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WhenI was asked me to write an article for the church newsletter about my painting hobby, I wondered what the best approach would be. Then the thought hit me that this hobby has led to many adventures. When I bought that first little box of oil paints so many years ago, I had no idea where the Lord was leading with that and how much enjoyment would come from it. It was always a thrill seeing what putting the paint on the canvas looked like, how adding a touch of another color would change the whole effect.
As time went by, I found I liked acrylics, too. Then I went to watercolors and pastels. Along the way I took advantage of a few different classes. One I enjoyed was given by a local artist who gave lessons in oil painting and pastels. The class excursion one of the days included painting buildings on a nearby abandoned farm.
Enjoyable was a watercolor class a friend and I went to in northern Minnesota given by a well-known watercolor artist, Ed Whitney. There we met another watercolorist and arranged for her to give a two-day watercolor workshop in our town to anyone interested.
Another interesting project. A friend read poetry while I did a painting with pastels. We gave the program several times for groups. Seeing the interest in the students when I demonstrated oil painting at the local Christian school one year, was rewarding. On the scene painting with friends through the years has also been enjoyed.
Some of the paintings were displayed in several area places and were hung for a time when our local vacant school had a Gallery. A few times some paintings were entered in various fairs. Quite a few were sold.
Then there were the murals. That all began when two of us mothers of students at that time began painting scenery for Proms and Homecomings. We did a total of five Proms and two Homecomings between 1980 and 1984, usually on pieces of cardboard eight feet tall and of various widths.
Stemming from that there was the request to paint murals in the Steamboat Rock school. Two others helped with that project. We painted smaller ones in the hallways, but two covered the two walls of the study hall. On one wall was the large rock formation along the Iowa River for which the town was named. The other wall was Tower Rock, the tall rock formation near the River, too. That was in 1983, and in 1984 we painted another postcard scene of the town’s old flour mill on the City Hall wall. All these murals are still there today.
Finally, all this culminated in being asked to paint a large mural on big cardboard pieces for Kiwanis of Eldora and that was 40 feet long.
Personal murals were one for my sister in St. Paul and two in my house
Sometime during these years I decided to do an oil painting of our two churches. I wasn’t satisfied with the painting of the new church so that was never finished. I decided now is the time to get the painting of our former church out of the closet and give it to the church.
It has been a long traveled road that brought much reward and enjoyment.
