814-Lancastkr Fuming, Saturday, February 21, 1998 Artist Expresses Soul Thro GAY BROWNLEE Somerset Co. Correspondent BERLIN (Somerset Co.) From fragile flowers to animals, her soul seems to be expressing it self when Shirley Tataleba puts her paintbrush to work on the wa tercolors she loves so well to do. Rich hues and mysterious sha dows of the hibiscus blossom, for instance, may leave one caught in its cares for untold moments, as if it were the reality. Of the magnolia, iris and others, the same is true. And her brush lovingly captures the corralled horses the native farm girl imagines grazing in a fenced field. “I was bom and raised on a farm,” says Shirley, indicating in the panoramic landscape visible through the picture window, Whitehorse Mountain where she grew up. “I love animals, especially my little Mitzi,” she says, alluding to a nearby Siamese house cat She adopted it from the assorted feline orphans housed at the humane so ciety’s local animal shelter. A devoted wife of 4S years to husband, John Tataleba and mother of their three children Gail, Gary and Gwen Shirley was a busy homemaker who hand made most of their clothes when the kids were younger. Later she held part-time jobs, but in the housewife’s deepest heart, an artist was waiting to be bom. The opportunity came in the summer of 1980 when Gwen was college bound. Shirley enrolled in a class that Laurel Arts in Somer set was offering. “I started with oils first because I thought it would be easier,” she recalls. Then in 1987 she painted her first watercolor. I wasn’t pleased with my first watercolor,” Shirley says, re trospectively. I just had no con trol It was very amateurish,” the late Uootner, who in essence re sembles the beauties pollinating on her studio work table, reports. A still life oil painting of old crocks, however, was her first sale, after a friend who worked at a local bank had urged Shirley to display it there. The reminiscent piece soon attracted a buyer. “Blggsrthan life, almost Ilka you can get into them,” says Shirley Tataleba about her watercolor of pink hibiscus. “I was happy, but at the same time.” she remembers, “I felt a sense of loss.” Whether or not she felt like working, Shirley developed a paint-everyday habit that takes a recess only on Sundays. “I have to be almost psyched up to paint,” she says. “Once I get started the creativity begins to flow.” As her confidence grew, the home florist, and to her daugh ters an exemplar of home making arts, Shirley began enter ing competitions,, encouraged to the place where her works, along side those of other artists, could be judged. By 1989 the Pennsylvania Federation of Women’s Club Photography Competition had awarded her a state second place. Then came the Harley Hotel Award at the Penn Hills (Alle gheny County) Arts Council Show in 1992, and on, until the awards 13 in all last year found her named 1997 Somerset County Woman in the Arts by the General Federation of Woman’s Clubs. While watercolor is her prefer red media because she so likes its softness and its transparency “Its luminosity seems to be a natural for capturing the iridescent color of flowers,” she said; the artistic explorer also delves into other mediums to discover new possibilities. These include pen and ink, charcoal, mixed media, and or iental painting. “I don’t limit myself to flower painting,” the artist who “paints in her mind’s eye,” she states. “I see something that catches my eye and a painting begins.” When a critique of her work is needed, her retired, reliable spouse give Shirley an honest opinion about it On the thickly-covered framing table, the skills she learned in framing class are put to use as she and John, together, encase the fin ished paintings behind glass. “Did you say I was retired?” interjected John upon overhearing his better-half saying so. “I didn’t know that,” he added, teasing her. The Tatalebas sacrificed their personal comfort by turning the master suite into an art studio be cause its norther exposure allowed 't,