Friday, March 23, 2007

Gene Turner- Artist Extraordinaire


Sunday afternoon, Greg and I enjoyed watching a good friend of mine, Gene Turner at an art demo. Gene is the grandfather of one of the gentleman I work with at cotillion and he helps cater refreshments at a few of our local spots. In a passing conversation I learned that he is an artist and actually trained under Norman Rockwell as well as Elmer Tafflinger & Ralph Craig who both studied under the legendary George Bridgeman (for those art enthusiasts out there). He is often invited to different art societies to give demonstrations and invited me to come and watch at a local demo he was giving in La Habra. Gene is 82 years old and yet has such a zest for life, I only hope I'm as active as he is when I reach that age (yes I'm planning on making it, God willing :-) He spent two hours teaching his technique of color pencil over water color as well as sprinkling in the most wonderful stories of his life, from how he found his love for art to stories of serving in World War II. The time just melted away as we watched his painting come to life. The artwork he completed was then auctioned off and I won! Granted, I think I purchased the most amount of raffle tickets so the odds were in my favor. It was nice to stop and pause for the day and enjoy getting lost in art and history and the twinkle of a gentle soul's sweet eyes.

1 comment:

::Traci:: said...

Hey, that's kind of how I pictured him. Very cool!