My name is Marsha Balbier and I have been an artist for over 30 years. I create my artwork at my studio in Asheville, North Carolina in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.

My work is exhibited at The Riverside Gallery 310 Lyman St. in the River Arts District.

I studied art and design at Endicott College in Boston, fabric design and printmaking at Philadelphia University(formerly the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science) and was given a scholarship at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada where I took woodcutting and watercolors.
My artwork is in the permanent collection at the Banff School of Fine Arts.

My artwork is about vivid color, bold patterns and varied textures. I get a lot of inspiration from nature and the Impressionistic artists. My passion is to create art using combinations of color, form, and overall design to produce unique works of art.
Glass is a wonderful medium to incorporate all three of these elements. Fused glass allows me to experiment with color using the fascinating visual qualities of glass.
Encaustic painting is a hot wax painting technique that dates back to ancient Egypt and has recently enjoyed a resurgence of populatity due to its ability to show dramatic three dimentional effects on the work of art. It is basically done with heated colored wax and a torch and has many layers to get the beautiful effects.
My jewelry is made with semi precious stones and stirling silver, and some of the silver is done with 99.9 silver. I use different techniques to get the desired finished product. I can customize an of my jewelry to order.
I also work with a pallet knife to create dramatic oil paintings. I just went back to paintig with oils recently and really enjoy creating these impressionistic pieces. I take photographs, blow them up and work right from the pictures which gives them a truly realistic look.