Another Mess

Mary at Mary's Writing Nook gave me five words to blog about and the third word was Paintings. This is a 5X7 of two parrots that I did one day just to see if I could paint birds. I now have it in the Library near Prince's old toy wooden ship.

This is a 14x18 called "First Hill in Winter". It was the first painting I did of the hill's view and one of the first paintings, that I entered in the Centennial Art Show.

When I started painting again about ten years ago, I did lots of flowers and this was one is a 12x 16 which I named "Red Red."

A 12X24 "Ralph's Pond, MI." was also one of the first paintings to go into the Art show at Centennial Art Center.

16X20 of a photo I took on our 98 Alaska trip of Mt. Roberts. It had been a year after my back surgery and I was so very proud to be able to climb around on this mountain.

8X10 of the Tuscaloosa Church where Nephew was confirmed.

8X10 Gallery Wrap canvas of Spring Hill Church. This was one of my first gallery wrap . No frame necessary plus you paint the scene around the edges. What fun.

14X16 of our Church, St. George's Episcopal Church. This was the first Church I attempted to paint after several flower paintings.

18X24 Gallery Wrap canvas of "Craggie Hope Church." Prince and I were just riding around in the country and we came across this charming little Church.

My second attempt at painting a portrait was of my son holding Mimi's cat, Sam. This is an 18X24 which now hangs in our Library.

18X24 of "Great Aunt Jesse Hurt" This was my third attempt and I completed it from a black and white photo taken of a photo at the Hurt Family Reunion. Prince's grandmother's side of the family.

12X24 of "Frank" He worked on this farm for forty years and they just do not make folks like him any more. He is retired now.

8x10 "Turk's Cap" Hummingbirds love this plant and Dottie gave us a little sprig to plant and it gets about eight to ten feet tall each year.

This is two gallery wrap canvases which I continued the scene from one 6X12 canvas to the other. Marcel of Sitka, Alaska gave me permission to use his photos for these and the next 12X24 canvas. Thank you Marcel.

This is a 24x36 canvas of Mt. Rainer from a photo provided by Mary Beth. Thanks for letting me use your photo.

I did not start painting until I was out of high school for two years. The first two years after high school I was enrolled in a figure drawing class where the teacher encouraged us to learn all the bones and muscles so we would be able to draw correctly. We had live models and I loved doing the quick sketches.

I took my portfolio down to the University of Tennessee, Nashville Campus and the head of the Art Department was Gus Baker and he gave me a years credit for my work. I enrolled in his oil painting class and attempted my first paintings.

I still love the smell of oil paint and turpentine as it reminds me of those wonderful years under his guidance. Later I took water color classes from Paul

Zipalinski, a Russian immigrant. Then the world as we know as LIFE came along and interrupted my painting. Thus, I started using my talent to paint to supplement my income. I painted ceramics and sold them and gave them away as presents. In my late thirties, I got married and had one child. After Puppy was of the age that I could think about painting again, my friend Cat introduced me to Hazel King and I fell in love with acrylic painting. I was rather "rusty" after years of not painting so I began with flowers and what else but barns. You can go to my web page www.kittyjustice.com and see my one woman show that was held in January. The paintings belong to Puppy but you can order prints or cards from me. How about that plug? LOL

The kitty justice is to paint is like entering another world and coming out refreshed and ready to take on all of the ever day challenges that life can pitch to you.NOTE: All my studies in college were done at night as I was single and had to work during the day. I am proud to say I took hard courses to prove that art majors were not stupid. Senior English, algebra and calculus, biology etc etc