When Shreveport painter Jerry Wray went to art school at Newcomb College in New Orleans in the 1940s, her professor told her to paint a tree to hone her drawing skills. So, the Shreveport native found a lone pine tree in City Park and went there every day to sketch.
“I’d sit and draw that pine tree all day long. When I got through, I knew how to draw. They used my presentation when the Museum of Modern Art solicited colleges for their best senior presentations. They sent my pine trees,” Wray said.
A 60-year retrospective of Wray’s trees will open Sunday at Norsworthy Fine Art Gallery in Shreveport. Owner Christine Bailey says there will be about 50 of Wray’s watercolor paintings of all kinds of trees.
“It’s her lifelong love of trees that made the show,” Bailey said.
Wray, at age 89, still paints every day and teaches a free weekly class in her home studio. Wray said with a twinkle in her eye that she supplies everything but the inspiration. Through the decades, Wray's tree paintings have taught the artist about the circle of life.
“They do grow, and then they do die. Then, they are replaced by other trees. That’s the way I feel about life. If we all lived forever, there wouldn’t be space for us on this earth,” Wray said.
The exhibit, “Jerry’s Trees,” opens Sunday, Feb. 15, with an opening reception at 2 p.m. It runs through Feb. 28, at Norsworthy Art Gallery, 214 Texas Street.
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