Artist Corner: Fulton Resident Brings Life Back to Photos Through Watercolor

By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com

Laura Summerford found watercolor to be her favorite medium due to its softness. Painting courtesy of Laura Summerford.

Born into a family of artistic ability, Laura Summerford, a Fulton, Mississippi resident, was constantly surrounded by a creative atmosphere, which helped mold her future into a success of watercolor paintings.

Summerford, along with her brother, said that her family nurtured and instilled that creativity into the siblings.

“From the first time that I picked up my favorite red Crayon, I was hooked,” Summerford said.

While her mother was an excellent seamstress, Summerford’s father also had artistic talents as a welder, she said. He built Hot Rod radiators at Walker Radiator Works located in Memphis.

Summerford carried her creativity into her college career where she majored in Graphic Art while attending Itawamba Community College (ICC) and Mississippi University for Women, respectively.

Laura Summerford prefers to work in her personal studio while she paints. Photo courtesy of Laura Summerford.

While she attended, she had her first experience with the medium watercolor. She said the softness of the medium mesmerized her over the harshness that oils and acrylics possess.

“I had an instant love of the medium,” she said.

Staring at a young age, Summerford said she had always taken a liking to a variety of advertising. Vintage neon, metal signs and brick wall advertisements are her favorite, she said. Due to the softness of watercolors, the medium enhances the faded softness found in old rusty signs and old buildings, she said.

“Beginning in college, I kept a Polaroid camera with me at all times to document scenes around the South,” Summerford said. “I enjoy painting subjects that have had a life well lived and are in varying degrees of decay. Rust always attracts me.”

Although watercolor is a medium that Summerford can paint with at any given time and in any given space, she said she prefers to be at her personal studio seated at her 1890’s cast iron drawing board surrounded by a mixture of selected art pieces, memorabilia and good music.

Summerford used to attend juried art shows and festivals around the South for several years where she was able to sell her original watercolor pieces; however, she now uses the ETSY website—e-commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items and supplies, as well as unique factory-manufactured items—as a vehicle for her sales.

Art enthusiasts can purchase her works through the site, but she also said she enjoys painting commissions.

“Currently, I am pulling old photos from my collection and bringing memories to life for so many people,” she said.

She said photos are priceless documentations, but a watercolor art piece can instill life back into a photo unlike a photograph is able to do.

Summerford rendition of the University of Mississippi’s Lyceum recently graced the cover of the August/September issue of Experience Oxford.

Laura Summerford’s rendition of the University of Mississippi’s Lyceum graced the cover of the August/September issue of Experience Oxford. Photo by Talbert Toole.

For more information on Laura Summerford’s watercolors, visit her ETSY page, Facebook or via email.