CUMBERLAND — Betty Ward has to know where the light will hit before she ever puts paint to porcelain.
Painting on delicate china takes careful application of a special pigment-and-oil mixture and multiple firings in a kiln before the final picture will be revealed. Ward slowly builds up the color, but the pure white of the porcelain stands in for the places most kissed by the sun.
The meticulous process is rewarding enough when it results in the revelation of a landscape, a flower or a loved one, but now, Ward knows her work will be appreciated for perpetuity thanks to a special request from Karen Pence, Second Lady of the United States. Ward, 75, was selected as one of about 40 Hoosier porcelain painters to put her talents to use, reproducing state flowers on 100 pieces of Lenox china that will be kept in the collection of the Vice President’s Residence Foundation in Washington, D.C.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe china was displayed last month at a public preview at the Art Sanctuary in Martinsville, where hundreds of residents got the first chance to see the completed works of the Indiana World Organization of China Painters, of which Ward is a board member. In April, the painters who contributed to the project will travel to Washington, D.C., where they will have the opportunity to see the china again and even eat off of it, Ward said.
Ward painted two plates with the state flower of Michigan, the apple blossom. While each Hoosier artist clamored to be able to paint Indiana’s state flower, the peony, they all were thrilled to be a part of such a project, she said.
“We’re all so proud,” she said. “It’s so nice that they’re having a reception for us.”
Ward, who said she started painting on porcelain relatively later in her life, has a hard time believing her work will be preserved by the foundation. She remembers her humble roots, born in Kentucky and living all over central Indiana while her parents farmed the land.
“Farm girls, they don’t get to do this kind of thing,” she said.
The collective of Indiana porcelain painters has twice before contributed large projects to high-profile Hoosiers, Ward said.
During Gov. Frank O’Bannon’s administration, they painted a 30-place setting and 30-serving-piece set for the Indiana Governor’s mansion with Indiana wildflowers, according to the Indiana World Organization of China Painters website. Karen Pence loved the china so much when she was Indiana’s First Lady, she approached the painters again about painting 150 presentation bowls with the Indiana state flower for her First Ladies Charitable Foundation, according to the website.
The organization reached out to Karen Pence once she and Mike Pence were settled in their home in the nation’s capital, Ward said. A contest was arranged, with those who attended the 2017 Indiana State Fair voting to select the artists who would paint the china, according to a news release.
“Hoosier China Painters are gifted artists and I am thrilled that they want to contribute their time and talent to painting china plates for the Vice President’s Residence, which will become a part of our country’s history,” said Karen Pence in a news release.
Porcelain artists ages 15 to 90 contributed to the project, Ward said.
The Indiana World Organization of China Painters comprises local guilds that meet monthly with the purpose of sharing, studying and promoting the art of china painting, according to the website.
The first Indiana guild was organized in 1969. Indiana belongs to the World Organization of China Painters, which is an international group of porcelain artists with headquarters and a museum in Oklahoma City.
Indiana World of China Painters president Ellen Wilson-Pruitt said in a news release that the permanent nature of porcelain once fired means each plate will be a lasting testament to the appreciation of the arts by the nation.
“It is our pleasure as Indiana artists to make this contribution to the history of china painting and the history of our nation by sharing our talents in this project,” Wilson-Pruitt said in a news release.
Ward hopes the project will encourage more Hoosiers to pick up their paintbrushes and give porcelain art a try, she said.
“Porcelain-painting is a dying art, but Indiana has more than any other state,” she said. “We’re thrilled with all the interest in the art, and we’re hoping we can get more people interested in doing it.”
