My Quaint Life

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I was reading an article by Wells Tower in Garden and Gun  where he quoted southern writer Barry Hannah who said,

“...being Southern isn't always a graceful adjective; it’ll kill you sometimes. Often, it’s shorthand for ‘Don’t bother reading this because it’s just gonna be a lot of porches and banjos.’” 

This rang true to me because last week I had a tweet from someone describing my painting in the garden as "quaint". What? Is my banjo showing? Well, I should just get over it and just face the facts: I love quaint. Here is the update on the progress of the painting of our garden from my last blog:

Garden painting in progress ©2013 Dot Courson

To me, being an artist is feels like the act of immersing oneself and into the beauty and wonder of everyday things. In other words, I’m just living the life I always have- but showing it in my paintings. Pintrest boards with names like "Chic Obsessions" or anything "Haute" or "Artsy"  will not include my work. It's true- I am a painter of mostly southern flavored subjects...and landscapes in particular.  I'm hoping to show a mood and a slice of life my paintings. 

  

Reminiscing, Oil 8x10 ©2013 Susan Patton

My daughter artist Susan Patton is probably influencing me. She actually verbalizes her thoughts about her paintings and I love to hear her speak about them. She paints a lot of verbs.

She paints with such honesty and humbleness and shows the depth and breadth of all that is good about people and the southern-ness of the life she knows so well.  Last week she won a top award at the Memphis Germantown Art League National Exhibition at Gallery Ten Ninety One for this painting above called, Reminiscing. The word reminiscing means "indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events".  A lot of people told her that they love seeing people like this, sitting together and talking and thinking and connected to each other in her work. She explains, 

"You never see people just sitting and talking like this anymore. Nowadays everyone is connected to an electronic device..." 

Sad and true. But these family members are immersed into reality and the memories of the greatest generation. 

Join me!

Tomorrow, August 11th, I will be in Memphis, TN at the Orpheum Theatre. Starting at 1 PM the Orpheum Art Sale will feature local art, yummy food from The Corked Carrot, live music and wine tasting. $10 per ticket.