Mary S Petersen Art Exhibit



My mother, Mary S Petersen, was born and reared in Huntsville, Alabama. She was the oldest of nine children. Her mother died when she was about 18 years old and she was charged with raising her younger siblings. She completed the 9th grade in school. In her mid and late teens she worked in the cotton mills in Huntsville. When she was about 22 years of age her father moved to Arkansas. Over the years she became a licensed practical nurse. She helped organize and was president of the Arkansas Licensed Practical Nurses Association. She also held an office in the National LPN Association.

After Nora and I went off to college she moved to Stuttgart to work in the Stuttgart Hospital. She began to study art. She took a number of courses from well known local art teachers. Her art became her major pastime.

I have nine of her artworks and over the weekend I decided to take digital photographs of those and post them on the internet. My sister has a number of her paintings, as does my brother in Manchester, Tennessee. Several relatives in Huntsville have her paintings. I believe that there are a few in some homes in Phillips County as well. In addition, she has several hanging in homes in Clarksville, Arkansas where she lived for several years before coming to a nursing home here in Franklin, Tennessee. where she died in 1994.





This old log cabin somewhere in Arkansas was one of her early works. She was very interested in southern rural scenes. Her forte was landscapes. But she did a number of scenes with structures as well.





























This old mill, located somewhere in Tennessee is an example of a building. She painted this while she was studying perspectives. She exaggerated the width of the steps as a practice to give it a sense of depth perception. She overdid that feature, ad would sometimes say to me that she wanted to touch this up. But she never did.




























This little shed beside a creek somewhere in Arkansas was an early work done in water color. I have it framed and under glass. When I photographed it the flash reflected in the tree. It looks a little like the sun is shining through the tree. I will re-photograph this water color with a lot of light in the room and not use a flash.









































This water color still life shows a vase with fresh flowers. Again I have the flash reflected at the top of the photograph. I will also retake this photo and repost it. When I took her paintings to be framed, the art shop owner was quite taken with this water color. Ann hung it in her ofice at Columbia State Community College for several years. One of my associates also had it in her office for a while and was upset when I retired from the office and brought it home.




























This cotton field scene is a very large oil painting. Its vivid autumn colors give it a warm appearance. When I first saw this painting I felt the sky was too dominant. However, after returning to some flat delta land and seeing a cotton field, I realize that the sky is dominant when the land is very flat. I have photographed this in its existing frame. It hung for many years in the reception room in my law office. Since I retired it is over the fireplace in my den.





























This little rustic scene was done with chalk. She was attempting to show a small barn on a rural road with a ditch flowing across the road. The overall effect is pleasant.

























This scene depicts an overview somewhere on the Mississippi River. I think mom may have taken a photograph of this spot and then painted the scene using the photo as a guide. This is an oil painting. It is possible that she just imagined the scene however.











This is another Mississippi River scene. I believe it shows the point where the Pelican came out into the river at Helena to carry a train across the river. The pier coming out from the Mississippi side is where the train disembarked for its trip on into Mississippi.























A Stuttgart Arkansas scene. Mom painted this with water color on a piece of cardboard that came from the laundry in a shirt. I asked her if I could have it. I kept it lying around in my garage for some time. It was in glass too, and the flash was in the sky where the darkest cloud streak is now shown. I retouched it to take that flash out. I will re-photograph this one too, without a flash.










I hope you have enjoyed looking at my mother's art. I am quite proud of it. It has never actually had a public showing before.