Featured Artist - Lilly Bell Stone Agnew

Lilly Bell Stone was born 12-25-1915 in Sherman Texas. She was the eighth child of eight. Two of the girls died as infants so she was raised with 4 brothers and one sister. Her father was a road contractor. All the roads were gravel so the construction was done by men and big mules. They traveled all over Texas.When she was seventeen she went to an open concert in the park. There she met a good looking young man. He was tall, with wavy brown hair and brown eyes. His name was Ray Agnew and he played in the band. Ray asked if he could walk her home but she already had a date, so she said no. That didn't stop Ray. They were married about a year later.

When Lilly was very young, about 12, she became interested in art. It was during the depression and art supplies were hard to come by. She drew on whatever she could find. She signed her name by drawing a Lilly, a bell and a rock. Her first art work was a Santa clause. She made her own clay from what she dug from the ground. She took him to school to show her teacher. The teacher was so impressed with the piece she asked if she could keep it. Of course Lilly said OK. Her first painting was done on the side of a wooden apple crate. Her father-in-law had bought her her first set of paints and her husband worked at the local Safeway. He would bring the orange crates home and break them apart so she could paint.

They moved to St Louis in 1953. She joined the South Side Art. Assoc.. At that time there were only about 18 people in the club. They began having public showings at the local shopping malls. At one of the meetings, they hired an artist, Demetris Zola to critique their work. Lilly had taken in a piece that she was experimenting with. She read(in an art book) about how to mix sand with paste into the paints for a thick texture. She had painted it on the back of a Masonite board, for the rough texture. She brought this painting to the meeting. The artist walked down the row of paintings making small comments such as, nice, needs work.etc. When he got to Lilly's' painting, he picked it up, looked at it and put it down and walked off. She was so embarrassed. She wanted to jump in a hole and cover herself up. How could she have brought this painting to an art show? He kept returning to her painting. He said " I can't find any thing wrong with this painting. It's people like you that make me afraid." and he made the OK sign with his fingers. She was so proud. She sold that painting for the grand sum of $16.00.

Lilly Bell is a self taught artist. She read as many books as she could find. Not only has she illustrated many published books, her paintings are sold all over the United States. See her artwork here!