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The result was an immediate arrangement for six les-
sons in water color and drawing at Miss Dudley's home
in Nakoma. This happened in 1940 when Lois was
twelve. A second determining happening was a visit to
Curry at his campus studio. A neighboring boy attend-
ing the University gave Lois the courage to arrange an
interview. Under Curry's criticism and guidance, she
turned to oil, which has since become her favorite me-
dium. A third factor in her development was the "Let's
Draw" program of WHA, which was used by the Wau-
nakee schools and which Lois found helpful. But Curry
urged her to come to Madison and get personal instruc-
tion. With some difficulty, she succeeded in transfer-
ring to Wisconsin High School in Madison. where she
studied art under Miss Ruth Allcott. Today she is an
art student at the University of Wisconsin, plodding
steadily towards professional work.
  Perhaps the best training of all is that which she
gives herself. Hour after hour she not only paints for
practice, as some practice on the piano, but she studies
the work and writing of the recognized painters who
interest her most. For a number of years she has clipped
articles and reproductions from such recognized artists
as Thomas Benton, Grant Wood, Peter Hurd, George
Bellows, as well as John Curry. Certain paintings, such
as Curry's "Line Storm" and his "The Tornado," have
made a great impression on her, and her own painting
has become more alive and colorful as a result.
  Today the subject matter of her work reflects largely
the people, the land, and the products of the rich farm-
ing country around the small and peaceful town of
Waunakee. With rolling hills and fields, diversified
farming of corn and oats, dairy herds and gardens, the
land provides a profuse variety of greens and yellows
and browns as well as contrasting line in slope and
tree. Since Lois paints from nature, often making her
sketches in water color and later doing them in oil, her
pictures are full of kindred subjects, each demanding
expression. This fullness, coupled with a careful sense
of detail, may mean an exacting task for a young and
as yet inexperienced artist. Sometimes, of course, it
will not come right for her, and when this happens she
does not hesitate to lay the picture aside and to start on
something fresh.
  More often, however, she brings the canvas to life,
and her success in both sale and exhibit has been a con-
stant encouragement. Since her first showing in the
Rural Art Exhibit in 1943, she has made steady prog-
ress. In 1944 the Wisconsin Salon accepted an oil por-
trait of her mother for its annual exhibit. In 1945 a
study in tempera called "Sundown" was accepted by
the annual Milwaukee Art Institute. In 1946 two more
were accepted by the same Institute, "The Old Table,"
a brush and ink drawing, and "Sunny Boy" in oil. In
1946 she received a scholarship award and a certificate
of merit for a picture submitted for the national high-
school art contest. This won for her a place in the na-
tion-wide exhibit which was hung in the Carnegie In-
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