For Laurie Popp, the smell of oil paint smells like art. Popp is the newest artist to join 16 Main Gallery.

“My first memories of creating art were of watching my dad painting at his easel while I played in the sandbox,” Popp said. A few years ago, she started “felting” to use up the wool that was piling up at her farm near Pulaski, Tenn.

“At this point, my art is equally split between felted fiber art and painting,” in oils and acrylics, Popp said. “I almost always use my observations of animals and nature for my fiber sculptures and paintings. Living on our farm gives ample inspiration.”

Sheep raised on the family farm supply the wool for her fiber art. She dyes the wool and sells it to local felters and spinners.

Popp’s fiber art designs usually are “a loose, fun impression of the actual subject,” she said. She prefers to paint in impressionistic style.

“I paint lots of sheep. People love sheep,” Popp said. “There’s just something about them.”

In addition to art objects, many of Popp’s fiber pieces are useful as felted hats, bags, bowls and “my little wren houses that can serve as a primary residence for a young family,” she said.

Her felted sheep, pigs, chickens and bunnies are pure fun. “No use except for joy,” Popp said.

In other artistic pursuits, Popp has painted sets for various theater groups in Huntsville and Madison County for 14 years. The experience “has been incredibly encouraging to me as an artist,” she said. “It has given me miles of canvas and gallons of paint to play with and taught me to paint big and loose and not take any of it too seriously.”

Her husband Chris works at NASA. “He makes my art career possible,” she said. Their children, Mary and Matt, are attending college in Pennsylvania.

“16 Main Gallery is a great little community of artists that feels wonderfully supportive and like-minded,” she said.

For more information, send email to Flycreekfarm@gmail.com or visit flycreekfarm.com and Facebook/Flycreekfarm.