Manitou Springs artist Pam Pappas likes to keep things interesting in the studio.

Pappas works in mixed media, including paintings and sculptures. She said she likes to constantly try new things and work with different materials.

She enjoys letting ideas take a different shape or go in a different direction, she said.

“That’s the part I like — the surprise of where it goes,” she said on Tuesday.

A selection of Pappas’s paintings will be on display from June 3 to Aug. 5 at Olio Restaurant, 114 W. Grand Ave. in Mancos. An artist reception will take place Saturday, from 4-6 p.m. at the restaurant.

The paintings on display at Olio have a more rural feel and feature landscapes and animals, Pappas said. She enjoys painting cows, horses and trees and she is often inspired by the mountain scenery near her hometown of Manitou Springs, she said.

She does some painting in plein air, working outdoors and painting scenes in front of her, she said. For her studio work, she never works from photographs, she said.

Pappas makes sculptures by combining wood, metal and papier mache, she said. She gathers wood for the sculptures when she goes on hikes near her home, she said.

Pappas often combines different types of media to create her artwork, she said.

“I like trying different things to keep it interesting,” Pappas said.

Though her ideas are sometimes inspired by real places, Pappas said she prefers to create paintings that are abstract or figurative. She said she hopes people who see her work will learn to see landscapes in a different way.

“I hope people come away with a sense of how to look at things differently and explore different ways of seeing,” she said.

Pappas’s work will also be featured at Pura Vida Healthcare, 160 E. 12th St., in Durango from June through August.

jacobk@the-journal.com