Rosebowl
and Berries, 22 x 28
Watercolor is my medium of choice . . . painting light and
reflection and anything red has obviously become my passion in my work. It
seems that the more complicated and involved my compositions have become, the
more I love to paint. There is a thought that keeps repeating itself in my
head and it's very worth repeating, "paint what you love, and you'll
always love to paint". I really think it is that I'm proving to myself that
I can "still do it". But let me share the beginning and
progression as with so many artists of my generation, life got in the way of my
art world at an early age.
When I was four or five, I saw Santa put an easel under the
Christmas tree at my grandmother’s house so I've always known I was an artist. Santa
must have known too. During school days (back in the dark ages), I was the
girl who drew the scenes on the blackboard with colored chalk for all the holidays,
as was the custom of our time. My loving dad thought artists were somewhat
"kooky" so I was not able to have any formal art education during my
school years, but I was forever drawing, painting, or doodling with anything
that would mark a paper. During my college years I met and married my husband
and immediately life started getting in the way of any art aspirations I may
have entertained and this continued for the first 15 years of our
marriage. We started several companies, one being a pet food company where
we shipped product all over the US. But, in the 80's the recession
destroyed many small business, and ours was one.
Somewhat out of desperation, I decided that I could draw (I am a
good "drawer") and produce enough work to attend some street fairs
that were common in Texas and sell my work . . . and it worked!! I
specialized in pen and ink wildlife of ducks, birds, dogs, cats, deer, anything
that caught my fancy and to my delight, my work was very successful. I
raised children during the day and drew (with The Eagles, ha ha), at night. I
had black and white prints made, hand-colored each print in the limited
edition, matted and framed each, and basically hit the road showing in large
festivals all over the US.
Great
Horned Owl, pen/ink, 16 x 20
For twenty years, I traveled with the art show circuit and I must
say in hindsight, I loved every minute of the travel. Artists are a
special bunch of individuals, we all have our likes and talents and
personalities, and I was fortunate enough to meet lovely people, many whom I’m still in contact with
today. But, as the advent of the mini mall and art/craft booths grew
common, the major art shows declined and I changed my focus to calligraphy
(still in the detail mode obviously) and began a new direction. To my
delight again, it was a successful move. And, as the years flew by, I was
able to educate two children with the gift of degrees from Texas A&M and
Ole Miss all from the fruits of the art world that I love.
Fast forward to 2009 when I was fortunate enough to begin my
watercolor journey and join a blog on Facebook called Artcolony, which
included a good number of major watercolorists in the US. I had begun
dabbling in watercolor and had found a family so I worked at my
"craft" diligently in order of like souls. When you surround
yourself with really talented artists you have the bar raised tremendously to
try to stay caught up with my new friends. I found that the color red
began showing up in all my paintings and if there was a reflection or glass
involved, all the better.
Ritzy Rose,
11 x 15
I was fortunate enough to attend two workshops early on with Joyce
Faulknor and Paul Jackson who were marvelous teachers and really explained how
you look for certain things in crystal and glass and translate them to paper, and
I caught on pretty quickly.
When my work began being accepted into national exhibition
competitions, I was further inspired to try to get better and better as with
watercolor, you never learn it all. But glass was my passion, followed by
silver. And it was actually no work at all, only fun! There were many
days that I could paint 10 hours almost straight and being 5' tall, I stand
when I paint. The hours fly by even to this day. Glass became an obsession
to find in junk shops and flea markets, or in the case of some gorgeous crystal
decanters, a friend's well stocked bar.
Gin and
Friends, 22 x 28
Next came invitations to teach workshops with societies around the
country in watercolor, which I found I loved doing, and still do. The
idea of sharing some secrets and techniques in painting glass and silver was
appealing and it allowed me to travel again
The only negative is the time spent trying to book airline
tickets. I was able to check one of my bucket list events off with the
acceptance into Splash 18, a coffee table publication of the Best
Watercolorists in America, with my "Blue Plate Special Pears" and a
new love was found . . . painting old blue and white china. I keep going
back to the combination of the reds and blues and fruits and glass and
silver. I keep painting what I love.
Summer
Pears, 22 x 28
Blue
Plate Special Pears, 28 x 36
In the past three years I have been able to attain Signature
status with Texas Watercolor Society, Southwestern Watercolor Society, Georgia
Watercolor Society, WAS-H of Houston, Wyoming Watercolor Society, and have
acceptances in Southern Watercolor Society, Adirondacks of NY, and also
Transparent Watercolor Society of America.
I love having goals, it keeps raising the bar and at this
particular time in my life. My art has been a true blessing. My newest painting
was probably the most fun to paint to date and I was fighting my nemesis . . . green!
It seems that it just gets better and better when joy is involved.
Candlewick and Grapes, 22 x 28
More important to me than anything now is the support from my
family and my art world. With the recent loss of my husband of 56 years, I
have found a comfort that many will never know and it is solely the world of
art that I am able to enjoy and know that I can continue to enjoy until the day
I put my #8 Black Silver round brush down. My artist friends will
never truly know how important they are in my life personally and how genuinely
happy painting and everything that is involved with painting can
be. Creative people find joy and beauty in most everything and I find that
in art. Everyone should be so lucky!
This is Week 14 of 2018 Artists Tell Their Stories. Thank you for reading and sharing
Mollie's stories today. To connect with Mollie and see more of her work, please
visit the following links:
Amazing work! Loved your story, too.
ReplyDeleteDonna Cariker