I'm thinking about how blessed my life has been. I had wonderful parents, Lee Eston Marchant, Sr. and Ella Madge Marchant, who raised me on a 100 acre farm and guided me to be a good parent and wife. I have two older sisters, Kate Hand and Gail Richter and one younger brother, Lee Eston Marchant, Jr. We had a childhood filled with laughter, happiness, wonderment, fear and tears.
I was always interested in art from the time I was a small child. People would tell me I had traced the drawings I would do on paper. It wasn't until I started being able to use different media that most realized I had a talent. My teachers always did and had me do projects for them which required my artistic ability.
I drew pictures constantly as a child and was most prolific in my teens using a quill pen, India ink and paper. I thought I would be a great artist one day. But I ventured away from my chosen path and into motherhood. It was the greatest time of my life, raising my sons, who I consider to be my greatest works of art.
Last year my youngest son, Sean, moved to Florida to live with his older brother, Jeremy. They've achieved so much in their short lives that it makes me wonder why I didn't. But when my Birthday and Christmas rolled around in 2011, I was given art materials of all kinds by my sons and husband with the encouragement to get started back with my art. Jeremy made a special request of a Coconut Palm on the beach during a sunny day.
It took a while for me to get started because I have always had such self doubt, but as the painting began to come alive, so did this old place inside of me that I had pushed way down to make sure I cared for my husband and children as I should.
Jeremy was elated when I surprised him with his painting already framed for his 27th Birthday last year. That is where it began, my return to art and myself.
Coconut Palm-Acrylic on Canvas-24 X 36"- 2012
Property of Jeremy Smith