Tina Battle

Painting has always been a passion of mine but a passion that time did not afford fruition. My mother was my inspiration. She could sketch anything with just a pencil and scrap paper. She did not paint but encouraged me to do so by enrolling me in a semester of private oil instruction by the wonderful Vie Schraeder in Stillwater, Oklahoma when I was in the eighth grade. She taught how to see color, mask out frivolous details, and mix any color using only 8 tubes of paint. Even a single leaf is full of color! To this day I still zero in on a scene to paint and visualize mixing paints and performing brush strokes in my mind. It’s like being bilingual!

I graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelors degree in Interior Design. For the past thirty years, family, interior design, and various other business positions have been my priorities but painting is all I ever wanted to do. I took the summer of 2010 away from my working career to garden and wind down from traveling and being the exhibits manager for 10 national nursing organizations. I found myself painting – finally! My favorite scenes to paint are from places I’ve been so each is a part of me. Every day I wake up and all I want to do is paint. It is such a joy and thank you for sharing it with me!

Blue Morning Gallery