TSC Presents: Four Artists, Four Perspectives

This painting was taken from a photo by John Isaacs in a photography magazine in 2010. My husband had just
taken a workshop in Maine with John Isaacs, a former photographer for the United Nations. His work is worldrenowned.
Everyone has seen one of his photos, whether they know it is his or not. I ‘borrowed’ this photo for
this painting. I traced it…. was not good enough then to draw free-hand but will not ever sell it for the memories
of our time spent in Maine and John Isaacs.

My FIRST painting: In 2010, a young boy came across the internet in England, being touted as “The Next Monet”.
He was 8 years old. I was 58. I kept telling myself that I would take up painting when I retired but on this day,
seeing that news report, I knew I had wasted 50 years of my life. I immediately signed up for lessons and had to
wait a month for the class to start. That was the longest month of my life. Once I painted this painting, LITTLE
RED SCHOOLHOUSE, I was hooked. This painting is from a photo I took driving to Wyoming, not sure where this
was, but we rounded a curve and I hung out the window with my camera and grabbed this shot. I should paint it
again, now that I know more what I’m doing!

A Wyoming buffalo. He did not stand for a portrait so I painted him from a photograph years later. Actually, I
hadn’t started painting when I took this photo. As you zoom in on the photo, you can see the many colors
reflected in his hide.

This is the Little Chapel on the grounds of Pisgah Church on Pisgah Church Road in Tallahassee. Photo is by my
husband, believed to be from early 2000.

The first time I painted this scene, it was from a spring photo. I was requested to paint it again as a fall piece, so I
made up the colors, and painted it horizontally as the original painting. Once I finished, and after sending photos
of my in-progress work, she said “it’s wider than it is tall”. I didn’t ask to start with and she didn’t tell me that she
wanted a vertical painting. She picked a horizontal piece and asked me to paint it bigger! Oh well. It was good
practice I guess. And she was happy.

On my way to work one drizzly morning. the sun was begging to glisten on the wet trees and ground. I ran into
the office and notified them I couldn’t stay for the meeting, but was going home to get my camera and
photograph Meridian Road. I failed to capture the glory of that morning in the photo or the painting, but I got out
of the sales meeting!

On my way to work one drizzly morning. the sun was begging to glisten on the wet trees and ground. I ran into
the office and notified them I couldn’t stay for the meeting, but was going home to get my camera and
photograph Meridian Road. I failed to capture the glory of that morning in the photo or the painting, but I got out
of the sales meeting!

This was a beautiful barn we passed somewhere in north Florida or South Georgia, between Tallahassee and
Whigman, GA.

This was painted from a photo my husband took while in Maine for a photography workshop. It was taken in
Elmer’s Barn, and antique and junk shop in Rockport, Maine. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

I called this painting REGAL because this dog looked regal as he watched the children walk home from the school
next to his house. He name is actually Robby. There was an electric fence around the yard so he couldn’t leave
the driveway and stood or sat peacefully, enjoying the children. And let me sit on my side of the fence and take
one photo of him after the other.

Bird Hunting collar notifies the hunter where his/her dog is. Dog is named Ace; photo by Matt Solomon at Hale’s
Place,

The beauty of the Great White Egret is beyond compare. These two were building their nest in the rookery for the
eggs they would lay. The male goes out to gather sticks, usually one at a time, and the female weaves it into the
sticks already gathered. Those first few sticks are the hardest to intertwine without one or more falling to the
ground, or in the water. Nest building is exhausting.

Squall interesting picture it’s one of the first ones I did when I began to meet with Mark
Fletcher and his group on Wednesdays. What I was trying to do in that picture was
create a real sense of movement in the sky and a sense of almost no movement down
below where the boats were. The choice of light to dark also, I think, lends itself to the
feeling that there’s a storm coming. I didn’t do any people in the picture because,
frankly, at that point, I didn’t feel that I could do justice to them, but I think it’s an
interesting picture I like the choice of colors that I made, and brown always works very
nicely in creating a sky.

Papa Stour is probably my favorite of any of the representational work that I’ve done the
thing that to me is significant is the simplification of the rock to the water then appears in
the picture however, you really can’t convey that if you do, it gets too busy and you don’t
really see anything. I like the way the water is handled in particular, and what I found
was working light against the darkest color is very effective in creating a sense of
movement. I think movement is critical to any picture, so they say I think that this
represents what it looked like, and the colors are pretty accurate. It is one that I hang in
my office.

Copenhagen is a result of a boat trip my wife and I took on a trip to Copenhagen when I
looked at the structure, it’s pretty much the way it appears, but what I also did was
change some of the angles this is a transition picture into the more abstract stage of
what I do now, and so I took the house, I varied the windows, I made it look a little
mysterious I think, critically the lines I added were walkways across the water I added
the yellow walkway at the beginning, and it hit me that it needed something more and
that’s when the black and brown line walkway whatever was added because that seems
to make it work and ties in the top to the bottom.

Twilight Gardens is interesting most of the folks who meet with me in my Wednesday
group do flowers or landscapes, and by the time I got to this, I didn’t want to do your
grandmother’s flower I wanted to do something that was a little bit surrealistic and when
I tried to do was take the shapes that flowers might be put them in a scene that was a
little bit threatening that’s the purple there behind the blue in the sky and then bring
them out and create an imaginary flower – something that would go in a garden in this
weird little place that you see.

Apres is an interesting one it’s basically, to me, a study in color what I was trying to do
was emphasize that the things that are closest to you were the yellows, oranges, and
reds. I worked quite a bit on the circle to the right to try and try and give it a feel instead
of it just coming up, it would be angled up and angled into the red circle. What I thought
was interesting about this, I began to do art with no tie to anything that was
representational in form. The name came about due to the colorways I used, and liked
the idea of a French title. You’ll notice the colors become cooler as they go into the
background and are warmer as they come toward you.

Sometimes, you think of things and say well, I want to do something a little more
representational than what I’ve been doing, and in this case, I thought of a city that my
wife and I have spent a lot of time in because we used to live in Madison Wisconsin and
that is Chicago and when I try to do was take the Sears Tower and make that the focal
point then give a feel to the canals that go through Chicago the fact that an awful lot of
the utilities show up which is represented by the pipe that you see there. This is a
picture that, to me, represented my feelings about Chicago, which I would like to add
are quite positive.

I was doing a presentation on Georgia O’Keeffe, and one of her signature pieces,
frankly, is at the Bridge in New York City what people don’t realize about O’Keefe is she
did a lot of work in New York City where her husband ran a gallery, so I looked at her
picture and wanted to do something similar to that but not anything like it. So what I did
is I started off with a square, and then I created the arches in it, and it followed Chicago,
another picture in the show, and I wanted to kind of create a feeling of busyness
because if you get off the Brooklyn bridge in manhattan, in particular, it’s very busy and
then if you go over to Brooklyn which is represented in the top right of the picture its
kind of goofy. Brooklyn is now home to a large art community and a lot of nice galleries,
so I wanted to juxtapose that to the lower left of the artwork, which is busy Manhattan.

Construct is a little bit different than anything else I’ve done. I think I should say I’ve
been a Star Trek fan for many years, and that type of thing tends to get in the back of
your mind. What I wanted to do was create something that gave a feeling of being in
space next to some sort of platform, and then what I did frankly was just go to town on it
what it does again if you take a look at the tone of the colors the blues and the greens
kind of fade into the back. Then I’ve got a light green with a lot of yellow, whites, and
some other yellows that come forward, and what that does is it gives you a feeling of
depth. I think it’s an interesting picture. I’ve had a number of folks tell me they really like
it. It’s just the type of thing that ever so often you want to express something different,
which this picture does for me.

Sometimes I begin my work with a pour of preselected colors after which
I let the painting tell me what it wants to be, and other times I take up
brushes and paints to depict a specific subject. Twisted Sister was a
result of the latter. I have a plant in my yard whose colors inspired this
painting. I loved the combination of greens and rich burgundy and the
play of light among the leaves. Often, after some time passes following
the completion of a piece, I find that I no longer experience the sense of
pleasure I felt when I first painted it. Not so with Twisted Sister. Every
time I look at it, I still love it.

This painting was inspired by a photo my son sent me recently. He lives
in Cape Vincent, New York, and one day, his dogs were at the living room
window barking excitedly. There was a Northern Flicker, a kind of
woodpecker, on the hood of his car. It kept zooming up off the hood and
then landing, again and again. He grabbed his camera and was actually
able to capture this strange behavior. He sent me a few of those shots,
and I was inspired by the unusual pose of the Flicker to create this
painting. One of the composition rules I purposely broke was to put the
darkest areas heavily around the outside edges of the paper, and not on
the focal point which, of course, is the bird, leaving the little guy in a
halo of light in the center of the piece, and drawing the eye in that
unusual technique. It’s not the way it is usually done, but I like it. It
makes me feel like I’m peering at the bird through some thick shrubbery.

This is a departure from my usual subject and I had a great time doing
several pre-project exercises, painting different kinds of fish. It was great
fun, and I decided to create an underwater painting and that it would be
best created on Arches cold press paper. I named it “Serenity” since that
was my first impression when I finished it.

This painting, as with Mystic Morn, is a Sumi-e style and was done in ink
and watercolor, on watercolor paper, and depicts mountains against a
cold sky, sinking down to green forested land below. I used crumpled
plastic wrap for the interesting patterns at the bottom of the painting. I
find that the Sumi classes has helped my watercolor painting
considerably and has really enhanced my own style.

One of my favorite classes here at the Senior Center is Sumi-e, or
Japanese brush painting with ink. For me, this painting reflects the Zen
quality of Sumi-e, the connection with nature, an interpretation that
captures just the essence of the subject matter. The style is loose and
flowing, with a minimum of brush strokes.

This is another Sumi inspired landscape, a simple expression of
“oneness” with nature, done with a limited palette and few brushstrokes
to impart a feeling of tranquility and centeredness.

This painting was done on heavyweight TerraSkin with watercolor and
Brusho crystals. I am fascinated by the lore attached to flowers and
have done research on each of the floral paintings I’ve done. Among
other attributes, sunflowers represent loyalty, something that is very
important to me personally, so I do love this painting. In each of my
floral pieces, I try to infuse personality and movement…a sense of life.

There are times when inspiration doesn’t show up when needed; and if
you appreciate the shapes and poetry of flowers, turning to a favorite
blossom will offer you a treasure map. That’s how I happened to paint
this interpretation of the beautiful dahlias, a sumptuous and meaningful
flower for which I chose TerraSkin and transparent watercolor.

This piece was a lovely substitute for blood pressure medication. In
fact, I probably can say that about most of my projects. There are those,
of course, that have quite the opposite effect. I have received advice to
not give up, but to plow through the difficult stages and a reward will be
the end result. I am here to say that although this is often true, if I find
myself thinking: “I am not feeling any joy here,” I pitch it in the bin! It is,
after all, just a piece of paper.

This is yet another example of a poured background. Working wet into
wet, I dropped blues, greens and yellows, as well as a small amount of
ink. After the background dried, I saw indications of floral shapes, and
using some of the existing colors, I carved out the blossoms, buds and
stems. It is the diagonal direction of the background shapes that gives
the impression of wind….which inspired the title: Windswept.

One technique that I really love is creating exciting backgrounds. It is
simply pouring paint, wet into wet, onto my watercolor paper and letting
the colors merge, dropping more color into the mix, pulling and pushing
with the brush, or sometimes the brush handle, to encourage direction
or various shapes, and then letting it completely dry. Once dry, I prop it
up where I can see it from various angles. Sometimes I stare at it for a
week at a time, perhaps longer, to give it time to tell me what it wants to
be. Usually, after I settle on what message to develop, I add details to
bring out the story. This particular piece somehow evolved at this early
stage to what it was meant to be. It looked to me like two different
entities reaching out to each other, yearning to learn about each other.
Harmony.

I had such a good time working on this painting. I used blues and
purples, with just a bit of yellow, pale green, sienna, and a splattering of
ink. I didn’t have in mind a specific subject when I began the project. I
poured an exciting background wash, and immediately after it dried, I
envisioned a bird sitting on a branch of a tree, and, voila! A bluebird was
hatched!

This is one of my favorite florals. I am fascinated by Irises. They are so
elegant, they move so gracefully and carry such lovely lore. I think one
of the reasons I am so taken with floral subjects is that I can’t grow them
on my property. There is very little sunlight coming through the canopy
of trees over our home. That, and the fact that our soil is heavily
endowed with red clay! So, since I can’t grow them, I paint them.

Yes, this is another historical record of yet another traumatic year. Filled
with emotion, it depicts the symbols of terrifying events that changed all
of our lives. Many of us dealt with those changes in a different ways, but
I believe that most of us shared the same fears and anguish of that
terrible time in our lives.

This semi abstract painting of Gladiolus always reminds me of my
mother, who had the most beautiful garden. She could grow anything!
Whatever she put in the ground would yield the loveliest blossoms! But,
no matter what she planted, she always had a gorgeous grouping of what
she called her “glads.”

I love sunflowers. This painting surprised me. Usually it takes me a long
time between developing my subject and composition to completion of
the project. I didn’t really do much thinking when I painted Blowing in
the Wind. I used very little paint, opting for simplicity, using splattering
to emphasize movement and just letting the dear little sunflower tell its
own story.

This is an interpretation of Lily of the Valley, caught in the first spring
breeze. The Lily of the valley has very special meaning to me. When I
was a small child, about ten years old, I was ill and confined to my bed.
The wife of one of Dad’s cousins, who escaped the Nazi’s in WW II, heard
that I was sick, and she brought to me some comic books and a beautiful
bouquet of Lily of the Valley, because, she told me, that was my birthday
flower. She put them in a vase next to my bed, and I remember being
enthralled with them. I’ve never forgotten that very kind gesture

Twenty-Seventeen was a traumatic year for me, from start to finish, and I
was inspired to present this piece as an emotional journey. I painted the
piece on heavyweight TerraSkin paper using Brusho crystals as well as
traditional watercolor. This piece was totally about the emotions behind
the story and not about technique. It took me about three months to
complete, from concept to completion.

This is a portrait of our dear little Goldendoodle pup, Daniel, who came
to our home in August, 2022, and who was most definitely the most
difficult puppy we’ve ever had, He was filled with record-breaking
energy levels, and I was filled with old age. Not a great combination.
However, he is finally maturing into an affectionate and dear little
companion. It is obviously impossible to get a puppy to sit for a portrait,
thus photographs are very important in the painting process. However,
it is also almost impossible to get great photos, but I was fortunate to
get several and I proceeded to complete three portraits of Daniel and
this is one of them, which I titled: High Five!

This is a portrait of our dear little Shih Tzu, Natasha. It is so difficult to
get really good pictures of children and dogs, but my sister, Lynn, took a
great shot of Natasha and I couldn’t resist using it as a reference photo
for this painting. It shows off her beautiful face and loving personality.
We lost her at age fourteen and this piece holds a special place in our
hearts.

These two paintings were inspired by photographs taken by my dear
friend and former colleague, Patricia Trom. She loves to go on lovely
morning walks, taking advantage of Tallahassee’s natural beauty. The
enchanting colors and shadows drew me in, and I was compelled to do
my best to capture the feeling of being part of Lake Lafayette’s
ambiance.

My mother, Mamie holiday season story. She and her siblings found cardboard boxes for their Christmas goodies. Each child personalized their boxes with crayons. They were placed on the floor at the foot of the bed with anticipation of Santa bringing gifts. Wallace, Fred, Winfield, Mack, Mamie and Elizabeth were bursting with Joy! They were surrounded by apples, oranges, nuts, candy, cap guns, and jacks. The girls received extra gifts of dolls and tea sets.

My mother Mamie Lee Bland Stiff told me a story about how she and her cousin Emma used to walk across an open field and travel down a path behind her grandmother’s Pearls house to a spring to get water. A tree limb stood nearby with a rope attached to a dipper hanging from a tree branch to dip the water and pour it into the bucket they carried. I thought about the BUCKET as a metaphor for all the things women do and carry it in a bucket. Therefore, BUCKET WOMEN was created on this idea.

My Mother told me stories of her days of growing up on the Bland Farm in Prospect Virginia. She washed her daddy’s and brothers’ clothes on a washboard and heated the heavy cast iron on a wood cook stove. Mamie used a potholder to remove the iron, tested it with her fingers, and rubbed it on a clean cloth before ironing shirts. A spray bottle filled with water was used to dampen clothes before they were ironed. The Army jacket hanging in the doorway belonged to her brother, Wallace.

Grandma Eliza was affectionately known to the community as “Miss Liza” and she was pleasantly plump. She loved to cook, bake, and eat. Grandma churned homemade butter and sold it in cakes to her customers. Grandma Liza liked to make hot rolls, cakes, pies, and homemade ice cream. Grandma often kept preachers at her house during revival week at Sulphur Springs Baptist Church. On the farm, we had a strawberry patch and a smokehouse that held hams, potatoes and onions that were grown in the garden. She also held an Easter egg hunt for all the grands and neighborhood children.

In 1963 Penny Stiff was locked out of school in Prince Edward County, Virginia due to desegregation laws for five long years. (Massive Resistance Movement) This store served as an underground meeting place for a ride to continue our education in another county, Appomattox, Va. Mrs. Sara G. White picked us up in her car and drove us to Carver Price School. We often had to duck down in the seats or the floorboard of her car (1962 Bonneville) Pontiac. She wasn’t supposed to be transporting children across county lines. For more information you may go to the R. R. Moton Museum website. This collage represents that era.

Ready! Set! Go! Wait Not so fast! The schools in Prince Edward County, Farmville, Va. were closed. The doors were locked due to integration laws. During the 50’s and early 60’s, Schools were closed for five years, and my first-grade year was spent going to school in another county at Carver Price in Appomattox, Virginia. I was transported across county lines to go to school for an education. You will find more information concerning school closing by researching The Closing of Prince Edward County’s Schools.

Church Lady Its homecoming in August at the following Baptist churches in the Prospect Va. Area. Sulphur Springs, First Rock, Peaks, Calvary and Mt. Moriah. Men, women, and children darned their Sunday best. Women in their bright wide brim hats and pretty dresses. The children sat on the mourner’s bench. It’s time to get saved and be baptized… can I get an amen. “Amazing Grace How Sweet The sound.”

During the late 1950” s schools were closed due to desegregation for five years. Some parents had to send their children to live with other relatives across the country, some were taught in church basements, and some didn’t go anywhere. Education was lost, but so much more was lost. Can you imagine not going to school to get an education?

When I was a little girl, my great grandpa use to call me to his room. The floor was made of knotty pine knots on the floor. He ‘d say Sweetheart do you see the lady with the head.? I’d say, no grandpa. He would insist there was a head in the pine. When I was sanding this piece of wood, guess what happened. I saw three heads; I turned them in to three Sweethearts. I see now what Grandpa Abraham was talking about. He also planted zinnias.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Girls have the right to grow up and dream of being whatever they want.
Girls should be able to dream of reading a book about all histories.
Girls have the right to DREAM BIG!

Women are always on the move to start something new or be the first in history to do things in history for change. Women are attentive to social problems, and they try to “solve it”. Women will do whatever it takes to succeed.

The Stiff Family Chopping HOE
Daddy -William Henry Stiff(deceased)
Mother-Mamie Lee
Brothers-William, Ray, Oliver
Penny
The sun shined so bright over the low grounds to wake up our farm on
Sam Stiff Road in rural Prospect, Virginia.
We…
Opened a row in the soil.
Dropped seeds in the dirt and covered them.
Watered for growth.
Chopped away weeds from tobacco fields and the gardens.
Harvested fruits and vegetables from the orchard and garden
Watched the sun set over the hills through the trees and now
The chopping hoe has become a little farm girl for you to see.