Penny Hite’s not a poet or a reader, she

Penny Hite’s not a poet or a reader, she says, but she still, every Wednesday morning she reads aloud a poem to the group of Wednesday Morning Painters at the Arts Depot in Abingdon. Anywhere from ten to thirty people with all levels experience gather on Wednesdays to paint at the Depot, a group started by the late Landon Woody in the 1980s. “We are quite an eclectic group," Hite said. "If we had an unspoken goal, it was to promote new painters, new artists that need help." > Hite’s really a painter, a resident artists at the Depot, that is until recently when she sat down to be a model for fellow painter Adelaide Moss. Moss, who works in both oil and pastels, spent about two to three hours studying Hite’s face and putting it down in pastel. She loves doing portraits. “There’s something that really appeals to me about the face," Moss said. “I think j die face is really fascinating." Hite said she tried not to move for all those hours. She just listened to her friends chatting in the room and tried her best not to respond. You’d think that painting someone you know would be easier, but Moss said it’s not. She said she put pressure on herself to do a gqpd job. In addition, because she knew the subject Hite’s personality affected the way she was portrayed. "t have her slightly smiling," Moss said. "I think the eyes are good, she has smiling am eyes. Even tf the artist knows the subject, Moss said you must try to treat them like an | object. I "People have a pre conceived idea of what an eye and a mouth looks like," she said. "You have to pretend it’s a landscape and look at the lights and the darks." Hite has watched Moss Daint manv times.