Esther Luttrell, Artist
"Sea Spirit"

This is so simple; just a few India Ink lines against a mish-mash of soothingly cool colors in acrylic...and yet it seems delicious ... a tall glass of iced tea on a very hot day ... a water sprinkler on the lawn ... a soft breeze beside a clear lake. It's just, I don't know, comforting. She was born with no thought, no great flush of creativity, just a tiny movement of pen on canvas and she was there. If this photograph were more clearly definied, you would see that her lower portion sweeps up into what could be interpreted as a mermaid's tail, but it wasn't intentional. 
"The Villa"

Another one of those "should I or shouldn't I" include this in an exhibit paintings. At the last moment, it joined my others at the Unity Gallery in Lawrence, Kansas. So glad someone enjoyed it enough to buy it. 
"In Greece"
"The Back Lot"

I took a photo of this on the back lot of either Universal or Warner Brothers, I can't remember which. This "set" has been used in many films. With the buildings out of the way, it was even used for the parting of the Red Sea in "The Ten Commandments". A year or so later, I decided - once again - that I really did need to take art lessons. I'd learn to watercolor. I signed up with a watercolor artist and joined her class of 20 or so in the LA area. I was adding sunlight streaming through trees when other students came over to watch. They were making ooohhh and ahhh sounds. The art instructor wanted to know what the attention was all about. She leaned over my now completed painting, said, "It needs color" and PLOPPED a glob of BLACK in the lower left center of my little pastel. The class was stunned into silence. I was crushed. I took this home and looked at it for a week - then added color to the black and created a tree. But it really was prettier without it, I have to admit.
"Solitary Winter"
"Lake Minneola"

When I was a little girl, I used to visit my aunt who lived at Lake Minneola in Florida. One day I was sitting at the edge of the lake, next to a dilapadated dock, tossing pebbles at a rock half-submerged ten or twelve feet out into the water. Finally, I got up to  amble  back to Aunt Edith's house - and the "rock" raised its eyes to watch me! I had been bouncing stones off an alligator's back! I set a new track record going up that dusty road to auntie's house!
"And the Angels Sing"
"The Ruins"

Tip to those reading this: Even when your own insurance agent buys your painting at an art show, it does not reduce your premium by so much as a nickle.
"Mediterranean Staircase"

When I moved to Topeka, I had not painted in three years. My new friends had heard the story of how I had come to start painting. They knew that I'd had a dream and, from all indications, guides to help. One day, I decided to see if I could still handle a brush. I was well into this effort when Duane came by, peered over my shoulder and said sagely, "Hmmm...it appears that your muses have left you." He had about the same kind of humor as that ex-husband I keep mentioning! 

Better story: I completed this in a week or so. One morning I noticed that where I had painted an arch with a glow of sunlight, there now appeared the face of a tiny angel !! Look closely and you'll see his eyes, and his nose and his little mouth. Right in that arch! Under the glow of sun. I had to smile. Perhaps the muses haven't abandoned me, after all.
Art   in   the   Park