Kathy Dennett was searching for an inspired birthday gift when she decided to draw on an idea from her birthplace in Pennsylvania: She painted a variation on a hex sign, those forms of American art popular in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

More than 10 years later, Dennett has created more than 500 hex signs in her studio on Mt. Veeder Road above Napa, where she and her husband also operate Wing Canyon Vineyards. The signs can be seen around the valley, especially at Pearl Restaurant in Napa, which is the primary gallery for her work.

"They are an American folk art with real roots in our history and culture," Dennett said. "Although I have added quite a twist to that old tradition. ... My mother was originally from Pennsylvania and I remember her painting hex signs for our chicken coops. I think that's what inspired me."

Her first sign was a gift for local restaurateur Cindy Pawlcyn. "I thought to myself, 'What am I going to give her as a gift? She has everything.' ... She loved it."

The term hex comes from hexafoo, meaning "witch's foot," according to Dennett, who researched the subject with an uncle who lives in Pennsylvania.

Dennett's hex signs are one-to two-foot disks with intricate patterns of color and shapes. They begin with traditional geometrical motifs but "stray into colors and details which take these signs one step beyond the traditional. Purely for fun, I often name my signs and provide them with a meaning."

Dennett creates her signs on outdoor quality plywood. She draws on a number of sources for her work. "Normally I use animals -- frogs, turtles, flying fish, butterflies, lots of dogs and chickens -- and florals as the focus of my hex signs."

She has done an Italian plate series, and a collection she calls the Jamaican Power series. "They're crazy, shocking, wild and vivid," she said.

"I love color and creating movement through the use of shading and shadow," Dennett said, "What I do a lot is pull out pictures from magazines, catalogs and calendars that have color combinations I like and save them for future projects. Then when I'm painting I use those pictures' color combinations as my inspiration. Sometimes a flower, its color and structure will be my inspiration. But I always think color first when I start a hex sign."

Using an exterior grade oil-based enamel sign paint called "One Shot," she begins her design in the center of a 12, 18 or 24 inch disk and works outward. "When I paint I never know what will be the design or how it will turn out. I have no preconceived idea, theme or subject. I just know what colors I want to use. The design just kind of happens. As I proceed with the painting and drawing, I usually start to see shapes such as an ear. Once the shapes appear I start to paint with them in mind. It just seems to turn out. It is a really relaxing and very special experience to paint in this manner."

Dennett uses shading and shadow to create a sense of movement with her paints. "My hex signs have an Escher-esque quality about them." Dennett continued, "The shapes start out as one thing and then change into another shape or form."

Dennett wrote, in a brief history of the art form, that when the German immigrants came to the Pennsylvania Dutch area in the 17th century, they created a hybrid of the art they saw in their home country and the cultural elements they found in America. Over the decades and centuries, the hybrid evolved into hex signs, which appeared hangin on barns.

"Hex signs, although primarily decorative, have been used to designate ethnic regions and identity and to signify the hopes and wishes of its owners. Elements painted on the signs have specific meanings such as: drops (rain, crops), 12-pointed star (12 months, wisdom), 5-pointed star (five senses, luck), 4-pointed star (seasons), rings (eternity), oak leaf (strength), double star (morning star, sun), 6-point rosette (keep away evil), 8-point rosette ( tolerance), scalloped edge (fertility) etc.," she wrote.

Although she was born in Pennsylvania, Dennett grew up in California, graduating from high school in Davis and studying food science at UC San Diego, Davis and Santa Barbara. She met her husband, Bill Jenkins, in college. A trained backer, he wanted to apply his knowledge of fermentation to wine-making, so the couple moved to Napa.

Dennett paints primarily during the warmer months of spring through fall in an outdoor studio amid a grove of redwoods, and near the rammed earth house and winery where she and Jenkins produce under 1,000 cases of their Wing Canyon Vineyard cabernet and cab blend wines. Dennett was the designer, builder and contractor for their home and winery.

"Our labels carry my hex designs," said Dennett.

Of her mountain home and lifestyle, Dennett said, "It's a place where I can apply my love for the art of food, wine and my hex signs."

It was Dennett's friend, Nickie Zeller, who inspired her to turn her hex painting into a business.

Seeing a hex sign with dogs on it Dennett had painted, Zeller asked to buy it for her husband. Zeller was also just opening Pearl Restaurant, and asked Dennett to paint a hex sign for her business sign. "She also offered and then convinced me to display my hex signs at Pearl," Dennett said. "She doesn't charge me a percentage. Some places take 50 percent of the sale."

While Pearl restaurant is the primary gallery for her hex signs, Dennett said, "Most of the patrons don't even notice my hex signs. They're just part of the environment, the atmosphere of Pearl. Most go there to eat not shop."

The prices of her hex signs varies. The 12-inch sign starts at $75 and goes up to $150; the 24-inch averages between $300-$500, and the 18-inch sign falls in-between. For more information e-mail Dennett at info@wingcanyonvineyard.com.