DIAMOND — As a kid, Janiece Siebert, Carthage, loved to draw.
On Saturday, Siebert – who grew up in Diamond – had her paintbrushes in hand painting during the George Washington Carver National Monument’s Art in the Park event.
“I have been painting since high school, loved to draw as a kid, and then moved into painting in high school,” she said. “I opted instead of going to college, I got married instead. Raised four kids, I have one still at home, but the last five years, I have gotten back into painting because I just love it. But when you paint, it is so consuming that it is really what you have to do.“
When she entered the trail, she first went to the overlook of the monument.
“I stood up on the overlook and I just looked,” she said. “Generally, whatever first catches your eye, is what you should paint. So the color of that pretty florescent blue, that pink, the white dogwoods. And then there was a little bumble bee that was there and that just caught my eye, so that is what I painted.“
Siebert used acrylic paint during Saturday’s event.
“I like acrylic because they dry,” she said. “I try to do just a base coat with water color and I put it a little heavier because it will make your painting last a little longer if you kind of wash in some color, get an idea of where you want to go with it and then start coming back with darker, deeper colors.“
Carver’s first love was actually art.
According to park ranger Curtis Gregory in a previous story, “Actually, what is interesting, here at the Carver Farm (monument is now) is where Carver began to paint, when he was a kid, he would go out in the wooded area, create his own paint and paint a lot of things in the woods,” Gregory said. “That is what he wanted to be more than anything when he was a young kid, he wanted to be an artist. as we know, he didn’t become a professional artist, but he painted for the rest of his life.”
Asked what Siebert gets out of painting, she referred to a quote by Carver.
“The quote that really kind of summed it up for me, ‘his painting is his soul’s expression to understand God.’ I think that it is very true for me too. It is very soul searching, spiritual almost and people who paint are meant to paint. That is what God had planned for you from the start.”
Source: http://www.neoshodailynews.com/news/20180424/local-artist-enjoys-painting