Pamela Quarles-Adams Joins The Best of LKN Podcast

An Artist's New Chapter in Davidson

Some guests make the host's job easy, and Pamela Quarles-Adams is one of them. She arrived to her very first podcast recording slightly worried she'd be terrible at it (she wasn't), and within minutes we were deep into Clydesdales, fighter jets, red wolves, and the kind of single-line portraits that have to be drawn in one breathless sitting or not at all.

If you've spent any time in downtown Davidson over the last couple of years, you may already know Pam's work — those bold, graphic blocks of color that turn a Blue Ridge ridgeline or a Louisiana gator into something both familiar and brand new. What you might not know is that she's just closed one chapter and opened another, trading a bustling Main Street gallery for the quiet of a night-owl studio. Here's her story, and a look at what she's making next.

From Lake Charles to Lake Norman

Pam's path to our lake took the scenic route. She spent 40 years in Lake Charles, Louisiana, then 20 more in Colorado before landing here about five years ago. Home base now is a lakeside neighborhood in Troutman — with a Statesville mailing address, because that's just how things work around here.

The Colorado years are worth pausing on. Before Colorado Springs, she lived in Divide, a one-stoplight spot on the backside of Pikes Peak, where she ran a ranch and bred Clydesdales for a stretch. "I've kind of done a few strange things," she said, "but always incorporated my artwork." Art, in her words, has always been in her heart and in her blood — going back to middle school, where she'd draw beside an aunt who already knew she wanted to be an artist.

The move south came down to simplifying: no more winter sports, no more Clydesdales, and a shared wish to live somewhere warm and on the water. Her husband planned to retire on the lake. He didn't — at 45 years of flying and counting, the former fighter pilot turned private jet pilot still isn't ready to quit, which keeps sending Pam happily back to art each year.

A Gallery, Eight Artists, and a Thousand Emails

Pam never went looking to run a gallery. After a year of pandemic-paced downtime, she missed being around people and art, so a neighbor (a Sotheby's realtor with good instincts) took her to see a rental space in Davidson. She fell for the town on the spot.

That first space, opened about two and a half years ago, was a thousand-square-foot contemporary studio upstairs at 108 South Main, above Good Drip Coffee — a name longtime listeners will recognize from owner Zach's early appearance on this podcast. The plan was simple: sell her own work. Then artists started asking to be represented, the "more the merrier" instinct kicked in, and when she moved downstairs to the center of Main Street, the studio became a full-fledged gallery showing eight more artists over a year and a half.

She loved it — maybe a little too much. "I enjoyed telling people about the other artists probably more so than talking about my own," she admitted. Add in teaching, where adult art classes drew a waiting list north of a thousand emails, and something had to give. The tell came when commission deadlines started slipping; running the day-to-day had quietly crowded out the very thing she'd come back to do.

Three Series and a Signature Style

So Pam made the call to step back. Her new studio sits just a couple of doors from the old gallery, above the violin center — smaller, quieter, and tuned to how she actually likes to work: at night, on her own schedule, no interruptions. For the first time maybe ever, she's focusing strictly on her own art.

Three series are leading the way. The wildlife paintings — which she cheerfully describes as looking like "giant paint by numbers" — feature the indigenous animals of wherever she's lived, from Louisiana gators to Colorado elk to Arizona roadrunners, and now Carolina critters. The Blue Ridge Mountains series is newer; after two decades surrounded by the Rockies, she never painted a mountain until our hills pulled it out of her. And the single continuous contour line portraits — one unbroken line, one sitting, no stopping — recently produced a Salvador Dalí piece that a fan is encouraging her to send to the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg.

The through-line is those flat, graphic blocks of color. Pam can paint photorealistically — she's done more than 85 pet portraits in oil — but it's not where her heart lives. "I can paint photorealistically," she said, "but I really hurt my brain doing it." With a background that wandered from drafting to interior design to photography, she's the first to call herself a "Renaissance gal."

The Story of Moose

The piece we're most eager to see is a Carolina Red Wolf named Moose. Many of us don't realize North Carolina has its own indigenous wolf — a striking animal Pam describes as a cross between a coyote, a fox, and a gray wolf. The painting came about through Janet Anderson, a Davidson-area land conservancy advocate who walked into Pam's studio with Moose's face tattooed on her arm and a challenge to paint him.

Moose had a national following before he passed away this past year, and Pam connected with ranger and photographer Robert Wilcox with a plan: finish the painting, and let the sanctuary use it however helps raise money. It's taken her well over a year — she made the colors gloriously difficult for herself — but Moose's legacy may soon be doing good for the wolves who came after him.

Find Pam's Work — and Stay Tuned

We're lucky to have an artist of Pam's range and warmth here on the lake, and luckier still to catch her as she turns toward her own canvas. Keep an eye out — we'll share images of Moose and her newest work as they're finished. Welcome to the LKN community, Pam.

About the author: Jeff Hamm is the host & producer of The Best of LKN podcast. Since 2020, Jeff has been spotlighting local business owners, artisans, and nonprofit leaders who are making a positive impact in the Lake Norman area. He's also a real estate broker specializing in helping buyers relocate to Lake Norman. Learn more here: https://lknreal.com/