Broad Ripple resident Barbara Applegate-Jones described how she discovered a new artistic vocation.

"I started painting just a little bit after the year 2000 when I retired from teaching. I paint still-life's, landscapes and flowers. Some of my work is at the Stutz Business Center (1060 N. Capitol Avenue, Suite B-455), but most of it is at Palm Court Designs, located at 1134 E 54th Street, Suite K," she mentioned.

"I was an elementary school teacher, I had college students who trained with me, young women who were trying to decide whether they wanted to be school teachers or not when they were seniors and needed to have classroom experience. I started out in Cleveland, Ohio, then taught in Baltimore, Maryland and Columbus, Ohio, before starting my job here at Grandview Elementary School which is now called Sycamore. I also taught at Crooked Creek Elementary. I'm originally from Lakewood Ohio," she explained.

"I always loved art and I tried to sketch people. My dad was rather artistic, but he was a solider and later became a businessman. When I met Air Force Colonel Gene Jones (who served 30 years in the Air Force), he had a horse farm in eastern Indiana. After he retired, he played golf and tennis, but I encouraged him to resume painting. He worked in a separate studio space at the Stutz Building, but later moved up the fourth floor and it became our studio. When we married, he had a real talent for painting and said, 'When you're not teaching, come down to the studio and I'll teach you how to paint.' That's really where I started with colors and shapes. He would set up items like a basket of fruit, flowers and vases. We would paint on each other's palettes. It was really a fun way to learn. He said, 'You'll never get it if you don't visualize what a color chart is. He was very popular with the other artists there and told them epic stories about the war. One of his friends was local artist C.W. Mundy, who invited us to his studio a few times so we could observe his technique. We would paint there with him and he would comment on our work and instruct us," Ms. Applegate-Jones noted.

"Both my husband and I liked to travel. When we traveled to Cascais, Portugal, he took art materials that I thought he was going to use. We were on a street where he set up the easel and paints, then told me, 'You're going to paint this scene of a boat on the water.' I did and later that day, somebody walked by and bought it. I painted a whole lot of things there and a lady bought some of them. I was so thrilled that I could sell them. He taught me how to stretch a canvas, frame, market and sell paintings. My husband and I also traveled to Italy and France and painted there as well," she recalled.

Painting has been very rewarding for her. "I just always feel very happy when I finish something and think I've done a good job, it's something that I'm drawn to when I go to the studio, seeing my paints there and an item on the wall that I want to fix or start something new. It gets me excited. My husband fought in three wars and always loved art, but didn't think it was appropriate for a solider. When we got married, I was still working and he was retired. He played tennis, golf, but when I saw some of his work, I wondered why he wasn't painting. He opened a studio with local artists Jack Dickhaus who was well-known here in town and C.W. Mundy. They became good friends and painted together. The more he got into painting, he enjoyed it and wanted me to share in that. C.W. allowed me to watch him paint and taught a class. It was a very happy time, When I found out people could actually make some money painting that got me excited," Ms. Applegate-Jones said.

Artist talent is in her family's genes. "My father was kind of an artist in that he could draw and arrange flowers. My daughter, Karen, who paints and draws, is an art teacher in Portland, Oregon. When she was a student at Broad Ripple High School, there was an art teacher there who encouraged her work. She won an award for a clay sculpture that she created. She graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York with Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. She moved to Florida and earned a master's degree in teaching degree there before moving to the northwest."

The Stutz Business Center has been an ideal canvas for her creativity. "It has been wonderful working in this space. Turner Woodward has been very good to the artists and encourages them to pursue their work. I've made friends at Stutz that has turned into a very congenial group. Sometimes we have lunch together and watch each other paint."

Barbara Applegate-Jones is among many local artists whose work can be seen at the Stutz Business Center and at Palm Court Designs. She can be contacted at applegate-jones@att.net or at her studio number at (317) 403-6428.