Dallas County
Painting
Jack
Reed believes that artists are primarily trained, not born. As an elementary
student, he was pushed by a teacher to be the class artist and Jack continued
to perfect his art, winning many awards along the way. A former graphic
artist with Selma’s Craig Air Field, Jack also owned and operated a screen-printing
company. Since his retirement, he and his wife have been restoring a
pre-Civil War era house. Jack is always practicing and improving his technique
while he shares his love of painting in the small art classes he conducts.
Jack’s
fascination with Civil War history led him to paint historically accurate
scenes from this period. After meticulous research obtained from photographs
and descriptive manuscripts, Jack draws sketches on tracing paper. He makes an
overlay and retraces to correct any mistakes, and then paints the scene in
gouache (white paint mixed with watercolor). Jack paints what his eye is most
drawn to; he joyfully paints his interests.