CENTREVILLE &045;&045; For Centreville artist Mildred Field, the love of painting has become a life’s blessing.

&uot;I wouldn’t trade it for a farm in Georgia. It’s kept me going,&uot; Field said recently.

A Memphis native reared in Jackson, Field attended Millsaps College before moving to Centreville as an English teacher in 1937. Now 88, Field recalled an early interest in art.

&uot;All my life, I’ve wanted to paint, but I didn’t have time,&uot; she said.

By the early 1960s, Field had left teaching and opened the Little Shoppe, a women’s clothing and gift store in Centreville. She continued the business after her husband, Dr. Sam Field, died in 1966.

&uot;When I sold the shop in 1984, I had to find something to do. I couldn’t just stay in this house alone, with no future,&uot; she said.

Field then enrolled at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and studied art for six years.

She said the decision proved invaluable.

&uot;I would never have devoted myself to painting unless I had gone to LSU.

I learned that if you’re going to paint, you have to paint,&uot; she said.

Since then, Field has done just that, producing oil paintings of people and scenes taken mainly from her own photographs. &uot;I like to do still lifes and nature, but I also love to do children in different settings,&uot; she said.

And Field has continued learning about art, studying under nationally-acclaimed Mississippi artists Karl Wolfe and Marie Hull. She also studied with European artists in France, Portugal and Spain during the 1990’s.

At home, Field’s kitchen doubles as a studio. Brushes, cans of turpentine and tubes of paint cover a small breakfast bar. A window above the sink spills a beam of sunlight across her canvas and easel.

&uot;I like to paint in here because the light is perfect. But I can still cook when I get ready to,&uot; she said.

And the kitchen may be the perfect place for the nourishment that painting provides for Field.

&uot;There have been times, when I’ve been sick, that I’ve gone in there and started painting, and it pushes everything else out of my mind,&uot; she said.

Field’s paintings have been displayed at galleries in Vicksburg and Jackson and are being shown through Dec. 6 at the Lincoln-Lawrence Library in Brookhaven.