“There’s something about the contour, the sandy dunes and dents in the landscape that make me feel good,” Love said. “I feel more inspired when I’m in a landscape that has variety to it.”

Her series, “Paintings from Up North,” is being presented at Mackerel Sky, 211 M.A.C Ave. It opened Sunday and will run through March 25.

“Paintings from Up North” is inspired by Love’s last four years living in Traverse City. She said after experiencing the sights of Grand Traverse Bay, which is a bay of Lake Michigan, she felt compelled to paint.

“The landscape up here is powerful and unique,” she said. “Michigan has crazy skies that you don’t see downstate. It’s always changing. The landscape and the lights here are very unique.”

Love graduated from the MSU Graduate School in 1977. She began her graduate study at University of Houston, but moved to East Lansing in 1976 when her husband took a job teaching at MSU.

After teaching at Lansing Community College for several years, Love was one of 66 painters selected from across the world who helped restore the Michigan State Capitol from 1989-92. Only six of the chosen painters were from Michigan. During the project, Love focused on detail work and stenciling, which she says changed her painting technique as an artist.

“Decorative painting is the opposite of creative work,” she said. “It’s coming at painting at a different angle than what you’re taught at art school.”

Love said that working with other painters forced her to minimize brush strokes and aim towards blending her work in with other people.

“We use a different painting technique so that it doesn’t look like 25 different people painted it,” she continued. “I ended up using a lot of the decorative brushes that are not usually used by painters.”

The decorative painting influence is evident in “Paintings from Up North.” Love focused on building layers in her paintings as opposed to aiming for texture, which she says makes the paintings more atmospheric.

Linda Dufelmeier, who owns Mackerel Sky with her husband ,Tom, said Love’s paintings make you take a deep breath.

“It takes you into a different place,” she said. “That’s what’s so good about it. It takes you to a different place, but reminds you about the place you’re in. The thing about these paintings is that for anyone who’s a Michigander, you see (the painting’s) and you know exactly where it is.”

Tom Dufelmeier said after a promising opening, he expects the exhibit to be a success.

“We still have a month of the show left, so we expect to sell more,” he said.