Midlothian artist Elaine Bankston once received a “Gutsy Award” at an art show. She said she was puzzled until judges explained the award recognized how gutsy she was for painting in so many different styles. Over the years, Bankston has painted everything from folk art farm scenes of farms to portraits of national leaders.

Her home studio is filled with portraits, landscapes, and still life done in oil, pastel, charcoal and acrylic. A print of an early piece depicting a bird’s-eye view of the former Atlanta airport now hangs in the Jimmy Carter museum in Atlanta.

While she is versatile, Bankston said portraits are her passion. She said she’s drawn to the eyes - the windows of the soul - and even as a child she loved to draw people. She has painted portraits of more than 2,000 local doctors and judges.

A few years ago, she was selected to paint two portraits of Civil Rights great Oliver Hill.

One portrait now hangs in the University of Richmond law library, and the other in the Oliver Hill Courts Building in Capitol Square.

The portraits were done from a combination of sittings and photographs, she said. Bankston added that painting Hill’s portraits is her most memorable work.

Convergent Careers:

Bankston began painting portraits 30 years ago, receiving formal instruction from local artist J’net Kaulfers. She also studied under portrait great Daniel Greene, as well as through the National Arts Club in New York City. She paints most portraits from photographs because few people have the time to sit for a painting. She also reconstructs portraits from faded and cracked family heirloom photos.

“I love capturing the heart and soul of a person [through portraits],“ Bankston said. Her signature piece is of a beautiful young woman dressed in a long evening gown, resting her hand on a grand piano.

Bankston photographed the woman, then added the piano and concert hall background.

Bankston, who traveled the world as a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines for 18 years, has always loved the work of French Impressionist Mary Cassat, who painted mothers with children. Children remain Bankston’s favorite portrait subjects, and several portraits of her own family grace her home.

One studio piece is a self-portrait of Bankston as a young child, which she based on a school photo. She added the rural landscape of the farm where she was born and raised in Nebraska, and her pet hen, which she cradles in her arms.

As a child, Bankston was drawn to art and to her second love: flying on airplanes. “I remember being five years old and sitting in a wooden box with shingles on its sides,“ she said. “When my mother asked what I was doing, I told her it was my airplane.“

At age 24, she joined Eastern Air Lines as a flight attendant. Her first trip out of the country was a flight around the world.

“Then I felt like the world was my playground,“ Bankston remembers. She met several famous people - including a host of actors, Jimmy Carter, Coretta Scott King and Mikhail Gorbachev - and she was able to visit the renowned art museums of Europe.

Bankston worked for Eastern until it folded in 1991, then devoted several years to raising her two daughters. In 2001, she returned to work a nine-month stint for US Airways. Today she is an attendant for small charter flights.

Bankston has also dabbled in a third career of modeling. She modeled flight attendant uniforms while at Eastern, and she has been a Revlon makeup model. Bankston recently modeled clothes for Stein Mart.

Bankston’s paintings are on exhibit at Crossroads Gallery in the West End, and are part of the rotating exhibits by members of the Bon Air Artists Association, where she has served in several leadership posts. She also exhibits work every year at the Arts in the Park, an arts festival held at Byrd Park the first weekend in May.

In addition to commissioned portraits and painting homes, Bankston also teaches private art lessons. For more information, call 744-ARTS (2787) 
or visit http://www.elainebankston.com.