Carrie Goller’s bout with cancer awakened her creative soul.

Fruit gets Carrie Goller’s juices flowing.

“I do have a thing for pears. They’re kind of naughty,” said Goller, a paralegal-turned-artist. “They all have different hues. They smell great. They look great. I’ve got a fruit thing going on.”

Goller owned Secretary at Law for 10 years on Bainbridge Island, where she and her husband, Jeff, were born and raised. They moved to Poulsbo 17 years ago and it is there, from her Rude (Road) Studio, that Goller brings jeweled-tone oil and watercolor paintings of pears, pomegranates, cherries and apples to life. A single strawberry conveys emotion as well as color, while depictions of eggplants, peppers and koi are bathed in soft, tantalizing hues.

A mix of Goller’s works are on exhibit this month at Winslow Way Cafe. An artist’s reception will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, as part of the island’s quarterly Arts Walk.

Goller possesses an unbridled enthusiasm for her art and has yet to tackle a project she didn’t like, from charcoal portraits to painting rocks. Whatever she creates is painstakingly detailed and joyfully executed. It’s hard to believe she hasn’t been an artist all her life.

Three years ago, breast cancer slowed Goller down long enough to rearrange her priorities. Family and friends came first, she said, then the need to do something creative.

She hired a piano teacher and commanded that she be taught “Moonlight Sonata.” She didn’t want to waste her time with beginner’s music. Within six months, she accomplished her goal and sought another creative outlet.

Goller did acrylic paintings, portraits and charcoals in high school and was told to become an artist, but she “couldn’t afford that luxury.”

“Why didn’t I start earlier?” she asked rhetorically. “It takes what it takes. I quit being always three steps ahead. (Slowing down is) still very, very hard for me.”

When she picked up a brush again, Goller painted a watercolor of a boat for her husband. She hung it in a cafe on loan and was shocked when someone offered to buy it. She balked, but her husband said sell the painting and keep a copy.

Goller kept painting and got some commissions. There was no turning back.

“I like a challenge,” said Goller, who speaks fast, yet warmly. “I’m a little bit of a workaholic. I was asking for shows right away. I’m really ballsy, I guess. Bad Blanche did my first show two years ago when I was doing portraits.”

The Gollers own Goller Grade and Gravel in Poulsbo. Jeff has taken up most of the business slack so his wife can create. Instinctively knowing where she was headed, he built her a studio on their property before she sold a painting.

“Painting has really balanced me a whole lot more,” Carrie Goller said. “If I’m not creating drama on canvas, I’d be creating drama in my life. He can only imagine what that would be like.”

Art touches Goller’s every fiber. She sometimes wishes her mind would turn off, explaining: “I have a huge backlog of ideas…Since my illness, I ask myself, ‘Is this going to be fun?’ It’s a real gift to be here at all.’”

With successful shows at Blackbird Bakery and other venues, the sales keep coming.

“I sold 16 or 17 paintings in January. It’s usually a slow month,” Goller said. “Eleven paintings in November. In December, I didn’t sell one painting. I’m feeling this is pretty crazy.”

Always eager for more, she turns her brushes to painting bugs, hummingbirds and high heels in vibrant colors, hand-tints photos and executes portraits in graphite and charcoal.

“My composition is really key. It’s really important that things are placed correctly,” she said. “I glaze with oils in really thin layers and leave some colors to show. That’s how you get the glow, if you get it. I never give up until I get that painting to do what I want.”

Her latest passion is the encaustic process, an ancient form of art that Egyptians used to paint mummies on sarcophagus. It involves pigmented beeswax and a heated palette.

“I have so many things to learn (about), other artists, art history. I’ve been going to arty farty parties,” Goller laughed. “I have to pinch myself and say I really am an artist. But because of my business background, I’m not a flaky artist.”

Goller emphasizes that she has slowed her life down incredibly. Her priority is her 11-year-old son, Charlie, with whom Goller loves to paint.

“I took care of cancer and it was a real life lesson,” she said. “It taught me what’s important and every day is precious. I’m driven now. Just in another direction.”

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Artistic fruits

See www.gollergrade.com/carrie.htm for more on Carrie Goller’s art.