WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL...

I read a lot of fairytales. All little girls know they are supposed to want to be the princess in the story. But I didn’t want to be a princess in a sparkling gown. I wanted to be the one who designed the sparkling gown. I wanted to paint the pictures for the story, and maybe write the story, too. I imagined a beautiful world of my own creation. As a child, I painted many watercolors and wrote many stories.

Then I grew up. I became a writer, published a novel, and made a living as an editor for many years.

Then, after an entire year of decluttering our house, I discovered a box in the basement containing tubes of watercolor and other enchanting art supplies, tucked away and almost forgotten. I wondered if it would be possible to return to an original love: creating beauty with paint. After trying out a few other mediums, I instinctively returned to watercolor like a sea turtle uses magnetic fields to return to the place it was born.

Since the day of that return, I have created sixty watercolor paintings and sold most of them. My art has won awards and has been featured in an international art magazine, and once I was named “Artist of the Week” by the Greater Nashville Arts & Business Council. 

But these are almost afterthoughts. Most of all, I just want to “paint the picture.”

— Jan Alice Keeling