Barbara Lee

In September as a result of showing my miniature paintings at Southern Breeze Gallery, the American Egg Board asked me to decorate an egg for Mississippi. Each year at Easter they coordinate a display of 51 eggs, one from each state in the White House. The rules were it had to be a large chicken egg, the small end at the top and free standing. It also was to represent some feature of the state

The first thing I had to do was learn how to blow out an egg. That done, I decided to avoid the usual magnolia and mocking bird with all my power. I wanted to represent different areas of the state so I chose the Governor's Mansion to represent the beautiful ante bellum homes, the light house in Biloxi to represent the coast and the cannon in Vicksburg to represent the Civil War and historic sites. I covered the egg with tissue paper to give it texture and reinforcement. The I painted my scenes on tissue paper with acrylic paint and then glued them to the egg. I then did the finishing touches on the artwork, trimmed each vinquette with gold rick rack to represent a frame and little gold roses at the top to finish it off.