Dot Courson Fine Art Blog

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:

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   ...

Knife Painting Techniques Lately I have gotten interested in palette knife painting. Years ago I used to do some, and I still use a palette knife occasionally but it's mostly done along with brushwork. But nothing is "breaking the rules" in painting as far as I'm concerned. An artist can use anything- even elbows if they want to! I recently saw Barbara Flowers doing her wonderful and inspiring palette knife painting demo in Florida during our Women Painters of the Southeast (WPSE) show and got interested in doing palette knife work again. Here is a beautiful loose painting by Barbara who served as our show judge just in case if you are not familiar with her work: Teaching Pallet Knife Painting... So this past week I brought fresh pears to my painting class and taught palette knife for this weeks lesson. I was not sure what the students would think as I have not even talked about palette knife painting with them. And since I have never taught this - I lo...

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...