of green in my paintings, of course, but I mix those using the other colors. I love to paint mist rising out of valleys, creating and separating mountains.”

While painting in the open air, Kelley is frequently recognized by people who know her from the shop. “Someone once told me that my paintings fill you with peace and joy, and give you the feeling of being there,” Kelley said.

When asked what resources she might recommend for beginning painters, Kelley pulls several books from her desk: Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way; Living Serenspiditiously by Madeleine Kay; and Bruce Wilkerson’s Prayer of Jabez. The last book played a major role in Kelley’s decision to give more time to her art. Part of the premise of the book involves the development of individual gifts.

“People should do what God has meant them to do,” Jo Kelley says. “You will be blessed if you follow your heart.”