Dot Courson Fine Art Blog

A collector from Chicago wrote me today asking for more detailed information about another one of my works. I've never met her, she bought one of my paintings years ago in a gallery that represented me at that time. Her questions made me wonder if others would like more information about me and the inspiration behind my paintings.  I know my work is contemporary in one sense.... but it comes across as nostalgic as well. That is an unusual combination these days. It's only contemporary in the way that I paint. It is ALL nostalgic scenery and I do not make excuses for painting what is real to me and my life. It is who I am.. I OWN the fact that I paint in a way that expresses my personal narrative, my internal story, and what a scene feels like and personally means to me. Here is my note back to the collector about this painting today: Pathway Home 12x24, Oil ©2018|DotCourson Dear _____, Was just thinking about you after emailing you the larger sized image you reque...

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...

I have two art blogs...   It was not planned...  Grab a glass of sweet tea and pull up a chair. Here is how it happened: First I had a website is with FASO and it's at www.dotcourson.com . For many years there was not a blog associated with it. Then FASO administrators added a place for BLOGS- so I made that my main website. It is at  www.dotcourson.com/blog. Here's the latest blog post there: Having my new blog with my main website very convenient-  but it's leaving behind YEARS of blogs that I've done here on blogspot!  You are currently on my blogspot site with lots of older blogs (Notice the archived files from past years on the right.) Actually I manage a 3rd blog! It's about  Plein Air Painters of Mississippi  that I started several years ago to post Mississippi events because there are lots of Plein Air events in our state and no central place to post them. The limiting factor to blogging anywhere quit...

Art supplies are expensive: oil paints, brushes, canvas and  frames. I look for ways to keep the quality up, and expenses down in order to be able to afford the very best products. I also want to paint like I am rich - uninhibited! - and feel it is better to paint with abandon than to paint uptight and worried about the cost of supplies. Recycling your bad paintings: “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” - Vincent van Gogh Sometimes paintings fail. Recycling panels is easy. I destroy bad paintings by covering them up in order to re-use or "recycle" the canvas. Every painting simply does not work out... and sometimes I wipe the paint off immediately (recommended) and just start over. At other times I set them aside and later decide that the painting is not making me feel good or is not something that I want to keep or offer for sale.   “I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.” - Vincent van  Gogh Some ar...

I love having a garden.  I almost said I love gardening, but that isn't honest. I don't do any of it, my husband Jackie does it all. It's all his and he is devoted to it and also seems to enjoys it. But that is his true nature about everything and I'm so blessed to have him! I'm nothing like that. I just love looking at the garden -oh yeah -and eating the veggies like all of Chicken Little's lazy friends. No honest-to-goodness southerner can deny that the garden's bounty is secondary to anything- even art -with the  aroma of savory veggies cooking  in summer!   Several years ago, when I talked him into starting a garden- yes I did- and he denies it but it's true- I had two requests :  1. Plant apple trees 2. Grow Better Boy Tomatoes along with the Celebrity variety that he loves. It's all about the nostalgia as much as it is the harvest for me : I remember as a child climbing apple trees and eating green apples and wanted some for my grand k...

Yesterday I spoke with a group in one of my hometowns - not where I was born, but where I spent my formative years- age 10 until my late 20s. It felt good to be there. People were nice. I had been invited to speak to the Burce Rotary Club by Barbara, a childhood friend who I hadn't seen  in probably 30 years or so. She'd contacted me after she had seen where I'd commented on her cousin Judy's Facebook page about Judy's mother's passing...about how I remembered Judy's kind sweet mother -and especially her delicious biscuits she served for breakfast when I came as a kid for sleepovers there as in her home. That biscuit comment about her aunt's cooking must have really hit home for it to get me a speaking gig! But seriously, the day Barbara invited me she said she saw my website and said that she loves to see Calhoun County women who are successful. Well, I didn't say anything back to that comment but agreed to come speak. I was reminded of a favor...

About the studio space: When we purchased our home around 10 years it had a nice large space upstairs to use as an art studio: a large room about 20 x 24 feet with  8' ceilings. It did not have any north side windows but I paint a lot at night anyway. It had a large western window looking over our back yard. One side had only 5' tall walls. That is where we installed new cabinets that Jackie my husband just recently built for me. A few years ago I had painted the room a light grayed beige color -and painted the sloped part of the ceiling almost the same color of the wall color but in a lighter value  because an overhanging slope in a ceiling painted the same color of a wall will not match! A sloped area will look darker - so I painted it lighter to give the illusion of the same color and made it visually more spacious looking. Early on, Jackie made me a nice oak 4 x 8 work table- 36" high,open underneath for canvas storage. We placed in th...