Prolific and persuasive Fort Davis, Texas artist Ann Pratt has been on my case to enter the Kate Hoffman Art Association Juried Show, held annually right here at home. I don't enter many shows. Lots of reasons for that.

One:  Kiowa Gallery in nearby Alpine, Texas offers me such a ready-built platform for sales, I don't wander far afield. My work sells regularly at the gallery level, and that's a great problem to have. Also, the past couple of years I've been out of town for the KHAA show, or busy, or unprepared with uncommitted new work. Lastly, once upon a time long ago, I exhibited so consistently unsuccessfully in the sometimes quirky university art environment back in Lubbock, I'm wary of judges who think representational art is a backward bastard cousin to cubism and minimalist art and the like.

Anyway, this August, a week before the deadline for entries, Henry Moon, owner of OLD FORT COUNTRY, home to this year's KHAA exhibit, added a twist to my arm and passed an entry form across the counter. (Jim and I were busy purchasing homemade fudge at the time, so my resistance was down.) My watercolorist mother does enter art shows, in Lubbock, no less. So I snatched an extra entry form for her, which I promptly mailed, seeing as how the deadline was only a week away. The deal I cut with Mom: she'd come down for an overdue visit, deliver her three entries to me; I'd pick them up when the show ends and deliver them back to her. It was an excuse for two visits. With a deal like that, we couldn't lose!

Mother, at 81, belongs to several art associations and is a founding member of the Ransom Canyon Splash Gals, a merry band of watercolorists who boldly paint, travel and otherwise stir up trouble in the neighborhood. Known to most of the world as Bettye Cook, Mom hasn't embraced the world of CD's and digital images, and although she briefly tried email, she turned her back on that in favor of phone calls and letters. But entries to this show had to be digital. Mom agonized over that. So did I when I tried (in vain) to explain the nuances of pixels and KB's to someone content to watch only local TV off an antenna. Since neither my landscape architect brother nor I were around to shoot digital pics of her paintings, she had to take her three paintings to a professional photographer to get images emailed to Ann Pratt by the deadline.

Ann emailed me when they arrived. Have you seen what your mother sent? she asked. The portrait is especially wonderful!


GOATHERDER'S GIFT TO THE WEDDING  14" x 18" watercolor
Bettye Cook     $250 (framed)   
1st Place   Portrait Division   KHAA 2008 Juried Show

Your mother's paintings are fantastic! Henry Moon confided when we returned for a refill on fudge. Her cactus is great! She's good!


STICKY BUSINESS    14" x 18" watercolor   by Bettye Cook
1st Place   Still Life Division   KHAA 2008 Juried Show
$250 (framed)

Of course, I already knew that, even though I'd seen only two of the three paintings she entered. I knew Bettye Cook when she was drawing cartoons on my lunchbags and stitching felt poodles on my skirts.

Mom brought her paintings, along with watercoloring cronies Debra Clark, Sher Hiner & Joyce Runyan. We delivered her entries, did the tourist tour of Far West Texas, visited. She drove back to Ransom Canyon a few days before the show opened, leaving Jim and me to represent her at the reception Saturday night. Mom said something about hoping she didn't embarrass me. I have a long history of not listening to my mother's cautions.

I took Best of Show with my pastel landscape, WINDSWEPT COLOR :



WINDSWEPT COLOR   12" X 24" pastel  by Lindy Cook Severns   $1950 (framed)

Best of Show  KHAA 5th Annual Juried Art Competition
     OLD FORT COUNTRY    Fort Davis, Texas    

My pastel minature placed second in the landscape division!



THE FAR WEST OF TEXAS    4" x 6" pastel by Lindy Cook Severns
$200 (framed)  SOLD  
Second Place  Landscape Division  KHAA 2008 Juried Show

It lost First Place to Mom's winning PICNIC PARADISE. I can live with that loss!



PICNIC PARADISE   14" x 18" watercolor by Bettye Cook  $250 (framed)
1st Place  Landscape Division    KHAA 2008 Regional Show
Fort Davis, Texas    (Hanging at  OLD FORT COUNTRY  during Sept. 2008) 


And she embarrassed me, after all. As her proxy at the reception, I kept having to accept prizes for her. She won so many gift bags and certificates and wine and ribbons, Jim had to bring the truck around to load them up.
This could be the end of my show career, because between Mom and I, we swept the show and may not be invited back next year.

Or, perhaps the powers that be will smile and agree that two artists are better than one. Especially when they share the same genes.

I'm one proud daughter. And grateful for the genes I drew!

If you're in the Big Bend in September 2008, drop into OLD FORT COUNTRY and see our work hanging together. You can't miss Mom's—they all have big blue ribbons attached. To learn more about Mom, watercolorist Bettye Cook, visit her page at OLD SPANISH TRAIL STUDIO.  Want to purchase an original Bettye Cook?
Email me! I'm happy to handle cyberspace technology for Mom. After all, she spent a lot of time and effort drawing on my lunchbags all those years.