black sands of hawaii with fritzie hawkins

"On a given day there are between twenty and thirty painters in the room. And you paint a little bit yourself and then you get up to stretch your legs and walk around to see what everyone else is doing. And it is AMAZING. Everyone is doing something different. Some are doing the same kind of work, others are doing something else. There are some really unique things going on.
And to me, that plus the books is how I have learned!! It was the BEST DUES MONEY I ever paid."
(excerpt from Hawkins, Art Talk, Carrollton Public Library, Carrollton, MO, 2009)
Boat on watercolor paper (top left). Black Sands Of Hawaii (middle left) 16 by 20 inches, oil on canvas, framed. Adobe on watercolor paper (left). Paper flower assemblage (left).

It is a new season for veteran painter Fritzie Hawkins. One year ago she told her ART TALK audience at the Carrollton Public Library why she did all her painting "down in Texas." Believe it or not, life was too hectic at her rural residence near Carrollton. Too many people knew her and kept her busy with visits. She could not get "settled down" to paint. TEXAS was Mission, Texas, in the Rio Grand Valley, a suburb of McAllen. She and her husband spend seven months there each year. She has been doing watercolors since 2002, the year she first became involved with the Upper Valley Art League. Since then, she has also become a member of the Hildalgo Watercolor Society.

This time home she has found time to create new works. Not just new works, according to Hawkins, this is the first time ever she has painted in this house in Missouri. The extensive care she gave her mother the previous year has taken a turn for the better. "Now that Mother is in assisted care, she is in good hands. It just frees me up," she related.

Her eagerness to join the local art scene, led to a phone call, and brought me to her doorstep Thursday morning.

Flowers adorn her yard. Fiddle music met me at the door and bluegrass harmonies lilted from room to room.

Here, a word made of worn wooden blocks, perched on the kitchen counter. There, a bumper sticker verse, a sentiment of hope and strength, on the side of the refrigerator. Caribou antlers that her husband Mel carved hang on the wall. Ice tea in hand, we walked to the living room to view one of her two June pieces.


Click on triangle above. In this 56 second video you will hear the Southern Strangers bluegrass music and see Caribou Horn carved by her husband Mel.

Sunshine (right) 22.5 x 15 inches, watercolor on 300 lb. Arches paper, matted and framed by the artist. On view at Carroll County Clerk's office, downtown Carrollton. Double click on image to view it enlarged. Below left, a closeup beach scene.

One can enjoy the care and gentle life Hawkins places in her work. Watercolor by nature is an unforgivable medium. One unintended flick of the brush tip and its mark remains permanently. For this reason, watercolorists are intentional and think the whole project out ahead of time. Another way to think about the process is as pools of color, which the artist takes care to let dry and not bump into another pool. Notice the multiple greens Hawkins employs in Sunshine. The closeup of a beach scene (upper left) includes tiny sandpipers in silouette.

Blue Bonnets of Texas, 14 by 11 inches, watercolor on 300 lb Arches archival paper. On display at Bank 21, downtown Carrollton, Missouri. Double click on image to view it enlarged. This is her second "June" piece.

To know "what technique to use" a watercolorist experiments, she tries this, and tries that. And the effects she likes the most, she will use again and again. It is this gleaning from others, the manner and experiments she has witnessed from her fellow league members, that she has tried herself, and gained confidence in repeating, well, this is growth for the artist. Nothing is automatic. Decision-making happens before, during, and after...all the way through. As the artist gains confidence and likes the results of her work well enough to sign her name to it, one's reputation follows. Some have been at it longer than others. Fritzie Hawkins is a brave soul.




Click on triangle. She talks about re-working First Rose. On display at the Carrollton R-7 District office.










Click triangle above. She re-works a flop to make paper assemblage, shows her work room, and the watercolor palette she keeps in her refrigerator. Seven minutes long. FH: "I change from one moment to the next. I don't do the same thing all the time."



Whimsical Cat, 15 x 11 inches, watercolor on 300 lb Arches archival watercolor paper (left).
On display at Premier Eye Care Center in Carrollton. Double click on image to view it enlarged.

She showed me her fantasy cat. Click triangle to view 5 minute video.

FH:"I just love this cat. It was great fun. I do like to do a lot of animals that way. KM:" How did you get this? It is so wild looking." FH: "That's what I say. I like it. So I like to stay "real," and then I just like to go "crazy with my big brush." KM: "Is that on that same kind of paper?" FH: "Yes, it's on natural Arches. I have to order it because Hobby Lobby has it, but they charge so much, so I order a dozen sheets at a time. Sheets are cheaper than a roll. If I was ever good enough that I did lots of paintings, I would order a roll. With a roll you can do any size. I am limited to 22 by 28 inch sheets. I have done 2 or 3 paintings that were 22 by 28 and they have all sold. They were commissioned." KM: "So, you say you have done really good down in Texas? So, you say you have a studio down there?" FH: "I have a regular room in my house (down in Texas), you can call it "a studio" if you like. Where everything is there, I have a wonderful cabinet that I put my stuff in, my sheets lay flat, everything is great, and I can store all my frames, I didn't bring any back with me. These are things that I have been doing. That one I just finished (Blue Bonnet) the last part of June (here in Missouri). I started it in March, but then I got all these commissions and I worked on them (instead). KM: "So people write to you and say, will you do such and such for me?" FH: "No, I talk to them in person (when they give me a commission to do.) I am in a couple of exhibitions with the art league I am a member of. I have a private sale and show. And that really got me a lot of starts. The first one I ever had, I had it in January. KM: "So, did you rent a space?" FH: "We have what you call a craft and art sale and show at our subdivision, in the big club house. Normally you pay X dollars for that space. But as a person who lives there, I got the space for FREE. Once a year is all it is." KM: "How many months do you spend down there?" FH: "I spend seven months. I think that is where we will live when Mel retires (from farming.) It is warm all the time. But it is not 95 percent humidity. It is 30 to 50 percent. Because it is sub-tropical." KM: "Someone else must have made this." FH: "I bought that at an auction and I just love it." KM: "Bach gave us God's Word, Mozart gave us God's laughter, Beethoven gave us God's fire, God gave us music that we might pray without words." FH: "You have to remember that God gave those guys (that ability)."





Close up of Horse Plate, 12 by 9 inches,
instant coffee mixed with water to create light and dark tones on porcelain.



Ms. Hawkins shared what gets her through the day. FH: "(My husband) had cancer three times. which I found was really bad. He's been cancer free a little while now. Of course I has this thing, which affected my whole life, my mobility and all that. But, uh, we went to a bluegrass festival, he was in the midst of his chemo radiation treatment. We took off a couple days and went. And, the Southern Strangers from Alabama were there at that time, I think in Clinton, Missouri. We went in, sat down, started listening and they were singing some really good songs, mostly sing a lot of gospel and bluegrass gospel, which is so meaningful. The words were so great. They started singing this song, and Mel and I just looked at each other, and we just adopted it as "our song." It was not the one we dance to or the one we made love to or some of that stuff. It hits us just right. It goes like this, I can only remember the words if I sing it: "A love like this, He greets me in life's journey, He's been holding to God's hand a long long time, I'm a winner either way, if I go or if I stay, for I still have my Jesus each passing day. I'll have my healing here below or life forever if I go, oh praise the Lord, I'm a winner either way." And, oh my, we thought, "that is it!!" And I have sung that song to people who have died the next day. I used go play piano and organ at the rest homes and hospitals. I visited Carolyn. We talked a little while. I said, "I brought my guitar. I have a song I want to sing to you." And the tears just flowed. She had cancer really bad. I knew she did not have very long. But then she just thanked me and I said "Thank the good Lord." And she was dead within twenty-four hours, and I had not idea that she had that short of time left. And then when Mel was in chemo and radiation, three or four weeks with him, I took him every day, and here is all these people in there. And then, one day some of them would not be there. Why? Because they died. I asked them (the staff), I can do a lot better by singing songs. I talk a little and sing a song, the tears flow on 'that one.' And they are really good tears, they should be grateful, happy, wonderful tears. And, you know, these people are in chemo, and they look horrible, this might be their third or fourth cancer, So they (hospital staff) told me I could have a full-time job coming down there every day. We went down there every day for nine weeks."

Fifteen of her watercolors and oils are being showcased this month in nine businesses around town as part of the Carrollton Art Rotation Program (CARP). Thomas Smith Dentist, Bank 21, Roseberry's Office Supply, Ray County Feed Company, Shear Eclipse Hair Salon, Newcomb Eye Clinic, Carroll County Courthouse, Premier Eye Care, and the Carrollton R-7 District office.

You may reach Fritzie Hawkins at 660-542-2022 at The Country Palette.