The Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit opened on Sunday, February 7th and will continue through February 19th with many talented artists from across the state offering demonstrations alongside the art exhibit. Demonstrations scheduled for Friday, February 12th will include Ted and Martha Shelton, Candace Fulton and Denise Sommer.
Demonstrations will be presented from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. on weekdays at the Depot Civic and Cultural Center in Brownwood. Artists will show visitors how to use a variety of different media as well as share interesting techniques.Ted and Martha Shelton – Texas Wildflowers
Native Texans Ted and Martha Shelton are passionate about Texas wildflowers, and this passion resonates in their art. They “splash Lone Star wildflowers on anything we can find,” they say, and art lovers all over the state are glad that they do. Friday, the Sheltons will be demonstrating how to paint wildflowers with acrylic paints at the Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit, hoping to pass along their interest, for which they credit their mentor Edna Saunders, with others.
Their art has been featured and sold at shows in Ft. Worth and Austin, as well as at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. They have painted on everything from crockery, to glassware, to china, to canvas. In fact, it is safe to say that they may be the only people who have ever adorned a pink Volkswagen convertible with bluebonnets and Indian blankets.
Before retiring, the Sheltons owned and operated Sheltons’ Little House. They are long-time members of the Brownwood Art Association, whose members named Ted Shelton Artist of the Year in 2008. He is pictured above demonstrating wildflower painting at the 2014 Stars of Texas Juried Art Exhibit demonstrations.
Candace Fulton
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and that is the least complicated way Candace Cooksey Fulton knows to explain how she came up with the idea of making monsters.
“About three years ago I volunteered at one of the San Angelo Boys and Girls Clubs in the summer,” Fulton said. “The budget is always tight, but there is a genuine need to involve and engage a lot of youth with different skill levels and of various ages. Somehow, the idea just came to me to make monsters.
“We covered bottles, tubes and tubs, light bulbs and Christmas balls in Papier-mâché (strips of paper soaked in liquid starch); glued those together and painted them; then finished the creatures with google eyes, pom poms and all sorts of ordinary, everyday items. And ‘Voila,’ we had a bevy of monsters.”
That first monster-making project involved eight girls and was only supposed to last a week, Fulton said, but it became so popular, that the activity was continued through the summer and involved at least 50 club members.
“It was such fun and so gratifying to see it just take off,” Fulton said. “I really wish children could all be made to give up video games and be in situations where they can develop their creative and artistic talents.
“I just know how much pleasure can be found doing something creative. Children especially love to do and learn a lot by getting their hands a little messy and their minds a little cluttered with creative ideas. I’m a strong believer that our children need to be more artistically involved.”
Fulton demonstrated monster making during the 2014 Stars, and is a popular guest with her other grandparent friends who host “cousins camps” during the summer. She strongly recommends monster making for “Bigs and Littles” in Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs; parents and grandparents and their children; Boys and Girls Clubs and other organizations.
“Trust me,” she said, “you don’t have to be a child or youth to have fun making monsters. Even the six ladies in my church group are planning an evening of monster making. What do you do with the monster once it’s made? I don’t know. I guess it’s a lot like life – it’s not the product you’re after. It’s the process.”
Fulton has lived in San Angelo since November, 2012, moving there from Brownwood, where for 10 years she was a writer/columnist for the Brownwood Bulletin. She is a freelance writer and writes weekly columns for the Bulletin and the San Angelo Standard-Times.
Empty bottles, old gloves, foil from the tops of yogurt containers are all suitable materials for making monsters. Candace Cooksey Fulton is shown with just a few of the monsters she’s made from recyclables.
Almost anything can be used to make a monster. For instance, the monster on the left is made from an empty hand sanitizer bottle. An empty deodorant container was used for the second monster and a dishwashing detergent bottle, plastic egg and rubber ear plug were used to make the third monster. Finally, the monster on the right was made using a small light bulb, ice cream sticks and toothpicks and an empty nail polish remover bottle.
Densie Sommer
Denise Nolen Sommer of Brownwood enjoys producing art. She has been interested in art most of her life, having taken classes in high school, college and afterwards. A stained glass class put her on the path of creating original stained glass pieces for 15 years before moving into painting seriously.
She participates regularly in the People Painters workshop held weekly at the Art Center in Brownwood, and also works in collage and paper mosaic and paints in oil, pastel and watercolor – in plein air and at her home. She tends to work quickly and spontaneously in producing still life, landscape, portrait and abstract work. Her product is lively, colorful and expressive.
She likes to read about and study a wide variety of art and artists, including the works of the masters and religious and expressionistic art that is “pleasing to the eye and spirit.”
