“Dear Lynn…
Affectionately, Maudee”
by Michelle Cate
Two artists that were involved very early on with the Art Studio, Inc. were Maudee Carron and Lynn Sweat.
Maudee hailed from Louisiana and Houston and eventually found her way to Beaumont. As a young woman she had modeled for a student of Diego Rivera. She soon decided to dedicate herself to art. She went to school in Houston and was involved with a WPA project there. Maudee moved to Beaumont and became an extremely active member of the TX/LA art scene which included the Beaumont Art League. In the early 1950s, BAL experienced a schism and split into two orgs. The Beaumont Art Museum was formed and moved into the neighborhood we now know as “The Oaks Historic District.”
In the mid 1950s, Lynn met Maudee as his art career was beginning. Even as a young artist he already had a wide understanding of art. He had attended Lamar and earned a commercial art degree. He would pour over books in the Tyrrell Library. He and wife had started their family. At Lamar he worked at the Lamar student newspaper. Soon he began working at the Beaumont TV stations and the Beaumont Enterprise doing layouts. Not one to rest on his laurels as his family continued to grow he must have had a gut feeling that Fine Art might hold the key to greater things.
At age 24, Lynn had a solo show at the Beaumont Art Museum and he found that the local arts community supported him wholeheartedly. Maudee and Lynn met around this time and they became big fans of one another. In a couple years, Lynn had another show at BAM (AMSET.) Maudee wrote an introduction for that show which placed him in context with his contemporaries such as Andrew Wyeth and DeKooning. Lynn eventually moved to New York and worked as a freelance artist for publishing companies like McMillan and Co. and Scholastic. He was the illustrator of the Amelia Bedelia series for over 30 years.
Maudee and Lynn stayed in touch with letters. Both Maudee and Lynn would eventually become active members of The Art Studio, Inc. in the 1980s. Friends in art for many years, these photos, letters and art show how they made a bridge across generations… something that respect and a mutual love of art is especially good at creating.
