Discover the south's finest folk art

Southern Living, Mar 2003 by Lingo, Karen

These regional works are fun, affordable, and oh-so-Southern. Here are some of the artists you'll find in your own backyard.

Figures dance from Woodie Long's brush. Curving like eighth notes across the painting, a line of jazz players appears in quick, sure strokes, leaning into the rhythms that play in Woodie's mind.

Like many self-taught Southern folk artists, Woodie Long has never studied perspective or practiced drawing perfect pears for a still life. His paintings, instead, come from memory, enriched with images from the past. They range from his years growing up in the small-town South to recent trips to New York and New Orleans. In one of his paintings, children float in midair, caught in a high-spirited moment bouncing on their grandmother's bed. In another, flowers explode in a symphony of extravagant colors. Woodie's paintings are spontaneous, heartfelt, and deeply personal-the kind of art that some people might find too unpolished or somehow outlandish. But his pieces-and those by artists like him-represent one of today's most popular genres of visual art.

Accessible and Affordable

Many of the best-known folk artists in the country hail from the South. They create art with an astounding array of materials-everything from canvas to cardboard, from clay to wood. Their works are shaped by experience and filled with a passion that sometimes steps over into spirituality-and in some cases even into eccentricity.

Eccentric or not, plenty of those works have found homes in chic New York galleries, in museum shops, and on the walls of celebrity hangouts. The truth is, though, neither the artists nor their art is out of reach for everyday collectors. In many cases you can buy straight from the artists. Another plus: Folk art, despite its growing popularity, remains surprisingly affordable.

Sure, gallery prices can be steep for works by famous folk artists no longer living. Prices can even climb into the four- and five-figure range for early works by today's most celebrated folk artists, such as Thornton Dial, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver. Still, their recent works go for far less.

Depending on the size, the medium, and the artist, you can purchase truly good folk art at bargain prices. For instance, Alabama artist Chris Clark sells his small painted quilts for as little as $100. Wood carvings by Dallas artist Isaac Smith can be had for $50 and up. Paintings by Bernice Sims start at $150. The small florals by Woodie Long go for $175. Paintings by emerging artist Michael Banks sell for less than $1,000. Works by painter and carver Billy Roper begin at $150, and large pottery roosters by artist Charlie West begin around $300. Other artists offer a variety of pieces for equally reasonable sums. It's just a matter of finding the ones that speak to your heart.

Stories To Tell

Many folk artists spent much of their lives doing something else. Their stories are often as fascinating as their art. Woodie Long, for instance, spent 25 years painting houses. When his health no longer allowed him to do that, he picked up his wife's art brushes and found a whole new life.

Woodie counts artists Jimmie Lee Sudduth, Mose Tolliver, and Bernice Sims among his best friends. He and his wife are especially close to Bernice, an amazing lady who began painting after rearing six children.

Memories and Marches

A small sign in front of a house on a quiet street in Brewton, Alabama, reads simply "Folk Artist." Inside, Bernice Sims paints scenes of children playing in old swimming holes and of churches filled with people in their Sunday best. But it's the images depicting fire hoses and dogs in Birmingham and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma that have brought Bernice the most recognition.

"I paint what I grew up with," she says. "I watched the Civil Rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but I didn't take part in it because I had children to take care of."

Bernice started taking classes at the local junior college after her children were grown, but, she recalls, "I couldn't paint the way the art teacher wanted. I said I'd just quit, but he told me to go ahead and paint what I wanted to, so I sat off in a corner and did my little funny people."

Those little funny people have captured the memories and the imaginations of people all over the country.

Critters of Clay and Wood

They're of different generations and live hundreds of miles apart, but Isaac Smith and Charlie West both create birds and animals from nature's materials.

From Charlie's hands come the exquisite pottery roosters. He started throwing pots while in high school, working part-time at a local pottery in Gillsville, Georgia. "I lived in an apartment above the barn, and I'd go out at night and play on the wheel," he recalls. He later went to work at another North Georgia pottery. "Someone asked if I could make a chicken," he says. He's been creating folk pottery since 1996. Roosters are his specialty, but he has fashioned clay into everything from face jugs and fruit to a pig that's treasured by his 5-year-old daughter.