Lois Lanier, Oils & Watercolors

 

Artist's Statement


As a child, I loved to draw and looked forward to getting a new box of crayons at the start of each school year. My fourth grade teacher entered one of my drawings in a city wide art contest in Mobile, Alabama, and I won second place for my age group. In high school, my drawing of the mascot for a new high school was voted by the student body to become the official logo.

While pursuing an associate degree in accounting in Anchorage, Alaska, I was able to take one art course. It was drawing, of course, and my professor entered two of her student's pastels into the college annual sale. Mine was one of them and it sold! It was my first sale!

My art focus during my adult life, however, was sewing. I taught myself how to sew and while traveling around with my Air Force husband, I made drapes and curtains for seven houses and apartments and clothes for my daughter and myself. I learned to quilt from books and made queen size quilts and many wall hangings. Taking care of my two special needs children filled the majority of my time.

I returned to art in 2004, taking classes with the city of Aurora. In 2008 I joined the Park Hill Art Club where I have taken classes 'Retired'and workshops while selling my work through their biannual art shows. I painted with watercolors, but in 2010 I took an oil workshop with Abend Art Gallery and have enjoyed painting in oil since then.

I have participated in the Mask Project, and in October, 2012, I had a one person art show at the Smoky Hill Library Gallery. I have been in the Gateway to the Rockies juried art show for 2011 and 2012, receiving an Honorable Mention Award in 2012.