Sunday, June 1, 2003

'Cinderella' charms exhibit's visitors

By Lucinda Breeding

Arts & Entertainment Editor / Denton Record Chronicle

Members of the local art league couldn’t help but notice that children seemed to favor Sanger painter Detha Watson’s “Cinderella” overwhelmingly.

Adults were moved, too, by the oil paint­ing of a little girl fumbling with a ballet slipper. They helped make Ms. Watson’s work the People’s Choice winner in the 35th annual North Texas Area Art League Juried Fine Arts Exhibition.

The exhibit closed last week. Ballots are counted as the paintings, pottery craft and sculpture are taken down from gallery walls and pedestals. This year, league members noticed that many of the votes cast for the winner were scrawled in youthful penmanship. The chil­dren liked the little girl in pink who looked so intent on removing her slipper, they said.

    "Cinderella," a portrait by Sanger artist
     Dethaa Watson of her granddaughter,
     recently won thePeople's Choice award
     in the North Texas Area Art League's
     annual juried exhibit.


“I was thrilled,” Ms. Watson said of her win.  “When I was there, I voted me, because I thought if I didn’t have faith in myself, I shouldn’t have the work in the show:’

The painting is a portrait of Ms. Watson’s granddaughter, Taylor Jayne Arnold. She was about 4-years-old when Ms. Watson snapped a portrait-worthy photo last year.

    “She was dressed in a ballet cos­tume, and the light was just right,” Ms. Watson said. “Children can be really self-conscious, so when I told her to take off her shoe, she relaxed and I got my picture?

The resulting oil painting cap­tures the little girl dressed in pink leotards and tutu, bent over her slipper. Ms. Watson, a New Me­xico native who has been a pro­fessional artist for 35 years, con­siders portraiture her specialty. She cites her “big yahoo” as her ancestral portraits of a Swedish count and countess.

Ms. Watson also sculpts in bronze and does mosaic work in cement. She moved to Sanger and began building a home last year uprooting herself from the bustling arts community of Scottsdale, Ariz. She has de­signed plates for the Franklin Mint, and, she has work in gal­leries in Arizona, Fort Worth and Dallas.

She joined the art league last year to get more involved in the arts community.

“Artists have a tendency to be isolated,” she said. “It can be lone­ly. Because I work in my home, I thought it was time for me to get out in the community more and to get together with other artists?

Art league president Jo Wil­liams said Littie Grooms, the group’s late publicity chair­woman, started the people’s

choice contest in 1993.

“I think that she just wanted to recognize an artist that hadn’t been recognized by the juror7 Ms. Williams said. “It’s not unique. A lot of exhibitions have a people’s choice award:’

Ms. Watson said the league has been a good network. She partic­ipates in one of the league’s cri­tique groups regularly.

To view more of Detha Watson’s work, visit www.dethawatson.com. The winning painting and other portraits are posted.

 

LUCLNDA BREEDING can be reached at 940-566-6877 Her e-mail address is cbreeding® dentonrc.com.