The University of West Georgia’s Ingram Library and the Penelope Melson Society will host a reception honoring alumna Dr. Ramona Pierce Teal ‘66 ‘73 ‘84 on the completion of her West Georgia Presidential Portraits series, which she has generously donated to the university. The reception will be held on Sunday, February 7 at 3 p.m. in the library’s Thomas B. Murphy Reading Room. The West Georgia Presidential Portraits Collection will be placed on display in the Ingram Library.
Dr. Teal is a retired educator turned artist. She earned a B.S. in elementary education, a Master of Education, and an Ed.S. in reading and instruction from UWG. She then earned an Ed.D. in Education from the University of Georgia.
Although interested in art at an early age, Dr. Teal did not consider it as a career choice.
She eventually began experimenting with a variety of materials, taking classes in watercolor and acrylic before discovering her preferred medium – oil – and her preferred subject of choice – portraits. Her learning experiences have come from museum visits, art books and magazines, videos of other working artists, and workshops around the Southeast. In 2015, Dr. Teal studied in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, with internationally known portrait artist Margaret Carter Baumgaertner.
While she has learned from many sources, she likes to quote Ray Kinstler, well-known portrait artist, “Try to match the exact color-value shape on the model before attending to the edges.” Adhering to such a process is much like putting together a mosaic, according to Dr. Teal.
Dr. Teal is the wife of Dewey Teal, the mother of three children, and the grandmother of two granddaughters.
In conjunction with her West Georgia Presidential Portraits exhibit, the Melson Society will host a preview of its spring exhibit Private Presidential Pathways, a collection of photographs of U.S. presidents by the late George Tames, who was the New York Times White House photographer from 1945 through 1985.
Parking is available on weekends on the University of West Georgia campus in the Humanities Lot, accessed from West Georgia Drive. For further information, please contact Catherine Hendricks at (678) 839-5337 or chendric@westga.edu.
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