A little dirt, a little magic, and a 59 cent paintbrush are the tools Lillian Foulks uses to create beauty on canvas. As a little girl over 80 some years ago, Lillian wanted to paint. She wanted to paint everything she saw. The world was full of beauty through the eyes of this young child. Times were tough and a trip to the store to buy paint was unheard of. Lillian is a woman who does not let obstacles stop her from getting things done, and as a child this same strong spirit lived within her. This little girl looked at the dirt beneath her feet, but she did not see just brown dusty soil, she saw possibilities. A little water, a little Oklahoma dirt, and a talent to see things not for what they were but what they could be is how Lillian discovered she could turn the earth into paint. Thus, began her love of painting with Oklahoma dirt.
She spent her early years as a wife and a mother, but the love for painting kept pulling on her. She did not start painting professionally until she was 55 years old. It all started with an eight week art class she enrolled in at the Methodist Church in Enid, Oklahoma. Her talent could not be ignored. She turned the blank canvas before her into art. Soon she turned her garage into an art studio and began to teach. She stated when she started teaching others is when she really learned how to paint.
The feelings of the free spirit within her lead her to go into her yard and scoop some Oklahoma dirt in her hands. She held the dirt, feeling the gritty softness of it, she lifted it to her face and breathed in the aroma of life it represented, and then she took it to her kitchen. She chopped up the clumps, added some water, put it through a sieve, and her heart told her to dip her paintbrush in and let the magic happen. She was painting with Oklahoma soil once again. Soil the foundation of life and the beginning of a career for Lillian Foulks.
Today her Oklahoma red dirt paintings are all over the nation. People call her to do consignment work for them. She uses oils and acrylics too, but red dirt is still her favorite. Her consignment pieces run anywhere from $2,500.00 up to $6,000.00. The pieces in the galleries average between five and six hundred dollars.
To escape reality some people turn to a world of alcohol or drugs. Lillian wishes she could take them to the world she goes to when she paints. Once the brush is in her hand she gets lost in a realm all her own. Time does not exist, just the world created by the colors and swirls and strokes created and felt by Lillian. She becomes totally focused and captivated with the picture she is bringing to life. All worries and pain leave her life and it becomes filled with beauty and joy when she paints. She never knows what she is going to paint next. Some of her paintings are from a day dream. Some are from the sunset or sunrise she saw that day, or the clouds at night, or something she saw on T.V. Lillian said, “I love to paint everything. If it stands still I paint it.” Then she chuckled and said, “Even if it doesn’t stand still I paint it.”
Her imagination has no end and the world she goes to when she paints is unexplainable. She feels if everyone could go to this utopia that painting takes her to, there would be no need for therapist anymore.
She said it never fails to amaze her people buy. She showed me a beautiful painting of a deer. She told how she slaved over this painting and put her heart and soul into it. When she was finished she had some paint left over so she just smeared the leftover paint on the canvas. No picture, just strokes of paint…it sold in 2 days, the deer still hangs unsold.
She said the secret to her painting is that she sees things most people miss. She sees the beauty in things that most people don’t even know exists. Being an artist is wonderful because it has taught her to see the world as a beautiful place.
Thirteen years ago she started teaching ADHD children to paint. It all happened quite by accident, but now reserves Tuesdays and Thursdays solely for the children afflicted with this disease. One little girl came to her for lessons thirteen years ago. The more she painted the better she started doing in school and at home. Painting taught her to focus. It taught her to love what she could accomplish. Lillian inspires her students to explore what they can do, not what they can’t do. From that one little girl the rumor spread that Lillian could work miracles. The art these children create become their connection to the outside world. This once shy child with a developmental challenge is now enrolled in the Duke University Talent Identification Program, which identifies gifted and talented young children. This child’s artwork is featured in a book entitled A Girl’s Guide to Achieving in the Arts, written by Duke Professor Dr. Kristen Stephens. Lillian loves teaching these children the art of living through art. In 1998 Woman’s World magazine did an article on her. A doctor from New York called her and wanted to discuss the method she was using with these children. She answered, “Method? I have no method. We just paint.”
I asked her what her favorite painting was. She told me the one that she is creating at the time is the one she is in love with. Then she smiled, her eyes twinkled and she said, “I did paint a cowboy once. Boy was he handsome. I had to think hard before I sold him. I almost didn’t, but I knew another cowboy or Indian would emerge from the tip of my brush and I would fall in love again.”
Lillian’s work is currently showing at The Gallery of Fine Arts, located at Oakwood Mall in Enid, Oklahoma.
The best way to know if what you are looking at is truly art is; if you look at it and you love it or you hate it, then it is art, if you feel nothing, it is not.
Lillian Foulks is a dreamer, an artist, a teacher, and an inspiration to guide us all to find that one special thing we do that takes us into a world of our own. Here is to wishing each of you have found that thing deep inside of you that is your magic.
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