By Scott Mims
In Chilton County, the name Scarlett Teel is nearly synonymous with art. Even her name sounds like two colors, despite the difference in spelling.
From childhood, Teel has created art through her drawings, paintings and projects. Since 1978, she has taught continuously from her Clanton studio, providing guidance to aspiring artists of all ages.
As a child, Teel (then Ray) had numerous influences to point the way to becoming an artist. Some came from unexpected places. For example, her mother would draw three-dimensional cubes on paper.
“She never called herself an artist, but she gave me my first lesson in art,” Teel said. “She didn’t know she was giving me perspective lessons, and neither did I.”
She cites her rural surroundings growing up on her parents’ farm, with a creek made of the beginnings of Chestnut Creek running through it, as an influence on her later paintings.
And she is proud of her Chilton County heritage.
“I am surely a product of good old Chilton County, Alabama,” Teel said. “I was born about three miles south of Clanton on Enterprise Road in the same house that my mother, Ennis Cunningham Ray, was born in 1907. I come from many of the pioneer families of Chilton County such as Aldridge, Baker, Mims and Hathcock, so I have always been happy to claim Chilton County as home and have been so proud of that mud on my feet.”
In elementary school, Teel’s talent for drawing was evident. Her fourth grade teacher at Clanton Elementary, Gertrude Callaway, recommended a private art teacher. It just so happened the teacher was a distant relative who lived nearby, Leola Callaway Farley, who was known for painting children’s portraits.
Farley would take Teel to an art supply store in Birmingham and to visit a sister’s home in Mountain Brook.
“I would ride to her house on my bicycle on Saturdays where we painted and drew together while we listened to the live radio broadcast of opera from Metropolitan Opera House in New York City,” Teel said. “I was very fortunate that I had so many wonderful local individuals to take an interest in me and help me along the way.”
Another of those individuals was Sarah Palmer, Teel’s seventh grade teacher, who introduced all of her students to art and classical music.
It was only after graduating from Chilton County High in 1961 that Teel’s interest in art waned slightly. She married Alvin Teel while he was serving in the Army and they moved away from home and had two children, son Ashley and daughter Gretchen. But Teel continued to further her art education and took private lessons from Lillian Doyle while living in Mobile. Thirteen years after graduating from high school, she enrolled at the University of South Alabama until Alvin’s job brought them back to Clanton. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a concentration in painting, at the University of Montevallo.
Back in Clanton, people would ask Teel if she would teach art classes. She decided to pursue it and found space for a studio in an old motel owned by Alvin’s family. The building, located on U.S. Highway 31 across from the old Dari Delite, has stood since the early 1900s.
Teel opened the doors of her studio in February 1978, and the doors have never closed. Her love for teaching art is evident because of the many years she has spent doing it.
“I have taught since that time many students from the ages of 8 years up to people in their 80s, giving me much pleasure to see them ‘get it.’ I even had one student tell me that art gave her a reason for living,” she said. “The happy glow of pride in a finished artwork cannot be beat for giving satisfaction, and to know that some of the recognition of the value and good of art can be spread about the community is wonderful. There is an innate need for the beauty of art.”
Several examples of Teel’s work are on display in Clanton’s Rose Gallery. The show primarily focuses on portraits (Teel calls them “character studies”) of family members and acquaintances. There is a sketch of her husband drawn during the ice storm of 1983. There are paintings of Alvin, along with their son and daughter, both as children and as adults. Another shows an Alaskan native at a bar in Juneau.
Teel called the show “personal” and said that a part of her is in each piece.
“An artist cannot get away from being personal, for art is such a personal effort,” she said. “An artist gives from the soul.”
More obscure pieces include an eye painted onto an oval-shaped piece of wood, and a series of sketches on a roll of adding machine paper.
“It was paper and it was something to draw on,” Teel said, adding that she plans to fill the entire roll with drawings.
It’s difficult to classify Teel’s art because her work defies classification. She also paints animals, landscapes and abstract art, and likes to do collages. Needless to say, in her lifetime she has produced an immense collection of work.
Rose Gallery Curator Sue Anne Hoyt said she wanted to get Teel’s work displayed in the gallery not only because of its merit but also as an encouragement to the artist. She said Teel was one of the first names she heard when she first moved to Chilton County.
“I just have a lot of respect for her to be in a small community like this and keep on keeping on,” Hoyt said.
Chilton County Arts Council President Mary Schiermann was a student of Teel’s and described her as “a patient and wonderful teacher” who was “gentle in her guidance.”
“She’s very dedicated to seeing more art being brought to school age children,” Schiermann said.
“That is one of our goals as well,” added husband Mike, public relations chairman for CCAC.
The gallery show will be on display throughout March and can be viewed Saturdays from 3-5 p.m.