Legacy

2008 was a pivotal year for my family.  We sold our home of 15 years, the one we built when we first married and brought our babies home to, and bought my childhood home from my parents.  This move required us to live with my parents for a year while they built a smaller home for themselves.  Even with two households of furniture crammed into one house, the cohabitation went surprisingly well.

It was also the year that I was invited to a weekend watercolor painting retreat by an artist I had long admired, Donna Peters.  The workshop was held at Saint Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Alabama. I was very nervous about going, as I was very much a beginner painter.  Donna tried to reassure me by telling me that I would not be required to draw during the retreat.  This did not ease my trepidations, as drawing was the only thing that I knew how to do.

Nerves and all, I went to the retreat.  It was a wonderful weekend that included demonstrations by Donna, guided practice and plein air painting around the Abbey.  I go back to the techniques I learned that weekend often and actually used Donna’s step by step magnolia leaf instructions in a presentation I recently did for my ladies’ church circle.

The next year, Donna invited me to attend another workshop.  This one was held in Carrabelle, Florida and was all about oil painting.  I had no experience with oils and did not think I would survive the allergy response I had to the supplies on the materials list.  Somehow, my body adapted and I survived the weekend.  The shrimp boat painting I completed on the harbor at the workshop still hangs in my house and oils is now my preferred medium for painting.

My friendship with Donna has continued throughout the years.  I attended two more workshops that she held in Gulfport.  I also looked forward to visiting with her and her husband, Lewis, every year at the Peter Anderson Festival.  They are two of the most gracious people you will ever meet.

This summer, Donna contacted me to see if I was interested in having her easel and taboret. She is downsizing her studio because she no longer paints in oils and is focusing on watercolors.  Of course I said yes very enthusiastically.  I am honored that she thought of me when rehoming these items.  The taboret is made of black walnut her grandfather milled.  She had it made by a gentleman in Florida.  That easel has held some fantastic paintings when they were just sketches, before they became fantastic paintings.  I am not worthy.  

Joe and I drove to Kewanee, Mississippi to meet Lewis and Donna at the Simmons-Wright Café and pick up the easel and taboret.  After a good lunch, lovely visit and an uneventful drive home, the pieces are now at home in my studio.  I have actually apologized to the easel and asked it to be patient with me and I will do my best to be worthy of it.  Oh, how I hope just a little bit of Donna’s artistic magic is embedded in this easel and will rub off on me while I use it!  Even more importantly, I hope I can be as positive an influence to someone along the way as Donna has been to me.