Your Entry Title Out of the Storm

Your NameAdele Buytenhuys


MediumOil

Your ProfileI am a mother of three wonderful sons, a grandmother of eleven. I am also a wife, artist, and animal lover. I started painting in 2000 when we were living in the Netherlands. I don't have any formal art training but have studied with well-known artists in the Netherlands, Houston, California and North Carolina. My medium of choice is oil. Recently I have been working with colored pencils and find that the hand movement calms the mind. The veteran program is the drive behind what I do every day and behind my art.

The Story Behind My AmericaFrom the time I was three years old, living in South Africa, I said goodbye to my dad, at least twice a year. As time went by I found out that he worked for Jeffrey Galleon, a South African company that had a connection to Caterpillar Inc., and that he traveled extensively throughout the United States and Africa. When he came home he always had gifts. I remember my black and white saddle shoes, my college sweater will a big red A, a Cleveland Indians jacket. He also gave me a beautiful polished stone and told me that it was a teardrop from the Cherokee Trail of Tears. I spent a lot of time with my paternal grandmother. She told me stories about my dad and the countries he visited. She also told me about her brother who left Scotland as a teenager and went to live in America. She said he was an American cowboy. I am not sure if all the stories were true but to a little girl America was a big, wonderful place. I knew that one day I would live there. My America is everything I dreamt about, and the cowboy riding out of the storm makes my dream a reality.

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