Me and Grandmother

I can't remember when this was taken, but I'm sure it was long before I was married.  We are at my grandmother's house near Capitol and Fitzhugh.  Behind us is one of her larger bluebonnet paintings.  It was in this house that I started painting with her.  The story goes that I was home from school one day with the mumps, about 5 or 6 years old. My mom was working so she dropped me at grandmother's for the day.  It was a day when grandmother's oil painting class met in the back of her studio.  Apparently, all of the ladies in her class already had the mumps, so I was allowed to join them.  I still remember where I sat and I have the stool I sat on.  She set me up with some old bristle brushes (that probably should have been thrown away a long time ago), a tuna can filled with turpentine and one of those canvas boards, that warp over time.  I think I painted a landscape, red barn in a field with a fence.  

After that day, I knew I wanted to be a painter when I grew up.  Even though those ladies were much older than me, I got a taste of what it's like to paint with others, the comradery, struggling together, creating together.  Some would talk while others mostly listened but we were together in that room that smelled of oil and turp.  That glorious smell!!  I was hooked.