A Lovely, Historic Eufaula Home – 8″ x 10″ Ink

“Some people march to the beat of a different drum… and some people polka.”
–anonymous

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

A Lovely, Historic Eufaula Home – 8″ x 10″ Ink

I really love that quote.  Have you ever turned to the RFD channel and watched Big Joe’s Polka Show?  Yes…. I have, though it’s not something that generally comes up in conversation.  he he  The hubby and I were noticing that the steps to polka are basically like skipping.  Do you remember skipping when you were a kid?  Skipping was always a happy thing to do.   So, next time you are flipping around the channels and you see someone doing the polka, stop for just a minute and you’ll see what I mean. 

This home has a lot of history.  It was built in 1938.  It’s really beautiful, too.  I hope to get it painted this weekend.  If any of you local Eufaula folks know what the significance is of the circle of rocks in the front yard, please tell me about it in the comment section.  The current owner knows it means something, but she doesn’t know just what that is.  There is a big round rock in the center with small round rocks around it.

It’s a Pink Princess Castle – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

“It is necessary to try to surpass oneself always; this occupation ought to last as long as life.”
– Queen Christina

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

It’s a Pink Princess Castle – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor

Who wouldn’t want to live in a pink princess castle?  I guess a manly prince. 

I’m still working on a commission, so this one is from the archives.  I have always wanted to tour a castle.  I just love the idea of all the mysterious little nooks and crannies.   Oh and the round rooms with pointy ceilings.

About Queen Christina

Queen Christina of Sweden was the most famous woman of her time, outshining Queen Elizabeth of England. She was born in Stockholm in 1626 during a rare astrological conjunction. Her father insisted that she be raised as a boy and changed the law so she could become his heir. She became the reigning queen at age five. She helped end the Thirty Years War but abdicated her throne in 1654, converting to Catholicism and moving to Rome, where she became a patron of the arts. She died in 1689.

A Little Architectural Color – Watercolor & Sharpie

“The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.”
– Norman Cousins

That is so true!  Love it!

Copyright Beth Parker Art

A Little Architectural Color – Watercolor & Sharpie

I didn’t have anything new to post today, so I pulled one from the archives.  I like this one.  I need to do one like this of Eufaula businesses.  I do have a 2′ x 4′ painting to do to replace the one that sold last weekend.  hmmmmm 

About Norman Cousins

American writer and editor Norman Cousins is best known for his book, Anatomy of an Illness, an account of how he used nutrition and positive visualizations, including laughter, to heal from an illness diagnosed as fatal. He was born in New Jersey in 1915. He served many years as editor-in-chief of the Saturday Review, a job he loved. Under his guidance, circulation increased from 20,000 to 650,000. He received the UN Peace Medal for his world activism. He died in 1990.

Eufaula Memorial Library – Staedtler Art Pens – 8″ x 10″

“There is often in people to whom “the worst” has happened an almost transcendent freedom, for they have faced “the worst” and survived it.”
–Carol Pearson

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Eufaula Memorial Library – Staedtler Art Pens – 8″ x 10″

This is the ink drawing for the library.  I’m working on a private home right now that I want to finish before I paint the library.  Stay tuned. 

Here’s a little excerpt on the building’s history, from Margaret Collins, Branch Manager (from  http://199.164.253.25/centennial/libbio/eufaula.html ):

Eufaula Public Library was squeezed in between a laundry (later a beauty shop) and the McIntosh County Abstract office.

 The building sold in 1981 and the library relocated to the National Guard Armory for three months while a new location was found. The new site was a doublewide trailer located at 272 Broadway, purchased by State National Bank, Farmers & Merchants Bank, and Victor Savings and Loan. For four years at that location, the number of library users continued to grow, and a new library building became a necessity.

 The campaign for a new library then began. Matching grants came from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and the Kerr Foundation and a $100,000 bequest was received from the late Charles L. Follansbee, a Eufaula attorney, specifically to build a library. A $100,000 club was formed to match Mr. Follansbee’s donation; then when the goal was reached, another $100,000 was matched.

 Funds were raised by a variety of activities – everything from a Bike-A-Thon to dances and raffles – and library supporters were honored for their efforts by winning the prestigious John Cotton Dana Award from the American Library Association in 1984. This honor recognized the unique fundraising efforts that citizens made in such a short period of time to raise money to build their new library.
 In 1985, Eufaula Public Library became Eufaula Memorial Library and moved into the new building created with funds raised by area citizens.

Carol S. Pearson, Ph.D., is President of Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. She is an internationally recognized scholar and well-known author of numerous books, among them the bestselling The Hero Within, Awakening the Heroes Within, the Hero and the Outlaw, and Magic at Work. Her newest book is The Transforming Leader, an edited collection of cutting edge essays on the challenges facing leaders in the 21st century that grew out of the Fetzer Institute’s Leadership for Transformation Project, for which she was principal investigator. Dr. Pearson has been a senior administrator and professor at higher education institutions including the University of Colorado, the University of Maryland, Georgetown University, and Goucher College; a consultant for multinational corporations and government agencies; and a popular public speaker and workshop leader.

Little Pink House – 24″ x 48″ Acrylic Painting

“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”
– Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Little Pink House – 24″ x 48″ Acrylic Painting

Saturday was a wonderful day!  I happened to be hanging out at Our Favorite Place, a gallery where I have paintings, when this painting sold!  Yay!!!

I was commissioned to paint this one, then before I even started it, the lady fell into an unexpected financial bind and I let her out of the commitment.  I decided to paint it anyway, to stretch my wings and paint large.  It’s from a photo of a little pink house in Barbados.  I have always loved it and am tickled that it is now loved by someone new.  I feel very blessed! 

About Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the Russian classical composer best known for the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets, was renowned for his passionate melodies and for bringing Western music into the Russian tradition. He was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk in 1840. He taught music until a widow offered her financial patronage, then retired to the country to compose full time. He never met his benefactor. He died in 1893, just after the first performance of his Sixth Symphony, the “Pathétique.”

Gazebo at Posey Park – 8″ x 10″ Watercolor and Ink

“Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.”
– Sarah Bernhardt

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Gazebo at Posey Park – 8″ x 10″ Watercolor and Ink

This wonderful little gazebo is the center of attention during many festivals and events in Eufaula, Oklahoma.   Tomorrow Clark Davis will be doing his DJ bit from the gazebo during the Eufaula Area Arts Council’s Art Walk and Car Show.  The car show will be at Posey Park.

This is the 7th Art Walk that the EAAC has hosted in Eufaula.  This year the Chamber of Commerce is also hosting a chili cook-off and there will be a golf cart parade at 1:00.  Mike Rogers from KFOX will be doing a live radio broadcast from 1:30 to 3:30.  They are even working on a 10 x 10 chalk drawing at Main and Foley, near the chili cookers, all day.

Our Favorite Place will be open from 9 am. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Portrait artist, Monica Brown will be present drawing portraits on the hour every hour. There are still 3 slots left.. If you like the portrait, you will be able to purchase it for $75. Kim Bultman will also be present playing the piano. They will have coffee, hot chocolate, spiced chai tea and homemade sweets from Made With Love Bakery all day!

Other artists who will be present include: Cheryl Smith, Molly Drog, Lynn Melton, Cindy Gooding, Donna Pearce, Beth Parker and Betty Knight.

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Alexanader L. Posey was born in the Creek nation about eight miles from where the town of Eufaula, Oklahoma, now stands, August 3, 1873.

 

 Alex was to show marked genius in human understanding and an unusual comprehension of the beauty of the soul and the spirit. He was a child of happy disposition, carefree and playful. He grew into manhood with Tom, a full blood, whom his father had adopted. Alex tells in one of his stories about the Creek prophet and medicine man, Chologee. He and Tom had on one occasion placed a dead snake in the path where the old man would have to pass. They waited in hiding to see if he would be frightened.2 This story and other similar ones were evidences of the wit and humor which made him popular with his companions.  More…

About Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt, the French stage and silent film actress known as the Divine Sarah, was born in Paris in 1844 as Rosine Bernard, the illegitimate daughter of a Jewish courtesan. She began her acting career at age 13 and quickly rose to international stardom. Oscar Wilde wrote the play Salome for her. After her right leg was amputated in 1915, she continued to perform onstage with a prosthetic limb. She was very close to her only child, her son Maurice. She died in 1923.

Aunt Opal’s 99th Birthday Card – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink on 5″ x 7″ Black Greeting Card

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things…”
–Robert Brault

So true.  One of my favorite memories of my dad is he and I having an ice cream sundae at Howard Johnson’s… just the two of us.  A simple little moment in time, yet all these years later, one of my favorite moments.

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Aunt Opal’s 99th Birthday Card – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink on 5″ x 7″ Black Greeting Card

The hubby’s aunt Opal turned 99 last month and we attended her birthday party at The Canadian First Methodist Church on Sunday.   She is such a joy and we love seeing her surrounded by people that she loves.  I had fun making her card.   I am looking forward to doing a special one for her 100th birthday. 

On Robert Brault’s blog: I am a free-lance writer who has contributed to magazines and newspapers in the USA for over 40 years. I offer my writings here as an entertainment only, pursuing no agenda and promoting no political philosophy. You can read more here.

I got his quote from my little Simple Truths book Stress is a Choice, by David Zerfoss.

Jasper is Trying to Tell Us Something – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect andbeginning the work of becoming yourself.”
–Anna Quindlen


Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012


Jasper is Trying to Tell Us Something – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink

Mlou Jhu posted this photo on WetCanvas.  Actually, it was 2 photos… one of Jasper and one of the koi.  I merged them.     I may do a caption contest on Facebook.   Stay tuned.

Anna Quindlen is the author of five previous bestselling novels (Rise and Shine, Blessings, Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue), and seven nonfiction books (A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Good Dog. Stay., Being Perfect, Loud & Clear, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, and How Reading Changed My Life). Her New York Times column “Public and Private” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. From 2000-2009, She wrote the “Last Word” column for Newsweek.  More….

Eufaula City Hall – 8″ x 10″ Watercolor and Ink

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
–Charles Dickens

Great advice!!

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Eufaula City Hall – 8″ x 10″ Watercolor and Ink

It’s amazing what I learn when I paint these buildings.  This one was pure joy.  Although I initially dreaded doing all those rocks, it ended up being my favorite part. 

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, the son of John and Elizabeth Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Naval Pay Office. He had a poor head for finances, and in 1824 found himself imprisoned for debt. His wife and children, with the exception of Charles, who was put to work at Warren’s Blacking Factory, joined him in the Marshalsea Prison. When the family finances were put at least partly to rights and his father was released, the twelve-year-old Dickens, already scarred psychologically by the experience, was further wounded by his mother’s insistence that he continue to work at the factory. His father, however, rescued him from that fate, and between 1824 and 1827 Dickens was a day pupil at a school in London. At fifteen, he found employment as an office boy at an attorney’s, while he studied shorthand at night. His brief stint at the Blacking Factory haunted him all of his life — he spoke of it only to his wife and to his closest friend, John Forster — but the dark secret became a source both of creative energy and of the preoccupation with the themes of alienation and betrayal which would emerge, most notably, in David Copperfield and in Great Expectations.  More…

Just Your Average Llama Book Maker – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

“I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
– Pablo Picasso

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Just Your Average Llama Book Maker – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

Book is the word for Illustration Friday this week.  Bookie was the suggestion of my clever hubby.  I had a great time doing this guy, straight from my imagination. 

About Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter at the forefront of Cubism, is perhaps best known for his painting Guernica, which depicts the hopelessness and violence of war. The masterpiece hung in the Museum of Modern Art in New York until democracy was restored in Spain; the painting was then sent home, where it hangs now at Reina Sofí a, Spain’s national museum of modern art. Born in Spain in 1881, Picasso spent his adult life in France. Although he’s known for his abstract paintings, his realistic work, particularly his Blue Period, was equally accomplished. He loved to be surrounded by friends and had multiple love affairs. He died in 1973.