A North Carolina native, Tim Turner’s upbringing was split between the school year in his hometown of Roxboro and summers spent on his grandparents’ self-sustaining farm in Mebane, NC.

Tim attended Appalachian State University in 1972, not primarily for academic reasons (although it is a wonderful university) but because he wanted to play college football. He achieved that goal for one season. However, toward the end of that first season, as puddles on the practice field began to freeze over, he noticed that the basketball gym was well-heated, prompting him to switch sports.

At ASU, Tim majored in Industrial Arts, and discovered a passion for ceramics, focusing on purely functional work. In 1977 he moved to Penland, NC, apprenticing with Ron Propst, the first resident potter at the Penland School of Crafts.

In 1982, Tim returned to Boone, NC, setting up a clay studio and returning to App State focusing on fine art classes where he was introduced to the abstract painters of the sixties and seventies; the painting bug had bitten. He continued to produce pottery and paint until 2020 when he closed his clay studio to focus exclusively on painting. Abstraction has always been at the root of Tim’s work, from pure abstracts, figurative paintings and continuing into his “Bird” series. His latest series combines several passions, pottery, gardening and painting. Entitled “Songs of Celebration” scraps of discarded paintings are used to create collages of vases that are filled with bouquets of flowers, teapots, teacups  and pitchers, vessels that are used to share celebratory moments.