Untitled (Ms. Georgiana Hood), 1935 Charcoal and graphite on paper 24 ½ x 19 inches Collection of the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi 2014.16.2

Hood’s early portraits date from her time in high school.  While they differ drastically from her later works, they demonstrate her sure hand and innate ability to capture expression and emotion with a few elegant strokes of her hand. Her portraits of family members, such as this image of her mother, gained her a scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design. Tied to the realism taught at the time, these works reveal Hood’s talent and facility with the fundamentals of line and shading which provided the springboard for her to explore deeper and find an artistic voice rooted in between realism and abstraction.