When Jean Stockton needs inspiration for her art, she just steps outside.
Jean lives on a few wooded acres near Arkansas City. She’s always on the lookout for unique patterns of light on the trees and rocks, and she walks the woods taking photographs that often inspire her paintings.
“Early in the morning and the evening is a wonderful time to take photographs of the light. Colors begin to really show their beauty at that time of the day,” Jean said.
This year, Jean entered her oil painting “Woods in Winter Light” in the Art is Ageless® juried competition at Arkansas City Presbyterian Manor. She won first prize in the painting category, and now the piece has been chosen to appear in the 2017 Art is Ageless calendar.
Jean has been painting since she was a young girl growing up in California. She studied art at Northern Oklahoma College and moved to Ark City soon after with her husband, Bob, whom she met in California while he was in the service during World War II.
In 1980, after their two daughters were grown, Jean began exhibiting her work professionally. During the 1990s, she taught art for a few years at Cowley College, then became an art student there herself. She was especially pleased to be included in “Who’s Who Among Student Artists in American Junior Colleges.” “That was a nice award,” she said.
In 2011, the college featured a retrospective of her work. Today, Jean continues to teach painting in her home studio. Oils are her primary medium, although she also enjoys watercolors, and landscapes and skies remain her favorite subject.
However, she said, she may take on a new challenge soon: a portrait of her granddaughter. “When the mood strikes, you’d better move on it because it soon moves away and something else happens,” she said.
Another Arkansas City artist’s work will be featured on Art is Ageless notecards for 2017. Dr. Steve Swaim’s sculpture, titled “Two Geriatric Gents,” is among the winners at the masterpiece level of the juried competition. Works by local winners are automatically entered into a competition with winning art from 16 other Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America communities. The winners are featured in the Art is Ageless calendar and notecards.