Pam Kinsey found her calling in art when she was bedridden for three months after having knee surgeries. Photo by Tommy Burton

Pam Kinsey's art studio is on a small lake in Cleary, Miss., nestled between Byram and Florence. The building is quiet and serene, not unlike her vividly real and serene pastel works.

The studio lends itself to her creative inspiration. Current works in progress, alongside completed pieces ready for Brown's Fine Art and Framing Gallery in Fondren, fill the studio. Everything has its place, which makes perfect sense because Kinsey is in a constant state of flux; she must stay organized to keep on task.

Her career as an artist didn't come easily or quickly. She grew up in Jackson, where she graduated from Murrah High School, before furthering her education at Belhaven University. "I loved art when I was in high school," Kinsey says. "I was planning to major in art in college and had the worst possible art teacher in America. I decided there was no way I was going to do this." She ended up in banking and finance, and in retail, primarily for nonprofits such as the Jackson Zoo.

In 2002, she had to have a series of knee surgeries, one of which required a three-month recovery. An artist friend brought her pastels to keep her from going crazy and another friend encouraged her to take a class with Alan Flattmann, a renowned pastel artist and teacher. With no previous experience in the medium, she began learning from Flattmann. When he explained the importance of light in the artwork, she felt an epiphany of sorts. He told her that when she left his class, she needed to look at the landscape in an entirely different way. "I had gone down (to the class) in my husband's little Jeep with the top off, and it was the most glorious ride home," she says. The trip from Laurel to Jackson took. " ... No matter where you are, if it's something you see, you remember how the light hits the land. You've seen that light and you remember that light." With that revelation, she began to grow as an artist.

Kinsey went for a job interview at Mississippi College. While she was looking for a notebook in her car, Dr. Samuel Gore, an art professor at the school, approached her. He insisted on viewing the pieces Kinsey had in her car. During their discussion, he discovered that her only training was the class with Flattmann. He told her that they could hire her if they wanted to, but she was going to get an art degree. "With that, the mighty Sam Gore had spoken, and I was hired and got my degree," she says. She now holds a master's degree in both 2-D and 3-D art.

Kinsey connected with Brown's because co-owner Joel Brown had seen her work and persisted that she bring him some. "I really wasn't working at that level, but I brought some things in, and he told me that he was taking all of it," she says. When she tried to explain that some of it hung in her foyer at home, he laughed her off and told her that she could simply paint some more. In addition to commissioned works, she also teaches advanced art at Jackson's Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex.

Teaching has given Kinsey a new perspective on art. "(The students) are so enthusiastic," she says. "I've won some wonderful awards, things I'm very proud of. But there's something that's so gratifying about when those kids produce that work, and they win. Winning is not everything, but it gives them a sense of value and purpose. I'm always amazed."

While Pam Kinsey didn't arrive as an artist by the usual methods, she is happy how she got there. "I don't think I would have done it any differently," she says.

To see Pam Kinsey's work, go to Brown's Fine Art & Framing (630 Fondren Place, 601-982-4844).