 P. O. Box 770 Tallevast, FL 34270 Even as a child I had a unique way of doing things. In a first grade writing class I got scolded when we were learning to write O’s because I always drew faces on mine. Once at a parent-teacher conference, where all the children’s art was displayed, my mother looked in vain for mine. She noticed that all the children’s artwork was very similar; same colors, familiar images, the usual celebrated illustrations we all have seen children draw. She finally asked the teacher where my art was. The teacher responded that she had sort of hidden it from view because it was so different. I had used different and bold colors, and in my mind, I was being creative. My mother thought so, too. She said the minute she saw the painting, she knew I was destined to be an artist. After those experiences and similar ones, my mother encouraged me to take private art lessons. I gratefully took classes all through high school and decided at a young age that I would try to prove my mother’s prediction correct: I wanted to be the artist she thought I was destined to be! With my parent’s encouragement, I majored in art at West Virginia Wesleyan College. I started in oils and acrylics because those were the recognized mediums that real artist used to create their masterpieces, or so I thought. However, during a watercolor course, a favorite professor told me I had a gift for the medium. Once I started painting with watercolors, I realized I loved their versatility, complexity, and subtlety. I never looked back. It has been said that watercolors are the most difficult medium because you can’t paint over your mistakes and restart like you can with oils and acrylics. And that’s true. Watercolors challenge me much the same as pen and ink. With watercolors you have to think before you thrust the paintbrush onto the paper. Along the way you learn tricks to enhance the watercolors, and ways to correct mistakes. Another challenge has been my love affair with two states; West Virginia and Florida. I’ve moved back and forth between the two several times in my life. Since I love both states, I should probably spend summers in West Virginia and winters in Florida. Nothing is ever that simple for me. I always pack up lock, stock, and van and move back and forth. So, after graduating from West Virginia Wesleyan, I decided to go back to school and get a teaching degree. Naturally, I chose the University of South Florida. After graduation, I moved back to West Virginia and opened an art gallery, which I owned for ten years. I taught children privately at my gallery. All the while I continued to study watercolors with another artist who had studied in Paris, France. This kind and wonderful gentleman shared his infinite knowledge of the watercolor medium with me so that I felt like I had the same education as one who had studied in Paris! I moved to Florida in 1989 where I now have a gallery and studio in Sarasota. I have also taught art in Florida’s public school system. Teaching children about art is an extension of my love affair with our fascinating world. I can show them how everything in the world is connected to art in some way; from the clothes we wear, to the design of our car, to the breakfast cereal with the nifty artwork on the box. Everything is created by someone… or God! I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit with me, and that you like what you’ve read and seen. For an artist there is no greater compliment than having someone admire his or her work. So, for reading and looking, I thank you. Education West Virginia Wesleyan University of Maryland University of South Florida Awards and Exhibitions One Woman Show Union Carbide Technical Center Purchase Award - Allied Artists of West Virginia Annual Juried Exhibition - Sunrise Art Gallery Three Rivers Annual Juried Exhibition - Bank of Ceredo One Woman Show John V. Ray Room, Kanawha County Public Library One Woman Show Union Carbide City Center East Best West Virginia Landscape Award - Mountain State Forest Festival Art Exhibition Third Prize - Annual Miniature Show Sunrise Art Gallery Professional Artists’ Cooperative Trust, Inc., Art Exhibition, Boll Furniture Gallery West Virginia Women in Art Show, YWCA Seventh Annual International Miniature Show, Kapok Tree Inn, St. Petersburg, FL First National Bank of South Charleston, Art Exhibit Virginia Beach Boardwalk Show, Virginia Beach, Virginia The Ghent Gallery, Norfolk, Virginia South Carolina Miniature Show, Cameo Gallery Art Exhibition, The Bluefield Art Center Davis & Elkins Fine Art Gallery, Davis and Elkins College PACT Group Show, Boll Furniture Gallery Ninth Annual National Miniature Show, LaLuz Gallery Allegheny Miniature Show Ninth International Miniature Art Society of Florida, Clearwater, FL Tenth Annual National Miniature Show, LaLuz Gallery Tenth International Miniature Art Society of Florida, Inc. Kapok Tree Inn One Woman Show Dunbar Public Library One Woman Show South Charleston Library Cardinal Valley Art Show, Presented by the Ashland Area Art Gallery South Carolina Fourth Annual Miniature Art Exhibition, Cameo Art Gallery PACT Grand Opening, Artspace Gallery PACT Spring Show, Artspace Gallery West Virginia Watercolor Society First Annual Show, Parkersburg Art Center PACT Louvre Show, Artspace Gallery West Virginia Water Color Society Invitational Show, University of Charleston Eighth Annual Alumni One Woman Show, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Sleeth Art Gallery First Community Bank, West Virginia Water Color Society Invitational Show Wearable Art Auction, Ashland Area Art Gallery, Ashland, Kentucky Third Prize-Mixed Media - New Mexico Miniature Arts Society National Show, Lusk Hall, Roswell, New Mexico One Woman Show home of Michael and Maria Losey St. Armands Key, Sarasota, FL Collections President George W. Bush President George H. Bush President Ronald Reagan Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito Governor and Mrs. Arch A. Moore, Jr. West Virginia State Tax Department Shriner’s Hospitals for Crippled Children in the United States, Canada and Mexico West Virginia Wesleyan College Permanent Collection Law offices of Robinson and McElwee Muldoon’s, Inc. Danny’s, Inc. Doctors Park West Virginia Heating and Cooling Rank O. Dawson, Jr. MD Private collections in the United States, Canada, Europe and Mexico Art Organizations West Virginia Water color Society - Charter and Signature Member Professional Artists’ Cooperative Trust, Inc. - Charter Member Miniature Art Society of Florida National Miniature Art Society Florida Watercolor Society Southern Water Color Society American Water Color Society - Associate Member Publications DÉCOR Magazine Wonderful West Virginia Magazine The Quill Collector’s Art Rosen Publishing - New York, NY Web page address:www.lilliedawsonstudios.com Email address:Lillie@lilliedawsonstudios.com || Wanna Bears || Fish Envelopes || Lillie's Lovely's || Contact || Order Form || Links || Home || All digital files, both images and text, are copyrighted by Lillie Dawson and are fully protected by international copyright law. 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