Dot Courson Fine Art Blog

    Landfill Art Project... This has made recycling a lot of fun...  I'm one of the artists selected to be involved in the Landfill Art Project: a world-wide art collection that involves  1041 artists worldwide  making art from rusted garbage.... In this case - hub caps !  I was contacted by Ken Marques over a year ago with a very interesting proposition. He's the director of this global project that is being done in Pennesylvania, and after taking with him a few times, I whole heartedly agreed to be a part of this effort. I was his only artist from Mississippi at the time - still may be -not sure-and he loved the idea that I relate a "Mississippi blues" history in my painting . Delta Blues Highway 61 © Dot Courson. (Go to the site to see this larger.)  I finally got my hub cap painted just a few weeks ago, and turned in to him after I rejected the one he first sent me to paint- I wanted something smoother! The first hubcap had weir...

Where did October go? It's been a whirlwind for me. I will say that it's been exciting... but I haven't seen my family enough! At the beginning of the month I hosted artist Peggy Root here. (that in my next blog!) We had a great workshop painting Trace State Park near my home.  Artists Peggy Root and her sweet son, Charles. The next week, some friends and I had planned to attend  the American Impressionist Society's (AIS) Exhibition at the Richland Gallery in Nashville, TN. (Judy Nocifora and Denise Rose, both from Germantown, TN,  and Debra Grossier from Nebraska) Deb was in the  AIS show and had an absolutely gorgeous landscape painting there. We all shopped, visited galleries, went to hear CW Mundy;s lecture and talked art together- we all had a blast!  I had been accepted into the American Women Artists' (AWA) Show that was in Dallas, TX the day after the AIS show in Nashville, so I flew to Dallas, TX to meet Jackie attend the recep...

Here is a test: (*answer at the bottom of this post) What does this Really mean?  I recently had some requests for my "artists statement". Oh nooooooo!!!! "Please not my artists statement ", I whine to myself... But okay. It's okay because I have one...well,  I actually have several because they keep changing. I always cringe when someone requests it and I go back into it and change it up and save yet another version. Why?  Because it doesn't ring right for me every time I read it. So I re-write it. And then it works that day. My latest version is a straight forward explanation of my painting process . Nothing mysterious. And I don't sound clever... I am not a very good writer. That's why I am a painter!  I want to beg the person requesting my artist statement to just look at my work.. THAT is the statement I wanted to make that day I painted a particular painting. Today it may be different.  I used really simple names for my paintings...

Guess what I heard today?..... "Congratulations!  Your work has been juried into the American Women Artists 2010 National Juried Competition in Dallas, Texas. The jurors...had a very difficult task to select the pieces that make up this exceptional exhibition.  Of over 1547 entries ... the jury selected 65 works to be displayed from October 9 – November 9, 2010 at Southwest Gallery.  Since your work was accepted into the exhibition, we hope that you will plan to attend and participate in the activities October 8 in Dallas which include an Awards Brunch at 9am and Artist Reception from 1-5pm on October 9 th ." Scotch Whisky with Dupre © Dot Courson Am so thrilled! - Dot If you are new to my work...I hope you will check out  my WEBSITE.

Backyard  Apple Orchard 24x30 ©2010 Dot Courson Sometimes painting is just from the love of the subject...  I remember our apple orchards from my childhood very fondly, and so I practically begged Jackie to plant some trees at the end of our little garden. Deer ate a few, but some survived. For the pat two days I've been painting in plein air in my backyard. (Note: In front of the image of the painting above ...are two apples sitting on the kitchen counter where I photographed my painting.) My granddaughter Faith and I pulled apples from the trees after I painted the first day - right after John Morgan, my grandson was "driving" the golf cart with his dad and he hit the already leaning apple tree.  It's leaning more now! Oh well! ...Memories of the apple trees continue down the generations... I just may keep this painting for myself so that I can remember a beautiful happy day-  the end of the summer of 2010.

Dot Courson Wednesday I had the distinct pleasure and awesome responsibility to be asked to jury the annual Middleton Art League's   Fur, Fin and Feather Art Exhibition   in Tennessee. The works in this show was in several categories: Professional, Senior, Amateur, and League Members.   Doing this type thing is a great responsibility and after accepting the invitation I  immediately began to think about shows and exhibits that I had entered and researching and developing criteria that I would use in making my decisions for the show. I was prepared - so it should have been a piece of cake...    But it was a   very difficult   job..........   I had decided that the winning entries would need to offer that "something extra": a higher quality in overall appeal, composition, design / use of space, visual rhythm and general mastery of the medium. But in the end I learned that though the technical proficiency   was   important -...

Amish Driver©2005 by Dot Courson 12x24, Oil Giclees and Prints are available. Contact me HERE for information!  This is the retouched giclee oil painting that was given away during the Saint Jude Dream Home fund raiser  in Tupelo last month.  I don't know anyone who hasn't been touched by families and children that have been helped by this wonderful institution. It was such an honor to donate this and have my painting in the entryway of the "Tupelo Dream Home".  The image depicts an Amish father and son who are taking logs to the sawmill here in Pontotoc County Mississippi. They were on a wagon pulled by horses. The Amish who live here in our county do not use electricity or have vehicles- just generators, so the homes are very hot in the summer and with the hot summer we had this year I have been very concerned about them! But the children are healthy and loved and the parents teach them a life-skill while they are young as part of their education. ...

Dudley's Barn  ©2009 Dot Courson     5 x 7, Oil- I love old barns and sheds and the pastures around the rolling hills of north Mississippi. I painted this scene last fall in the pasture of a neighbor. Right now I'm looking forward to the feel of fall and the color it brings. Plein air painting is a wonderful excuse to get outside and enjoy embracing nature and the brief beautiful fall weather that we have in the south.

Morning Returns ,©Dot Courson  Oil, 24x36 Available! at S outhern Breeze Gallery   This painting is of  an area near where I was born. It's name is  Morning Returns  - but I almost named it "Returning Home" because that's how it felt to paint it...  I love the cool morning air, and the feel of the light in this painting. It is comforting... and peaceful and holds promises... See more of my works at my website:  Dot Courson Fine Art .

Elvis Presley Birthplace© 2010 Dot Courson Fine Art, 8x10, Oil Original on canvas. Contact:  artist@dotcourson.com www.dotcourson.blogspot.com Elvis... born in Tupelo, Mississippi... and died on August 16, 1977. I remember the moment I heard, and I bet you do too... I've lived near his birthplace almost all my life... so I painted the actual house where he was born,  one fall standing under a shade tree on the street below his house. There will NEVER be another Elvis!

Gumtree Museum of Art photos by Angela Foster Best in Show- Windshear- Tupelo Airpor t©2010 Dot Courson, 8x10  Oil (photo by Angela Foster) Humbled that my painting,  Windshear- Tupelo Airport   won the "Best in Show" at the Mississippi Painter's Society Exhibit at the Gumtree Museum of Art this past Friday night with:  (see better image here )  It was Friday the 13th but I'm not superstitious!  I'm truly humbled to win. Also another painting that I did placed 2nd place ... "B&B Concrete Co."   Photo by Angela Foster Photo by Angela Foster Photo by Angela Foster Congrats to friends Judy Tuci's pastel 1st; Rhonda Grammer's watercolor, 2rd; and Bruce Bigelow -Honorable Mention... MANY many beautiful works in this show without ribbons... If you can - please go by to see this show...It ends Sept 14th!

This is a painting from a photo that one of my art students and good friends let me use. The photo was made on her mission trip, so I call this Man on a Mission. Man on a Mission 10x12, Oil (C) Dot Courson  I think it was made in Central America. This guy has these burrows loaded down with sticks, and he's riding one who looks so tired he can barely stand up!

Here is a painting that I'm just about finished with that I'm giving to the Palmer Home Orphanage in Columbus, MS. My friend Vicki Overstreet emailed some of the members of the Mississippi Oil Painter's Association to let us know that some art could be used in the Orphanage and what was needed in the various "Cottages". The children live in groups on the campus and I selected the boys cottage. Here's why: When I was a child I had very kind foster parents who had previously worked at Palmer Home as house parents before they decided to keep foster children in their real home up in Calhoun County. What cottage did they parent? The boys cottage! They were there up until the year before several girls including my sister and  I came to live with them! So I have a sentimental attachment to Palmer Home Boys Cottage from the funny and sometimes endearing stories they told about the boys!   At the Lake (c) Oil, 30x24 by Dot Courson I wanted to paint a scene...

You are invited to the 'Paint the Town'- Plein Air Annual Exhibition by the Mississippi Painters Society is from Aug 13-September 14.  The meet the artist reception is at the Gumtree Museum of Art on Friday, Aug 13 2010 from 5PM- 7PM. The museum is located at 211 W.Main St. Tupelo, MS.  It's been too hot to paint outdoors this July, with the heat index well over 100 degrees, but I was fortunate to get to quickly paint a rainstorm as it headed across and over the Tupelo Airport at dusk one afternoon!  Wind-Shear- Tupelo Airport , 8x10 (c) Dot Courson This next painting is of a Tupelo icon: B & B Concrete! Did it from 7-10 AM one morning and it only got up to 83 degrees! I was fortunate! B & B Concrete 12x16 (c) Dot Courson

I am a diverse person who likes all kinds of experiences.  Take my usual run-of-the-mill plein air day, for example: we usually don't fancy it up. It's usually two or more friends who meet in jeans, paint smeared t-shirts, and floppy hats on a rural gravel roadside-  where we've stomped down an area in the Johnson grass and set up our easels (yeah,we love to bring iced tea in a wide-mouth mason jar in a brown paper sack). I never paint the same way- it depends on the time I have and my mood. [See my two painting below that are examples of my variations on my painting style as well as the scenery.]   We usually end up on gravel roads, enjoying the smell the honeysuckles as we listen to the mockingbirds singing in the tree tops above, bumble bees buzzing by, and the occasional rustle of leaves as squirrels scamper across tree limbs. Sometimes I come home tasting the dust from the dirt road. But I love it because it reminds me of my childhood - the ...

I love John Pototschnik. If you don't know him you can find a link to his work here . And while you are there sign up for his monthly newsletters. They're wonderful! John is an artist whose values I really admire, and I am proud to call him my friend. He’s made his living as an artist almost- if not all -of his adult life. He's also one of the most respected artists in the United States today, and we had the pleasure of having him and Marsha, his wife, here last year for a workshop that my husband Jackie and I hosted. He will be coming back next year to teach with me-  in April of 2011. While he was here last year I purchased one of his beautiful light filled landscapes. Every day when I look at it, I am aware that there is a reason his painting prices are triple mine! He is an amazing! He's also smart. I get his newsletters and he recently had lots of interesting things to say about “painting movements.” I’m including a small quote from that newsletter and contrasti...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bt9xBuGWgw The above video is great- it is Frostie The Cockatoo Dancing To Shake Your Tail Feather! This bird Loves Ray Charles! Sometimes you just got to shake things up! If you're familiar with my work you know that I usually do landscapes, but I occasionally branch out into portraits, figure sketches and some still life. I recently started a little quick sketch ( an hour and a half) of Caleb. who is 22 months old. And I had just finished a still life which seems to have gotten the attention of several folks who came by my studio: I don't plan to stop painting landscapes anytime soon... but sometimes you just need to shake things up. Tomorrow I'll be taking a writing workshop in Tupelo. I need to improve my writing skills...and who knows - I may shake a tail feather and write a book! I can dream! 

I have sold a couple of gems recently that were personal favorites to me. One was Baptism at Moon Lake . It is now on it’s way to its new home in Norway! I know that it will be loved from talking to the collector. She shared with me that it is a gift to her husband on their 26th wedding Anniversary. Above is a southern staple that is quickly becoming obsolete. Delta Cotton , 24 x36, was purchased by a collector from Nashville at one of my solo shows in the fall of 2009... She touched my heart as she told me that her father was a cotton farmer and had always told her stories of his love for farming. That made the “adoption” of the painting even more special. She and I have remained friends and I look forward to visiting with her at her cabin on the TN river this spring. Homeplace  on the Hill , 11x 14 is a painting that meant the world to me and sadly I wasn’t able to communicate with the owner. It sold in one of my galleries and this particular gallery does not share...