My Friend Leslie, More Amazing Local Talent

Rainbow Bird

My friend, Leslie, has an amazing creative talent that manifests itself in many ways. I featured her home a while back here and took you through a tour of her lovely home which is chock full of beautiful furnishings and great art. We love a lot of the same things and have been known to choose the same paintings for purchase without consulting each other - so far she's beat me to the punch, but I am sure there will be more opportunities!

Leslie is an artist in her own right and I have such respect for her diligence in painting and learning. I am an emotional decorator, artist, antique buyer and dealer - just about everything I do comes from my heart first, then my intellect - not always a bad thing, but I really admire Leslie's mind. She is intelligent, articulate, intentional, thoughtful, tenacious, educated and focused. She has chosen different subjects to paint to specifically practice her skill. I have included some still lifes, some whimsical, and some figurative paintings to show you her range of talent.

She is also a dear friend and I have wanted to share her work at Hill Country House for quite some time. I have asked Leslie a few questions and interspersed her work along the way.

When did you start painting and what led you to it?

There has always been a part of me that wanted to express and create, but I had neither the knowledge nor ability to even begin. The few times I would actually have the luxury of time to try, I did so poorly that I would give up and just assume artistic talent was something I did not have. So the energy was directed mostly toward the ‘crafts’ I enjoyed, like knitting and needlepoint. I started painting ‘for real’ almost 4 years ago, when Sandra Hulse came to spend a week with Sloan and Debra and graciously agreed to spend time every day showing Debra, Laura and me the basics. She was generous and patient, encouraging and accepting. And we were truly novices. Sandra is a fabulous artist, and a very dear woman.

(Leslie is referring to mutual friends and artists. I had the honor and pleasure of traveling to Italy last year with Debra, Laura, and Leslie.)

Watermelon Wedges

Are you self taught or have you had any instructions?

Both. Sandra gave us such a good grounding in the basics! And she lit the fire beneath with her humility and her acknowledgment of God’s role in creativity. The very first thing she did on the first day was read Rudyard Kipling’s poem, When Earth’s Last Picture is Painted (http://www.readprint.com/work-977/When-Earth-s-Last-Picture-Is-Painted-Rudyard-Kipling). It was new to me, very touching, and very freeing. Several months later, I took a workshop in Taos from a really talented artist, but was so frustrated and conscious of my inability that I left swearing I would never paint again as long as I live. It just did not seem like something I would ever ‘get.’ Fortunately, there is a stubborn streak in my personality, and even if I couldn’t paint like I wanted, the tenacity to keep learning and reading was there. After a few months, I did pick up the brush again and have stuck with it ever since. Last year I took a workshop with Carol Marine that was wonderful. She’s quite the dynamo, and is extremely talented and giving of her knowledge.



How often do you paint and how long does it take you to finish a painting?
I wish I could paint every day, but there’s no way. It works out that I paint in spurts. Sometimes every day or almost every day for a few weeks, then there will be weeks where ‘life happens,’ and there will be no opportunity to paint for a while. But always, I try to stay in the painting ‘mode’ by reading, researching, looking at the art of others, etc.

Jordan on Christmas Morning

This is Leslie's daughter, Jordan. I think is is an exquisite painting of a beautiful young girl.

St. Francis

(This is one of my personal favorites, and I think I may have to steal it out of her house one day!)



Do you have a favorite subject matter?

I would love to work toward a rather abstract figurative style, but I’m just not there yet. So I’m still working on mastering the medium and the basics of values, edges, color, form, seeing/interpreting, etc. Eventually, I’d like to veer more toward being able to express the impact that a subject has on me in a more direct, less incidental fashion.

Regay's Nest

Of course, I love the bird's nest.

Tea & Roses

Do you have a favorite place to work and do you prefer inside or outside?


Debra is very kind to share her studio space with me, and it’s always a pleasure to work there. It’s a perfect setup and a great location. I can paint at home if there’s no distraction, but how often is that? I am NOT an outdoor painter. I think it would be fun, but heat and bugs are too much distraction for me. I like my comforts!

Snuggling

Is there any one artist whose work inspires you?

There are many. I loved Cezanne’s work before I ever knew who he was. I think there are some wonderful artists out there today whose work shows not just talent, but hard work and deep knowledge of both subject and process. That knowledge and understanding is what appeals to me. Georg Miciu –Nicolaevici in Argentina (http://www.georg.com.ar/) is probably my favorite artist. His work is just thrilling.

Pink on Polka Dots

Hide and Seek

Still Life on Stripes

Figs and Pumpkin

What are your hopes artistically for the future?


I’d like to just keep trudging up the learning curve. And it would be very nice to improve my skills while I do. Painting is a sort of therapy …it gets me out of the everyday concerns and out of my own small world. It’s a great blessing. And although I’m really grateful I don’t have to make a living at it, it is also fun when something sells. It’s just a little extra encouragement for the effort and the satisfaction of knowing that I’ve left something behind that is appreciated.

Spring's First Blooms

Peasant with Fruit
(My other personal favorite!)

Could this be Dinner?

The precious little masterpiece was a gift to me from Leslie. I love the naive quality and the use of color. It fits right in with my folk art and Mexican things. What a treasured gift.

Thank you , Leslie, for sharing your talent and thoughts with us! I can't wait to see what you do next!

Paintings, Pottery, and Pumpkins - Artists Debra Gunter, Otis Dozier, and Ford Ruthling

If you know me, then you know I can get a little tangential at times, especially if I am excited or really interested in something. One thought or idea leads to another and soon I am wondering aloud "Now why am I telling you this?" or "How did I get on that subject?"

So, here is my new painting, still unframed, propped on the mantel, and sharing it with you will lead us into art and fruit and back to Mexican pottery (which I never really finished due to extreme frustration!)

My very talented friend, Debra, is the artist. The painting has been on display, along with other fabulous pieces by Debra and a few other talented artists, at a local bakery and cafe for a while. I fell in love with it months ago and tried to resist buying it (for practical reasons, like my house is full - silly me!) but, alas, it waited for me until I just couldn't resist any longer! If you noticed details in my earlier photos, you may remember a lovely bluebonnet painting hanging over my fireplace. It came with my husband when we married (one of those package deals - he married me AND my daughter; I married him and his animal heads , furniture and HUGE stereo speakers), and while it is a fine painting, it is too predictable and traditional for me, and has been moved to the hallway leading to our bedroom.

Debra's painting is so colorful and full of that Mexican influence that I am drawn to. I love her style and palette.


This is a painting by an old Texas artist named Otis Dozier (1904-1987). He was part of a group called the "Dallas Nine". They were recognized in the 1985 exhibition entitled "Lone Star Regionalism" at the Dallas Museum of Art which payed homage to the abundant and uniquely Texan legacy that this group cultivated and sought to pass on. He has become quite collectible over the years and there is a wealth of information on him as well as the other painters. (I could do an entire post just on this group.) I bought this particular painting from his estate and am very fond of it. It may seem redundant hanging in my living room with Debra's painting, but I love that his was done in the 1970s, in his older years, and hers completed just a year or so ago, in her early years of painting. I seem to be drawn to fruit as subject matter as you will see in my other collections.


Just a glance at a bowl of vintage stone fruit(surprise, Italian, not Mexican!), old blue stone grapes, and a Mexican burnished pot from Tonala. The tin floral arrangement is also vintage Mexican.


As my girls say, "Random, Mom" , but here we go. What do you do when the creative urge hits and you are totally "losing it" with anything related to the computer and you just have to do something new in your own home, right now! (tell me I am not the only one with this disease!) I usually re-arrange furniture or start designing pillows! Last week I was in San Antonio for an art class and had a little time afterwards to wander through a few fabric stores and poke my head into a Pottery Barn.

Let me digress........(see, I told you) A few months back Joni (former sister in law, new friend and blogging queen, Cote de Texas) and I had an email conversation about my frustration with my living room. I moved into this house, threw everything together, and then ran out and bought new pillows - Thomas Paul, big, bright trendy colors - and thought they would mix in with what was already a variety of styles. I wanted to buy something from my friend who had just opened a new shop called "RED" (fabulous store - visit it at www.redinfred.com) and I wanted a breath of fresh air - something different and new. The mix just never felt right, though, and I realized I have to be true to my style, regardless of what is "fresh and new". Joni provided clarity and we talked about tying colors and fabrics together in a room - basic stuff that I forget in my excitement and impulsivity sometimes.

Okay, back to the pillows. I found a great looking, inexpensive cotton/linen woven fabric is a blue and cream animal stripe. Loved it - bought a few yards. When I walked into Pottery Barn I spotted these great floral linen pillows - what do you know! they work perfectly with my new fabric. Talk about immediate gratification! No fabric to order, good looking linen that cost pennies compared to anything in a showroom...........

I got back to Fredericksburg, called one of the workrooms I use, and voila! new pillows. Did I mention the burlap end pillows from Pottery Barn that I added a strip of the blue/cream fabric on to customize the look? For today, I am very happy with the results.


Look! over there in the wing chair......one of the great pillows from "RED" that just doesn't work in my room! It is gone now, and actually the wing chair is going to be slipcovered in a blue and white ticking to get everything back on course with "my style"! (and yes, there is that bluebonnet painting, too)

Oops - there I went again. I actually took this photo to show you the Mexican fruit banks in the old carved wooden bowl on the coffee table. (Surprise, those are old Mexican tin candlesticks on the table too!) The fruit banks are from the 1920s -1940s and are from Tlaquepaque, Mexico.


These vases are some of my absolute favorites! When I was first attracted to this pottery, someone called it "Mexican majolica". I don't think that is any sort of official name, but the glaze is similar to English and French majolica, as I mentioned in a previous post. This is referred to as drip ware in the books on the subject, and is from Oaxaca. I am crazy about the applied flowers on the vases!


This is the photo of the plate rack in my breakfast room that just refused to publish the last time I discussed Mexican pottery. It is a mix of old and new pottery from different regions. I have gathered these pieces for years from all over the place. At times I have grouped my pottery by color, sometimes by style and region and sometimes by function - like all of the teapots together on a shelf or in a hutch. I thought about regrouping for this post, but decided to keep my pictures and information general at this time.


Finally, I plan to surround this original print ("Cows Have an Inner Light" / "Remembering my Grandmother - Frieda Maurer") by Ford Ruthling , 2001, of Santa Fe, N.M. with Mexican plates. I have not finished, but wanted to include the photo of my upstairs hallway, painted in bright melon and home to yet more colorful, vintage drip ware from Oaxaca, Mexico!

If you are interested in learning more about Mexican folk art or any of the artists I have featured, I am happy to refer you to great educational sources for more information. Just let me hear from you!