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They
say if you can paint your own portrait, You
can paint just about anything.
I have been drawing
and painting since I was a small child I took all the required art
classes throughout my school years, just barely passing the grade. When
I was 14 years old, I took my first painting (oil) class with my
stepsister Charlotte Thorne. I learned many different techniques from
her, but she encouraged me to keep my own style. I worked with her on a
consignment job, a fifty-foot mural of a vineyard scene, in a popular
Pizzeria located in Calabasas, California.
I
later took on my own consignment jobs with
a different medium altogether. One of these was to design a
Floral
mural six
feet in diameter and a Single
Rose pattern.
My patterns were copied onto several different types of unique wood, and
then intricately cut into puzzle-like pieces. Each small piece was then
inlayed into an oak hardwood floor. The mural was placed at the entrance
of an enormous living room, which measured approximately 30 x 50 feet.
The single rose was placed in each corner of another enormous dinning
room, in the home of Donna Rosen of Beverly Hills. Contractors Mike
Lions and Randall Nance did the actual wood flooring inlay work.
Another consignment job was to reproduce a Floral
design
from
imported Italian tile, which I painted onto a bleached (white) oak
hardwood floor.
For several years I put off all of my artistic talents (becoming a
single parent) raising my two sons, always dreaming of painting, and at
the same time regretting the waste of my talent. My aunt, Janice Graham
tried to get me back into painting, but after such a long time, I had
lost most (if not all) of my confidence and desire to paint. She
introduced me to China painting just a few years ago, when she installed
some of her painted tile work in her new home of South Lake Tahoe,
California. It was so beautiful, but I still was not ready. While on
vacation one year, she showed me how to use this medium called China
Paint. I played with it on a tile and I liked it! She then invited me to
attend her China painting class. The instructor was
Eleanor
Skiles of
Gardnerville, Nevada.
OK, I was hooked! There were no if, ands, or buts about it. I began to
realize the path that was in front of me. My Aunt Jan later showed me a
Inspirational
piece of hand painted porcelain, which
she told me to pick it up and turn it over. As I did, I noticed the
signature of my Great Grandmother, Mary Swing Clark. I realized I was
holding a piece of my past, a piece of who I am, and a piece of my
future. I was determined to follow the talent that has been passed down
to me for generations. While returning home, I searched for months
trying to find anyone who could put me in contact with an instructor in
my own area.
One year, while at the Los Angeles
County Fair, I found two little gray haired ladies sitting at a table in
the Arts building, painting with China Paints. To my delight, and
leaving my friend in the dust, I ran over to their table and asked them
so many questions they didn't know what to think of this wild woman in
front of them. They explained they had a booklet listing of Porcelain
Painting Teachers, as well as locations and phone numbers.
I
swear I sat at that table for almost two hours bending their ears, and
copying down as many names and numbers as I could, (they were probably
so relieved to see me go). I returned home and called the first name on
the list, which just happened to be the president of the San Fernando
Valley Porcelain Painter organization. I was told that one way or
another she would find someone whose class I could attend in my area.
She did just that, and I signed up.
I have since watched my talents unfolding before my eyes. My confidence
and desire for painting has exploded from inside my soul and is now in
full bloom. I began teaching in 1998, and have completed several custom
jobs for hand painted murals, plates, and personalized wedding gifts. I
also created this web site from scratch, not knowing the slightest
thing about it. Now people are asking me to create a web site for
them as well.
I'm vary proud of what I have accomplished
here and I have found what makes me, who I am, by doing
what I was meant to do,
Paint!!!
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