Dot Courson Fine Art Blog

Provenance of  The Natchez Trace Parkway  -a Triptych ©2008|Dot Courson By artist, Dot Courson  March 9, 2015- Nov 13, 2018 The sources of this documentation include gallery records, emails, photo records and memory. Introduction: My painting, The Natchez Trace Parkway now hangs in the Mill at 600 Russell Street Starkville MS.  It has an interesting provenance and the final (so far) buyer requested that I document it..  Today Facebook reminded me of what was going on 7 years ago today and so I thought I'd put that documentation in a blog post The Natchez Trace triptych was created as an original work of art from my own photos and was completed in the spring of 2008 in my studio. The paintings sections are on three 48” x 36” cotton canvas panels wrapped on stretcher bars and painted in oils. The oil painting continues around the wrapped edges to the back edges which are approximately 1.5” deep. As an artist I am drawn to landscapes and especially...

Just home form the Southeastern Plein Air Invitational in Gadsden, AL. that was March 28- April 1, 2016.  Here are some photos from there: Photo credit John Billingsley Upcoming this week... This week I'm headed to the Women Painters of the Southeast's show in Abingdon, Virginia to be the awards judge for the annual exhibition there at Art Depot. Looking forward to seeing the works selected for this show for the first time! There will be over $10,000 in awards to be given out I hear- so I'm very excited and truly honored to serve this year. You are invited.... I will be doing a painting demo on Saturday, April 9th the morning before the awards show. Hope you can come! Dot Courson  is our Judge this year and will be doing a demo/talk on  Saturday morning, 4/9 at 9am . Those interested please contact Susan Yates at 276 628-9091 to sign up. Reservations required. The fee for the demo is $50.  Recent Studio Work... Here is my last commis...

Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville invited my daughter and I to exhibit at Anderson Hall Gallery this month. We both graduated from there before going on to finish our degrees in other universities. I attended NE in the 70s (nursing - RN program) and Susan in the 90s (pre-physical. Today we went up today to see the show which runs until the end of the month. Susan's children (my grandchildren) went up as well and it was fun seeing the 50 paintings on exhibit. I think you can find lots of family in these paintings as well as familiar southern landscapes. Here are photos of both our works:  All the works below are Susan's works:

This week I will be traveling to Richmond, VA! Here is the flyer for Plein Air Richmond . I so honored and really looking forward to painting there!     On my trip, I'm taking a painting for Senator Roger Wicker's staff to come down and pick up in Richmond. It will be on loan to hang in the office of Senator Wicker in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC!  I'm honored to have The Natchez Trace there. For almost 3 years it hung on the top floor of the Walter Sillers Building, Governor Haley Barbour's official capital offices in Jackson, MS. Here is a photo of us. On it's last day there he signed it for me at my request- before I picked it up. This is funny now but I was initially mortified because somehow he was mis-directed and signed the front (rather prominently) instead of the back as I had asked - so I had to take his signature off! I hated to do it - I...

Amish Paintings:  This is an Amish child in Pontotoc county Mississippi, learning to drive a team of horses. I named it "Allied Education." as the Amish are home schooled until the 8 th grade, I hear, because they learn only to do their life's work.I read a court case in TN that stated that once. Around here the Amish have several saw mills. Also they sell fresh vegetables and homemade jams, etc. All done on wood stoves in the blazing hot summers. They are sweet folks!  I have prints of this (Amish Driver) for sale... 8x16's for $ $50 each unframed. Contact me if interested. A few weeks ago I had friends from out of town here and took them to see our Amish country...It's really interesting to see this place! Here are just a few of some oil paintings of the Amish that I have done: 12x16 Available- $ 350 Unframed.  Sold Sold Sold Amish Road (Study) ©Dot Courson   AVAILABLE   - Oil - $300   ...

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...