Owning a gallery has been a labor of love for Sandi Cooper. Art wasn’t a big part of her life growing up, but she always loved looking at what other people created.

She and her husband moved to the area from Vermont 15 years ago. She was working as a nurse midwife in Haywood and Jackson County — a career she’d had for more than 20 years — when she spotted an open storefront in downtown Sylva. In her mind’s eye she could see the store’s windows filled with blown glass ornaments — those that now are part of It’s By Nature’s signature sidewalk appeal.

When Cooper decided to open her gallery, she asked one of the first people she’d met in the area, Craig Forrest, if he would be interested in exhibiting. Forrest had given Cooper a painting that became one of the first pieces of art she hung in her new home.

It’s almost as though one can hear the creaking sighs of the old, hand-hammered barn boards in Forrest’s watercolor paintings. His brush’s strokes evoke the weathered wood with its gentle warps, many knotholes, and varied colors.

His landscapes draw from the local community — a home perched on a hill near Cherokee, the great oak tree by the First Baptist Church in Sylva, creeks and coves in Caney Fork, fly-fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The images are both familiar and timelessly agrarian, their character influenced by the great Andrew Wyeth. His connection with the local landscape evokes It’s By Nature’s central theme.

After a year in business, Cooper expanded It’s By Nature shop to include additional gallery space. The expansion was celebrated with a show of Forrest’s work, which is available exclusively at the gallery — a distinction Forrest jokes is a result of his slowness at painting.

Since opening Cooper has grown her artist base from 30 to 150, all from North Carolina. She greatly enjoys curating the works, arranging her space as to best showcase the wares. “The space is what I enjoy creating,” Cooper said.