“My mother told me repeatedly that Daddy considered himself to be primarily a muralist,” says John G. Anderson, guest curator for The Lost Murals of Walter Inglis Anderson. 

 

In a passage of her memoir, Approaching the Magic Hour, Agnes Grinstead Anderson wrote about life with her husband Walter, called Bob by his family. In the 1940’s Walter and Sissy lived with her father in the Grinstead home in Gautier.

 

“The house at Oldfields had high ceilings with white plastered walls. Bob’s eyes lit up whenever he contemplated the murals that could adorn those walls. Ideas raced in his head. Daddy was adamant, declaring, ‘That crazy artist will never pollute the Oldfields walls!’”

 

Despite this seemingly final edict from his father-in-law, Anderson devised a plan to make these murals a reality. Upon the blank canvas of the home’s walls, he affixed large sheets of paper, which were covered with watercolors depicting a myriad of subjects. These subjects ranged from farm scenes of people working and playing, to New Orleans street scenes, to illustrations of angels inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost, as well as other literary interpretations and scenes of nature.

 

Lost Murals: The Art of Reading is the second in a series and showcases just a few of the mural panels done by Walter during the Oldfields years. Emphasized in this show is Walter’s love for literature. 

Melinda Gandy is an independent professional artist working in oils.  Her work has been shown in galleries and exhibits in venues from Gig Harbor, Washington to Chicago, Philadelphia, Nantucket and New Orleans.  A graduate of Louisiana State University, Melinda is also a professional interior designer and has certification with the National Council of Interior Design Qualification.  For seven years she has taught oil painting at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi, as well as for private students.

The current show at WAMA is of her most recent works…all conceived of as the interplay of light and water.  Says the artist, “Without light and water there is no life.  Light on Water is a collection of work that speaks to the beauty of these most basic elements.”

In our Jo Love LIttle Gallery.