First Easel

It was a big change in my life when we moved to Louisiana where my husband Jack had a new job as a deep sea diver.  The money was good, and my husband knew that I wanted to take art lessons and so he bought me an easel for my birthday and said to have at it!   And boy, did I ever!  I went and bought all that I needed for painting with oils. In our small town, Morgan City, it took me a while to find a good teacher. After trying out 4 different ones, I found the best one, and that was  Dotty Billiu.  I was with her for 5 years!   Here is a picture of that first easel I was a proud owner of. It is made of aluminum and hasn’t changed (except for messy paint on it), but I sure have changed since this photo is from the 70’s!  How nice of my husband to say go get whatever you need, you’ve always wanted to be an artist, and money wasn’t going to hold me back. I spent about $700. my first year into oil painting and made back all but $200. of it as I was able to sell my work.  In some future posts I will be sharing about some painting that sold right off the easel, a watercolor that was still wet, the person who bought it was so eager to get it!!  If I didn’t like a painting I would throw it in the trash, and one time my friend found it and couldn’t believe I threw it out.  To that person it was a great painting and they took it home to frame it.  No charge for that painting!!!