If you’ve ever had the occasion to visit HIMG on Route 60 East, you’d have to admit, it would be nearly impossible to not become attached to at least one of the beautiful watercolor paintings there. Resembling a starving artist sale, the paintings adorn the long corridors leading to various offices. With all there shapes, sizes, colors, and subject matter, they seem to provide just the right effect for those visitors shuffling to and from their scheduled appointments. If your Christmas list places you in the market for that one special painting, it’s probably hanging around at HIMG.
“The Praise Painters” get together on a typical Monday.
Those paintings are all the work of a group who simply call themselves “The Praise Painters.” While the actual wall paintings at HIMG are not for sale, individual copies can be purchased by contacting Patty Dickey, who is the community resource coordinator at HIMG. Dickey said the pictures are quite popular and sales are good. “If you’re shopping for a painting as a Christmas gift, remember that it takes about a week for copies to be made,” said Dickey. Revenue from the art work sales goes into the Mountain State Wellness Fund which supports multiple non profit charities.
“Our Praise Painter group paints every Monday,” said Sunny Hammers, a retired Cabell County teacher who taught art classes for thirty years. “Our credo comes from an old Billy Joel song which goes something like: ‘It’s a pretty good crowd for a Monday, and they all come in with a smile. Cause you know it’s here that they want to be. To forget about life for a while.'”
They really don’t forget about life for a while. But come Monday mornings, they do adhere to the words of that song pretty close. They have been getting together like this for seven years now. Their number has grown from three ladies who love to paint, to over three dozen accomplished artists. They get together for the shear camaraderie that develops every time they meet. In fact, they have grown to the point that there is simply no more room for expansion.
While they do come together to paint, they are far more than the sum total of the finished art work they produce. As their paintings begin coming to life, life is being shared in its purest form.
“We’re more like family than anything else,” said Janet Vital. “We socialize, we exchange ideas, we laugh and grow together. We support each other, and all the while, we feel good about what we are about.”
Monday’s group is a diversity of skilled ladies who believe their name says it all. “We developed the name Praise Painters because we feel this is God’s work,” said Barbara Bozzay. They gather at Christ The King Lutheran Church on Route 60 East. They bring their water colors, their brushes, and their love of painting, and they share the morning. Their number is so great that the group is divided into two sessions, Thursday evenings and Monday mornings.
Most would consider the art accomplishments of this all volunteer group to be more than adequate to make a better community. However, the group feels they are capable of doing more — much more. In addition to spending hours to complete each painting, they support a number of other charitable agencies.
The group donates paintings to Faith In Action each year to help defray operating expenses. Paintings, along with paint supplies, are made into baskets that are auctioned off.
Rose Thornburg, Director of Faith in Action, says that the donated art work from The Praise Painters group is always well received.
“Their work is most professional and their donated items always do quite well when our auction begins. We need more groups like them.”
As a group, they donate three hundred dollars annually to the National Wheelchair Foundation for the purchase of two wheelchairs.
Another member of the group, Sue Hatcher, is director of an organization called Girls Place. “We meet once a week at Bates Presbyterian Church on East Pea Ridge. We invite girls between the 7th and 12th grades who need school help. We develop their self esteem, offer socialization with group crafts, and do community service projects as a group.”
Well, there you have it. A story about a group of mostly retired individuals who got together to fill the hours in their day, and ended up making their community a better place to live.
SOURCE: Herald-Dispatch