Dot Courson Fine Art Blog

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...

In a couple days I will post about a great workshop we had here with Roger Dale Brown. It was still life- and it was so inspiring!  Roger and I were two of the artists interviewed recently IN A 2-part blog by John Pototschnik about what part faith plays in our work as artists. Read PART 1 HERE ... and Read PART 2 HERE. John Potoschnik But I'm behind on my blog. I have not shared my new car tag  with you! I bought back in November... Watch for my black Honda minivan on warm days this spring. I'm pretty much in the studio for now. Mississippi's new license plate has a guitar and says, "Celebrating Mississippi Creative Culture". News:   Invited to go to Ireland this August to paint in Ireland's "Art in the Open", Europe's largest plein air paint out.  Looking forward to traveling over with my friend Becky Joy. We will both be doing a demo and teaching one day.  Recently I was asked to contribute to write and do a demo or two f...

October is turning out to be my busiest month in awhile. Paintin' the Town- College Park, GA In late September it was great to be a part of an invitational plein air event in Atlanta in the suburb inside the beltway called, Historic College Park. Artist Millie Gosch did a great job putting this together and we all had a blast. I sold three of my paintings to collectors and received another commission. Thank you to all who turned out to volunteer and host. It was great meting up with artist friends as well! Cumberland Society National Juried Competition: Honored! On October 3rd, I was excited to travel to Nashville to the Cumberland Society National Opening and Awards Ceremony at Richland Fine Art where I received an Honorable Mention - a $500 award for my painting, Back-lit Trees, Oil, 12x16 from judge Peggi Kroll Roberts of Here is my winning painting at the Cumberland Society National Exhibition at Richland Fine Art in Nashville, TN  ©2013 Dot...

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...

Some of the South Mississippi Art Association painters at my workshop this weekend in Hattiesburg, MS. Art as a metaphor: Art is a metaphor for me, so I try to be honest with my work, wanting to describe my life though my paintings.  It seems pretty intuitive to do this. My life seems pretty ordinary to me and I enjoy describing it in my landscape paintings. An example of that is in the finished painting that I did mostly in plein air out in our garden. I ended up naming the painting,"Coon Trap".    You can read about it here.  Soviet impressionists seemed to do that and they are some of my favorite artists . An architect at my show this weekend said the Russian impressionist's influence was apparent in some of my work and that I would probably enjoy reading the Russian art theory. I have a big book of the Soviet impressionists work but mainly I just look at the pictures. I may actually read it now to see if it describes a deeper theory behind it...besides...