RUMFORD – Betsy Gray Bell sees God’s handiwork in everything in nature.

It might be a cross section of a tomato, a lowly fungus, or the spectacular ice crystals on a frigid windowpane.

She has taken her lifelong love of art and applied it to her senior project for her almost-completed degree in studio art.

Nearly 100 tiny, delicate paintings created on 2- and 3-inch birch veneer wooden discs cut by her husband, Steve, go on display at the Pennacook Art Center on Friday. Another dozen were bought by the University of Maine at Farmington Class of 2007 and given as permanent gifts to the college’s newest dormitory, Black Hall, and are on exhibit there.

Bell, the mother of two and grandmother of four, has had a lifelong interest and talent for art. She has devoted the past few years to earning a studio art degree from UMF and the University of Maine at Augusta. She has one more semester to go.

While pursuing her degree, she managed the Pennacook Art Center when it was a commercial gallery, and now, as an artists’ cooperative.

“I have two themes in art – to teach and promote the arts and to investigate nature,” she said Wednesday afternoon as she was preparing to display her minuscule artworks.

The discs reflect one of her major interests. They are circles, a shape she has been working with for 35 years.

“The circle has been in art for centuries,” she said, adding that God created each image.

“God is part of my daily life. If I’m making a salad, I look at what I am doing and appreciate it a little more,” she said.

Some of her art pieces show the intricate design of a cut orange, a kiwi, mushrooms, onions and beets, many of which have inner circular designs. She uses all types of media to apply the images, from graphite, oils, acrylics, a combination of oils and acrylics, to pastels and colored pencils.

When she was homeschooling her children, they created a little nature collection. She drew on that for her artwork, as is reflected in the wasp nest, crab shell, star fish and lichen designs.

The gallery’s reception begins at 5 p.m. today and extends to 8 p.m. Bell, a long-time resident of Mexico originally from Ohio, will speak about her work, levels of meaning in artworks, and how she makes decisions, at 6 p.m.

Her exhibit, titled Moments of Transcendence, is intentionally filled with tiny objects.

“These are precious small objects that can be held in the hand. They are objects unto themselves, small and intricate, like moments in my life,” she said.

The gallery, located at 82 Congress St., is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Bell’s exhibit is the first to feature a single artist since the gallery became an artist cooperative a year ago.