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In the News

Southwest Georgia Living Magazine, September, 2007 by Amy Leigh Tyson

Artist in Motion

Art can be intimidating to many of us, particularly if our backgrounds and livelihoods are based in entirely different spheres.

While many of us may be able to recognize a few famous scenes painted by well-known masters such as Monet, Renoir, Picasso or VanGogh, all other forms of art expression may just run together in a massive jumble, leaving us scratching our heads. Even for those who want to educate themselves in the world of art by attending the occasional gallery opening or lecture, getting through all the layers of terminology or learning to embrace works that aren't leasing to their tastes can be difficult.

For the fortunate flock under the tutelage of Albany native Henrietta Ladson, who spends her days teaching art at both the elementary and collegiate levels, art is broken down into simpler formats and explained in a way that enlightens any novice - whether age five or seventy five.

Ladson is the ideal interpreter of art, considering that she holds a Masters of Fine Arts from Vanderbilt and spent her undergraduate junior year abroad studying in and around Paris. Above and beyond her career demands, this well organized wife and mother seamlessly meshes art into the core of her very existence. Recognizing this, we decide to take a peek into a typical weekday in Ladson's calendar.

5 am

Rousing herself from slumber,Ladson makes the decision not to join her ladies walking group today at their usual 5:45 trek around the neighborhood. Although she'll miss the invigorating exercise, as well as the casual chatting and catching up on each others' news, she realizes that she needs more time to meet an impending deadline. A gallery owner n Thomasville, Jeffrey Douglass, who is very enthralled with her work, has recently sold a few pieces to one of his customers, who now wants three more for their living room walls. Ladson met Douglass a few years ago while showing her work at Camilla's Southern Rivers Fine Arts Exposition. The two discovered a rapport as Douglass was soon to open Meridian Gallery and was seeking local and regional artists.

As a self professed morning person, Ladson doesn't mind the early hours. This way, she can get in at least two hours of painting uninterrupted while her family still sleeps. Once in her studio, which is outside the house on the other side of the garage, she sees some ways to improve the shading on an abstract piece of South Georgia silos. by juxtaposing the red tones against some vivid burnt orange, the geometric sections of which the silos are comprised stand out even more.

7 am

Ladson puts her brushes down for now as she heads back in the house to make sure her children, ages 16 and 18 are awake. Although they are old enough to manage getting ready on their own, she likes to check to see whether they need her to sign any work sent home by their teachers or proofread a report, as well as find out what their days will encompass. Her husband Alan, a CPA, is up and out early as usual.

8:10am

With everyone now gone, the house is once again quiet. Her first class at Deerfield doesn't start until noon today; so after throwing in a load of laundry and wiping up the kitchen counter after the kids, she brings in her supplies from the studio to work in the breakfast room. Shifting gears, this time she's focused on practicing a bit more in her new medium of choice - oils. Although well familiar with watercolor and acrylics and still using them somewhat, she views oil as more favorable for the long term. And for practical, every day purposes, oil painting don't have to be matted for presentations, but can be shown in the basic gallery wrap ... or slipped easily into a frame.

10:30 am

Stopping in time to get ready for work, Ladson puts her supplies away and takes a final glance around the house to make suer everything is in order.

11:30am

Arriving at Deerfield Windsor Lower Campus, Ladson stops by the school office to see if UPS left any deliveries for her. Responsible for maintaining all the art materials for the lower school, she orders in advance primarily from one central art supply company. This next shipment should contain the colored pencils, sequins, pastels, oils and clay mixture base for upcoming student projects.

11:40am

It doesn't take Ladson long to prepare for her classes since she already has the majority of the materials ready and arranged in clear plastic containers for each month of lessons. However, when new lessons are introduced, it is like "setting up for a new science experiment". She tries to anticipate what will help the students be more successful, with sequencing of steps being very important at the elementary level. She has found that things which seem insignificant can actually make the difference in the quality of art that the children create. It is amazing to her how something simple, such as using one brand of oil pastels opposed to another, will actually change the outcome of the project, and it's that "wow" factor that she wants the children to experience.

Noon

The five year old kindergarten class files in, animated and full of questions about what they get to make today and when they will be able to take home collages made yesterday, which are hanging up today in the back of the room. After getting their attention, Ladson resumes this month's lesson on primary colors by explaining to the children about artist Piet Mondrian, a Dutch neo-plasticism painter born in the 19th century. After telling the children about the countries in Europe where he began painting, she shows them large pictures of his compositions featuring full pages of a variety of overlapping black squares painted only in primary colors. The children are then led into doing their own rendition of this style and work for the next 45 minutes until it is time to clean up. The lesson really is about how to use a brush correctly but Ladson incorporates exposure to a famous artist by using his work as the example.

2pm

The third graders take their seats having just come from gym class a bit sweaty and are glad to be back in an air conditioned room. Having finished a lesson last week in which the students created Aboriginal inspired paintings after looking at examples of Aboriginal art and discussing that particular tribal culture, its art and placement in Australian society, today's topic is completely different. Ladson now leafs through a series of posters by Georgia O'Keefe. Using this as inspiration, the students set about painting a flower similar to hers, while additionally learning to mix colors on a palette.

3:45pm

Ladson lingers a bit later at school today so that she can meet with the music teacher to collaborate on ideas for the stage backdrop for the upcoming school musical. After learning about the costume colors, musical score and other props, Ladson prints out a blank grid which she created some time ago from her computer. Then, after sketching out possibilities, she uses colored pencils and markers to work out the design more fully. This grid will be her map for the actual painting she will create on a much larger canvas.

5:30pm

In her Darton College classroom, where she teaches three nights a week, Ladson relishes a few minutes for a quick glass of water and finishes reviewing her lecture notes for the art appreciation class. The class is also open to non-art majors, and in that way the faculty hopes to reach a wider audience of students who may then use this exposure in art to complement their pursuit and fulfillment of other career paths such as business, science or medicine.

Tonight, Ladson fosters a lively discussion with the students about how art is defined, who defines art and the purposes or functions of art. As a part of the overall goal of becoming aware of how to look at art, they also make plans for next week's visit to the Albany Art Museum to view the Royal Bronzes of Benin exhibit as well as the Mysterious Clarity exhibit.

7pm

Exhausted from the day, Ladson checks her cell phone messages once the students depart. The first is from Douglass passing along a quick critique of some newer oil paintings she dropped off last week for display at this gallery. It seems he likes them much better now that she took his suggestion to lighten them up. They had been painted outdoors in the true plein air style used by the impressionists of the 19th century. But once brought indoors without natural light, they appeared a bit dark, as sometimes happens. With this alteration made, Douglass also advises Ladson of the huge demand in his area for the southern genre Ladson works in such as silos, tractors, barns, and the like. This further confirmation that the subject matter she so enjoys featuring is also appealing to others in the art marketplace.

7:10pm

While heading out to her car; Ladson excitedly returns a call from her friend and fellow artist, Cindy Davis. Recently, Davis launched a new website, Flint River Gallery, a virtual gallery through which online customers can view and purchase artwork. Along with their work, it showcases that of three other ... artists , Linda Blondheim, Janice Rentz, and Jean Weiner. Davis, who created the website using her own technical expertise, tells Ladson the total number of hits the website received this week alone, and the two gleefully share this milestone. They talk animatedly about their respective work and what pieces each of them needs to finish to stock the website, since anything represented on the website must be ready to ship upon purchase.

7:30pm

Driving home, Ladson is glad to have the day's obligations accomplished. Her mind goes into daydream mode as she thinks back to a two-day workshop she took last summer from Lian Zhen, a master watercolor artist from China who came to Albany to teach for a brief seminar through the Artist Guild. As the third time she's taken a course from him, her admiration and respect for him escalated even more; particularly since he so effectively imparts to his students how to objectively look at their own art.

Contemplating Chinese art, her thoughts then latch onto a quote, one of her favorite sayings, in fact, by the 17th century Chinese poet, Li LiWeng: "First we see the hills in the painting, then we see the painting in the hills." To Ladson, that is very powerful - the more we look at art created by others, the more we are able to see around us.

In applying the quote to herself she wonders if she's done that for her students and others with whom she's interacted with today. The answer, they would agree, is a resounding "yes".