Recent History – 1999
Nov. 22, 1999
By Charity Wallace, Daily News Staff
Mountains were the peak of this week’s seniors’ art class lesson with teacher Edna McPhail. The women in the bin studio of the Dawson Creek Art Gallery painted a variety of different mountain scenes in their session Wednesday afternoon. Chatting, painting and laughter filled the studio as the women started to work on their soon-to-be masterpieces.
Myrna Gardner, who has been in the class for two years says that it is the friends that make it really special.
“I find it relaxing most of the time and I’m learning something all of the time,” she says. “But the best part of it is the fellowship.”
Estelle Mayoh decided to join the class after the brier last year when she found out that Gardner was in an art show.
“I came to look at her work,” Mayoh says. “She said she had never painted before and I thought if she could do it I could do it.”
Georgette Bourbeau, who joined the class to try something new, says that there is nothing difficult about it.
“There is no hard part,” she says. “It can be frustrating at times, but if I make a mistake or don’t like it I can paint over top of it and start over.
Linda Schallock has been painting for a long time but just recently joined the art group.
“It’s an opportunity to set time aside and paint,” Schallock says. “It helps to work to a deadline.”
McPhail critiques the paintings and the techniques used to help her students improve and, she says, when they don’t need her help anymore and feel they can do it on their own they just stop showing up.
The women in the class are working toward an art show in April of next year.