Up and Running Again

For a period of time some additions and updates will be made on the Voices blog. Your input is welcome if you would like to add or update information about yourself or about our Class of '63 friends. You can contact me, Nicki Wilcoxson, on Facebook by sending a message to me there. Your contributions are welcomed. January 17, 2012

Monday, February 15, 2010

Another Voice of '63

When Nicki began the "Voices" blog, her really great idea was to showcase different people from our class and other Childress High School alumnus. Several people bared their stories at first, which was interesting to hear what our former classmates had been doing for the last 47 years.

I happened to run across one of our classmates on Facebook. When I read her information page I noticed she was interested in portrait painting. Anything from the art world piques my interest. I emailed her to ask about her painting. She sent me a photo via email of a portrait she had painted. I was, and still am, in awe. So I want to share this with you.

Ta da!          Charlene Bierschmitt Clouse-------portrait painter extraordinaire!

Charlene was 27 years old, living in Mineral Wells. She had a 7 year old daughter and a 2 year old son. She didn't know anyone, apparently feeling like a fish out of water. She took a walk downtown and saw a woman in a shop painting a strawberry. She was amazed at how realistic this strawberry looked----like you could pick it up and eat it.

Her mom had painted and sketched all her life. The next time Charlene visited with her in Childress, she asked her mom how you could make something look so real. Her mom told her to begin with circles, practice blending the paint until the circles became three dimensional and looked like balls. (This brought back memories of 25 years of Art I students with ebony pencils struggling to turn circles into balls.) SO-----Charlene says she painted a LOT of circles. She was very interested in realism. All I can say is----it definitely paid off.

The painting shown below is that of a cowboy named Furr Standrich. He was working at the Harrell Ranch just outside Claude, TX. Charlene worked from a photo she took herself as he posed in Palo Duro Canyon. He wanted to wear his hat for the painting, due to the onset of baldness. She thought she had run out of film and asked him to rest for a minute while she reloaded the camera. He took his hat off and said to Charlene as he relaxed, "Anyone who can look out across this canyon and not believe in God has to be crazy." That's when she snapped the pose that became the painting.





I am enclosing the photo she took. You can see that she left out the rocky background to give emphasis to her subject.



Charlene has not painted in the last four years. I truly hope she picks up those brushes. There's some serious talent that needs to be shared.

Please note that the portrait and photo were shared with us by Charlene and have been published with her permission.  Charlene maintains ownership and requests that any copies must be done with her permission.  We are very grateful that Charlene has allowed us to publish these items on our blog.