BRUSHES BUSY AT EVENING PAINTING CLASS

Cheri Colman paints a study she calls "Victorian." She has been working on it for about four weeks.

Elwanda Seabaugh paints Old Appleton Mill.

Lillian Schreiner arranges her painting supplies prior to getting down to work.

Landscapes, portraits and still life paintings -- in cascades of colors -- fill the basement of a Jackson home on Wednesday nights as 10 aspiring artists gather to perfect their passion.

Easels, canvas, tubes of paint and picture frames line the workshop in the home of Elwanda Seabaugh, where painting instructor Nancy Collier of Jackson has been teaching for 12 years.

Collier says over 100 area artists have enrolled in her 13- to 16-week classes since she began teaching the fine art of painting in 1979 in her crafts store in Cape Girardeau.

During this session, students come not only from Cape and Jackson but also from Millersville and Old Appleton. Perryville and Scott City residents have taken the course over the years.

"People work at their own pace and on their own separate subjects," said Collier, a 1973 graduate of Jackson High School. "We have resource materials and we order supplies. And we encourage one another."

Collier critiques the work of her students as their paintings take shape and form. She advises on perspective, symmetry, color, value, intensity and composition.

Born in Old Appleton, Collier won her first art contest when she was in sixth grade.

"That's when I knew I was interesting in painting," she said. "So in high school I took all the art classes I could including welding classes for sculpture."

A 1977 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor of science in education, Collier majored in fine arts with a minor in industrial arts.

She operated Paint'N Place in Cape Girardeau for a number of years. Besides selling arts and crafts supplies, she gave painting lessons. She also designed logos and painted commercial signs.

In 1979 Collier taught painting at the art guild and the seminary in Perryville.

"I teach mostly painting with oils because I think oils are easier for the beginner to work with. Oils take longer to dry and students have more time to decide what they want to do with their painting.

"And since they're painting week to week, oils give them more time to perfect their work."

Many of Collier's students have won awards in art competitions. Nancy Riehm of Millersville has won first-place ribbons at the SEMO District Fair. Lillian Schriener of Old Appleton has won awards at the annual Altenburg Fair.

From Nov. 5 to 22, about 20 of Collier's students will exhibit their work at Gallery 100 in Cape Girardeau. From Cape Girardeau will be Mary Bethards, Pat Cobb, Sarah Cochrane, Mary Graven, Dixie Jones, Linda Metheny, Lynn Stoecker and Irene Tindall.

From Jackson will be Cheri Colman, Denise Miinch, Lynn Moll, Elwanda Seabaugh and Lee Wulf.

Also, Nancy Riehm of Millersville, Lillian Schreiner of Old Appleton, Jinny Buchheit, Shirley Guard and Sue Spencer of Perryville, and Eddie Stuart of Scott City.

Landscapes, florals and wildlife will be prominent in the exhibit. Living in the Midwest, says Collier, gives plenty of opportunities to paint scenes of the area. And some of the paintings will be of Western and European images.

"One lady will show her painting of the Grand Canyon she did from photos she took while visiting there," said Collier. "And Dixie Jones did a painting of a castle she visited in Switzerland."

Collier said most students use reference material for their paintings and they study different artists and their styles. Some, however, paint from their imagination.

Students average one or two paintings a three- or four-month session. But one aspiring artist -- Elwanda Seabaugh -- pumped out 60 paintings one year.