Artist Jennifer “EMILE” Freeman

I am a self proclaimed artist. My earliest memories of my art connection are the matchboolts that advertised, “If you can draw this, you could be an artist!” That was the sixties. l would immediately attempt to draw the cover as perfectly as possible. l started painting my bedroom walls as l moved into my teens, but after high school I left the art world almost all together until my mid thirties and mid life crisis!

I hired a painter to teach me how to oil paint. The lesson after he squeezed out paint on my palette was to paint 2 apples he set in a still life which I did. “’Then l was told there were right and wrong ways to paint it scared me out of my natural determination to succeed at being a good artist. l became intimidated by the simple approach to the canvas. l pulled away from oil painting for the time being and 3 years later was again prompted to take a class, (this time being offered in Pastel.) l loved the immediacy of it and there didn’t seem to be the “rights and wrongs” in oil painting. l took off into the Pastel world with a fever.

l started taking workshops and classes at the Arkansas Arts Center 6 years ago, and l found theyA had really good, qualif’led teachers and structured classes. Something was always available to meet my working schedule. I enrolled in oil painting classes, as well as dasses in pastel and watercolor.

l have since come full circle in my artistic quest and am now doing oil, pastel and watercolor as I see tit for myself. l do pay attention to basics but pretty much go with my instincts. l hope you enjoy my work with even a fraction of the joy I had in the process of creating it.