During the month of October, the Mineral Area College Tourism center will be displaying the artwork of Vel Marshall of Patton, Mo.

Marshall has been dubbed "Bollinger County's very own professional artist" and works primarily in watercolor and oil. As a naturalist, she finds beauty in everything that surrounds her -- old houses, barns, covered bridges, depots, flowers, and pastures.

Marshall and her husband Stan live in a log cabin in Bollinger County. "I had looked on this area as nothing of interest," said Marshall. "But as I painted those old houses, I'd remember the families that lived there and their struggles and it was like they were all there in that house. I began to see this area for what it was."

"I saw Marshall's work at Country Days in Farmington last spring and knew that I wanted her to display her work for us," said Jean Merrill-Doss, Director of Tourism for MAC. "Some of her watercolors depicted local scenes and buildings such as the old Silver Mines in Fredericktown, the Farmington courthouse, the Bolduc house in Ste. Genevieve, the old Shell Station in Fredericktown, just to name a few."

Marshall's work will be on display until mid-December and includes several oil paintings and 21 watercolors.

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