Dot Courson Fine Art Blog

Here are some figures and little portraits of family and others that I have done over the years and thought I would share. Something different since I usually paint landscapes....All images ©Dot Courson...

Artists do more than paint: This cartoon artist captured me pretty well... : )  : ) If you are an artist I know you "get it" too.... In the last week I put these things on my things to do list:  Blog about the SE Plein Air Invitational last week ...and Anne Blair Brown Workshop here this past week. Update my bio I had to quickly revise for the Women Painter's of the Southeast Annual juried show at the Course Gallery and Atelier in Jacksonville, FL that is this upcoming weekend April 28th! Order brochures about my art for the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) who is presenting my paintings in Washington DC in June.  Order new business cards! ( A couple days ago while I was out painting in town - gave the mayor of Pontotoc, MS my business card ...I noticed that it had my old email address on it! ) Send out a newsletter! By the way....  IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE MY BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER SIGN UP HERE. You can also read past issues...

I'm headed to Gadsden Alabama to the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational all next week. This is my third year and I'm so happy to go back. This is really beautiful country. Here is a painting I did of a scene from there that is on the cover of my book, Small Places: Landscapes of the South. : We paint out all week and the public is invited to come to the Gadsden Museum to buy these works on Friday night. I have blogged about it before here  and also here . Here is what I'm packing as far as frames and canvas. Words are included in the photos, but you get the idea anyway: And what I'm leaving behind as I go on this trip:  here below with Jackie, is my dog Cane that we adopted from there two years ago. He's saying home with Daddy and won't be coming back to Alabama anytime soon! 

Below are photographed works in the beginning of my painting process along with the finished- or almost finished - works. The whole painting process is fun, and may surprise many collectors and students of art who only see my finished works. This way of painting works for me and keeps color bright and helps the final painting look loose and (hopefully) "painterly! They are realistic when viewed from and distance and in these photos, but (trust me) they are much more impressionistic in real life! I dislike "stiff" starts. These loose starts keep my work "alive". It is a free, creative and enjoyable process. It is not painting inside the lines, but I like to think that it is intelligently done and thought out ahead of time... Still life starts which are usually tonal, because these are done in a bit more realistic style than my other works. There are reasons behind everything that is done. It is not as mindless as it looks! Some of these are still unfin...